<p>This thesis examines the social theory of Lacanian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It focuses on Žižek’s work between 1989 and 2006, and offers an interpretation based on a reading of three central concepts: the Other, fantasy, and the act. All these concepts occupy the intersection between Lacan’s three orders (Imaginary, Real, Symbolic), which in Žižek’s theory means that they express a tension shared by all social order. The first chapter approaches Žižek’s conception of “the social” through an introduction of the Lacanian concept of "the Other." Attention is paid to how (a) the Other is constitutively split between its role as a Symbolic network of signifiers, and its enigmatic (Real and Imaginary) capacity to support this Symbolic network; (b) a similar split marks several of Žižek’s Lacanian and Hegelian concepts. Moreover, the chapter contrasts Žižekian sociality with those of Giddens, Luhmann and Althusser. The second chapter gives an account of the topological place of fantasy in Žižek’s theory. Relating Žižek’s theory to Critical Theory, deconstruction and Deleuzian philosophy, fantasy is presented as a concept countering new forms of “bad infinity” (Hegel) in modern social theory. The third chapter links Žižek’s theory of the act to the theories of Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Alain Badiou. Commenting on Rex Butler’s brilliant reading of Žižek, the thesis argues that Butler’s definition of the act is too negative. Instead, the thesis proposes a definition which emphasises the act's productive dimension, insisting on how the act ultimately involves the transformation from masculine to feminine enjoyment. The last chapter critically observes the different treatments Lacan and Derrida receive in Žižek’s text. The argument concludes that the Žižekian text relapses into a "masculine logic of exception", insofar as it leaves Derrida’s phallus untouched, while treating Lacan as the only one lacking phallus.</p>

The films of David Lynch are full of ambiguities that derive from his habitual distortion of time, inversion of characters, and creation of ironic, dreamlike worlds that are mired in crisis. While these ambiguities have been explored from numerous angles, scholars have only recently begun to closely examine music's role in Lynch's cinematic imagination. This dissertation explores the relationship between music and fantasy through the lens of Lacanian psychoanalysis where fantasy plays a crucial role in helping psychoanalytical subjects work through their psychical crises. In particular, I look at Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1996), and Mulholland Drive (2001), showing how Lynch employs music to manage and, in the case of Mulholland Drive, move beyond the particular crises of jouissance experienced by the Characters--and also the viewers. Before engaging in my analysis of Lynch's film music, however, I begin with an extended discussion of what Kevin Korsyn describes as the current crisis of music scholarship, examining how this crisis manifests itself in recent "postmodern" interpretations of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Few works are invested with as much cultural capital as this one and arguably the discourse around it exhibits the crisis more acutely than any other. Korsyn restricts his analysis to the fields of musicology and music theory, but I approach the crisis of music scholarship obliquely, through my Lacanian reading of Lynch's film music. This dissertation, then, has two goals. On one hand it attempts to examine music's role in Lynch's films, and on the other, it explores how Lynch's use of music might aid us in navigating and moving beyond the institutional crises of music scholarship. This Lynchian solution to our crisis provides a glimpse of what might lie beyond postmodernism, a new philosophical movement some are calling the "New Sincerity." This term covers several loosely related cultural or philosophical movements that have followed in the wake of postmodernism, the most notable being what Raoul Eshelman and Judith Butler refer to as "performatism." Finally, I return to Beethoven's Ninth to offer a second, performative reading, demonstrating how Lynch's use of music can be translated into current musical discourse. / text

This thesis examines the social theory of Lacanian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It focuses on Žižek’s work between 1989 and 2006, and offers an interpretation based on a reading of three central concepts: the Other, fantasy, and the act. All these concepts occupy the intersection between Lacan’s three orders (Imaginary, Real, Symbolic), which in Žižek’s theory means that they express a tension shared by all social order. The first chapter approaches Žižek’s conception of “the social” through an introduction of the Lacanian concept of "the Other." Attention is paid to how (a) the Other is constitutively split between its role as a Symbolic network of signifiers, and its enigmatic (Real and Imaginary) capacity to support this Symbolic network; (b) a similar split marks several of Žižek’s Lacanian and Hegelian concepts. Moreover, the chapter contrasts Žižekian sociality with those of Giddens, Luhmann and Althusser. The second chapter gives an account of the topological place of fantasy in Žižek’s theory. Relating Žižek’s theory to Critical Theory, deconstruction and Deleuzian philosophy, fantasy is presented as a concept countering new forms of “bad infinity” (Hegel) in modern social theory. The third chapter links Žižek’s theory of the act to the theories of Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Alain Badiou. Commenting on Rex Butler’s brilliant reading of Žižek, the thesis argues that Butler’s definition of the act is too negative. Instead, the thesis proposes a definition which emphasises the act's productive dimension, insisting on how the act ultimately involves the transformation from masculine to feminine enjoyment. The last chapter critically observes the different treatments Lacan and Derrida receive in Žižek’s text. The argument concludes that the Žižekian text relapses into a "masculine logic of exception", insofar as it leaves Derrida’s phallus untouched, while treating Lacan as the only one lacking phallus.

La présente thèse étudie l’hypersexualisation des jeunes filles en tant que phénomène culturel contemporain. En mettant à profit une approche conceptuelle psychanalytique et féministe, la thèse tente de comprendre le rôle joué par le regard, le désir et le fantasme dans ce phénomène. S’éloignant volontairement des discours critiques existant sur le sujet, l’objectif est de voir comment le cinéma peut mener son spectateur à confronter les dimensions plus radicales (incestueuse, pédophile et œdipienne) de l’image d’une jeune fille hypersexualisée. Le parcours argumentaire se divise en trois parties. La première partie effectue un inventaire sommaire des études portant sur l’hypersexualisation des jeunes filles. Tout en constatant l’actuelle pornographisation du paysage médiatique contemporain, le lecteur est amené à prendre connaissance de la nature alarmiste et foncièrement iconophobe de ces discours critiques, qui accordent peu d’attention à la dimension fantasmatique du phénomène. Une rétrospective des réflexions féministes sur le regard et le désir vient ensuite orienter le parcours vers les enjeux liés à la représentation médiatique de la féminité, ainsi que son lien avec le regard et le désir cinématographiques. La deuxième partie s’attarde aux discours féministes portant sur la représentation de la Femme en tant que signe. Constatant les limites de la traditionnelle dichotomie ange/putain, un modèle permettant de penser la féminité médiatique en termes archétypaux est proposé. Après avoir démontré l’opérativité analytique de ce modèle à travers la lecture du film 3 Women (Altman 1977), une analyse approfondie du film The Virgin Suicides (Coppola 1999) permet d’isoler une mise en image des envers problématiques de la féminité fantasmée. La troisième partie de la thèse introduit le paradigme lacanien contemporain propre aux études cinématographiques, afin de mener le lecteur à considérer sous un autre jour les questions du regard, du désir et du fantasme. La jeune fille hypersexualisée est alors abordée comme une version contemporaine et inversée du fantasme originaire œdipien. Par les analyses des films American Beauty (Mendes 1999) et Exotica (Egoyan 1994), le cinéma se révèle comme un discours culturel possédant la capacité de mener son spectateur vers une traversée du fantasme de la jeune fille hypersexualisée. / This thesis studies the sexualization of young girls as a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Through a feminist and psychoanalytical approach, the thesis attempts to isolate the functioning of the gaze, desire and fantasy within this phenomenon. Through a voluntary dissociation from existing critical discourses dealing with this topic, the main objective is to understand how cinema can bring its spectator to confront the radical dimensions (incestuous, pedophiliac and Œdipal) associated with the image of a sexualized girlhood. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part one begins with a brief inventory of existing literature on the sexualization of girlhood. While ascertaining the pornographication of contemporary mediascapes, the reader is brought to grasp the alarmist and iconophobic nature of existing critical discourses dealing with this phenomenon. Indeed, it is shown how they pay very little attention to the fantasmatic nature of the sexualized young girl. A feminist retrospective on the topics of desire and the gaze then orients the discussion towards issues related to media representations of femininity. Part two begins by focusing on feminist studies of Woman as sign. Following the highlighting of the conceptual limits associated with the typical angel/whore dichotomy, an archetypal model aimed at rethinking media representations of femininity is proposed. After demonstrating the analytical operability of this model through the study of Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977), an extensive analysis of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999) allows the exploration of cinema’s ability to represent the problematical undersides of the fantasy of femininity. Part three focuses on contemporary Lacanian film studies in order to bring the reader to consider a more radical approach to questions pertaining to the gaze, desire and fantasy. The sexualized young girl is then studied as a contemporary, inverted version of the primal Œdipal fantasy. Through the analyses of Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999) and Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (1994), the cinema is revealed as a cultural discourse that holds the ability to bring its viewer to traverse the fantasy of sexualized girlhood. / Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

A presente pesquisa consiste num estudo sobre o processo de constituição psíquica da criança em idade escolar a partir do conceito tempo de latência, buscando articulá-lo ao processo de escolarização da infância. Situa o conceito no conjunto da obra freudiana desde seus primeiros trabalhos sobre as neuroses e a sexualidade infantil, passa pelo período de formulação da teoria das pulsões, localiza-o no contexto da teoria estrutural e, igualmente, nas reflexões de Freud acerca das relações entre natureza e cultura. Em sucessão, verifica os desdobramentos que o conceito tem na obra de reconhecidos psicanalistas que se dedicaram à análise de crianças, como Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Charles Sarnoff e Françoise Dolto, culminando com uma leitura do tempo de latência como um tempo lógico a partir do enfoque lacaniano. Enquanto tempo lógico infere que a latência não decorre de um processo natural, desencadeado pelo organismo, e sim pela demanda do Outro. Nesse sentido procura vinculá-lo às transformações culturais da modernidade, entre estas o processo de escolarização da infância. Sustenta que a escolarização favorece a constituição do tempo de latência, na medida em a escola se organiza como o espaço social destinado à criança, distanciando-a do ambiente familiar sem, no entanto, incluí-la no mundo adulto, ao mesmo tempo em que possibilita formas de sublimação. Entendendo o tempo de latência como uma produção do laço social, cogita que novas transformações na cultura podem extingui-lo enquanto tempo constitutivo. Aponta que fraturas na sustentação do trabalho psíquico deste tempo constitutivo aparecem em algumas formações clínicas, como a inibição intelectual e a fobia escolar. / The research consists of a study on the process of psychic constitution of the child in school age from the concept of latency time, searching the education process of infancy. It points out the concept in the set of the Freudian workmanship since the first works on the neuroses and the infantile sexuality, passes for the period of formularization of the drive theory, still locates it in the context of the structural theory and in the reflections of Freud about the relations between nature and culture. To leave of this, it verifies the unfoldings that the concept has in the workmanship of recognized psychoanalysts who had dedicated themselves to analyze of children as Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Charles Sarnoff and Françoise Dolto, culminating with a reading of the latency time as a logical time from the lacanian approach. While logical time understands that the latency does not elapse of a natural process, unchained for the organism, and yes for the demand of the Other. In this direction it searches to tie it to the cultural transformations of modernity, between these the education process of infancy. It supports that the education favors the constitution of the latency time, in the measure where the school is organized as the social space destined to the child, distancing itself of the familiar environment without, in meanwhile include them in the adult world, at the same time where it makes possible subliming forms. Understanding the latency time as a production of the social bow, it cogitates that new transformations in the culture can extinguish it while constituent time. It points that breakings in the sustentation of the psychic work of the latency appear in some clinical formations as the intellectual inhibition and the pertaining to school phobia.

A presente pesquisa consiste num estudo sobre o processo de constituição psíquica da criança em idade escolar a partir do conceito tempo de latência, buscando articulá-lo ao processo de escolarização da infância. Situa o conceito no conjunto da obra freudiana desde seus primeiros trabalhos sobre as neuroses e a sexualidade infantil, passa pelo período de formulação da teoria das pulsões, localiza-o no contexto da teoria estrutural e, igualmente, nas reflexões de Freud acerca das relações entre natureza e cultura. Em sucessão, verifica os desdobramentos que o conceito tem na obra de reconhecidos psicanalistas que se dedicaram à análise de crianças, como Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Charles Sarnoff e Françoise Dolto, culminando com uma leitura do tempo de latência como um tempo lógico a partir do enfoque lacaniano. Enquanto tempo lógico infere que a latência não decorre de um processo natural, desencadeado pelo organismo, e sim pela demanda do Outro. Nesse sentido procura vinculá-lo às transformações culturais da modernidade, entre estas o processo de escolarização da infância. Sustenta que a escolarização favorece a constituição do tempo de latência, na medida em a escola se organiza como o espaço social destinado à criança, distanciando-a do ambiente familiar sem, no entanto, incluí-la no mundo adulto, ao mesmo tempo em que possibilita formas de sublimação. Entendendo o tempo de latência como uma produção do laço social, cogita que novas transformações na cultura podem extingui-lo enquanto tempo constitutivo. Aponta que fraturas na sustentação do trabalho psíquico deste tempo constitutivo aparecem em algumas formações clínicas, como a inibição intelectual e a fobia escolar. / The research consists of a study on the process of psychic constitution of the child in school age from the concept of latency time, searching the education process of infancy. It points out the concept in the set of the Freudian workmanship since the first works on the neuroses and the infantile sexuality, passes for the period of formularization of the drive theory, still locates it in the context of the structural theory and in the reflections of Freud about the relations between nature and culture. To leave of this, it verifies the unfoldings that the concept has in the workmanship of recognized psychoanalysts who had dedicated themselves to analyze of children as Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Charles Sarnoff and Françoise Dolto, culminating with a reading of the latency time as a logical time from the lacanian approach. While logical time understands that the latency does not elapse of a natural process, unchained for the organism, and yes for the demand of the Other. In this direction it searches to tie it to the cultural transformations of modernity, between these the education process of infancy. It supports that the education favors the constitution of the latency time, in the measure where the school is organized as the social space destined to the child, distancing itself of the familiar environment without, in meanwhile include them in the adult world, at the same time where it makes possible subliming forms. Understanding the latency time as a production of the social bow, it cogitates that new transformations in the culture can extinguish it while constituent time. It points that breakings in the sustentation of the psychic work of the latency appear in some clinical formations as the intellectual inhibition and the pertaining to school phobia.

A presente pesquisa consiste num estudo sobre o processo de constituição psíquica da criança em idade escolar a partir do conceito tempo de latência, buscando articulá-lo ao processo de escolarização da infância. Situa o conceito no conjunto da obra freudiana desde seus primeiros trabalhos sobre as neuroses e a sexualidade infantil, passa pelo período de formulação da teoria das pulsões, localiza-o no contexto da teoria estrutural e, igualmente, nas reflexões de Freud acerca das relações entre natureza e cultura. Em sucessão, verifica os desdobramentos que o conceito tem na obra de reconhecidos psicanalistas que se dedicaram à análise de crianças, como Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Charles Sarnoff e Françoise Dolto, culminando com uma leitura do tempo de latência como um tempo lógico a partir do enfoque lacaniano. Enquanto tempo lógico infere que a latência não decorre de um processo natural, desencadeado pelo organismo, e sim pela demanda do Outro. Nesse sentido procura vinculá-lo às transformações culturais da modernidade, entre estas o processo de escolarização da infância. Sustenta que a escolarização favorece a constituição do tempo de latência, na medida em a escola se organiza como o espaço social destinado à criança, distanciando-a do ambiente familiar sem, no entanto, incluí-la no mundo adulto, ao mesmo tempo em que possibilita formas de sublimação. Entendendo o tempo de latência como uma produção do laço social, cogita que novas transformações na cultura podem extingui-lo enquanto tempo constitutivo. Aponta que fraturas na sustentação do trabalho psíquico deste tempo constitutivo aparecem em algumas formações clínicas, como a inibição intelectual e a fobia escolar. / The research consists of a study on the process of psychic constitution of the child in school age from the concept of latency time, searching the education process of infancy. It points out the concept in the set of the Freudian workmanship since the first works on the neuroses and the infantile sexuality, passes for the period of formularization of the drive theory, still locates it in the context of the structural theory and in the reflections of Freud about the relations between nature and culture. To leave of this, it verifies the unfoldings that the concept has in the workmanship of recognized psychoanalysts who had dedicated themselves to analyze of children as Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Charles Sarnoff and Françoise Dolto, culminating with a reading of the latency time as a logical time from the lacanian approach. While logical time understands that the latency does not elapse of a natural process, unchained for the organism, and yes for the demand of the Other. In this direction it searches to tie it to the cultural transformations of modernity, between these the education process of infancy. It supports that the education favors the constitution of the latency time, in the measure where the school is organized as the social space destined to the child, distancing itself of the familiar environment without, in meanwhile include them in the adult world, at the same time where it makes possible subliming forms. Understanding the latency time as a production of the social bow, it cogitates that new transformations in the culture can extinguish it while constituent time. It points that breakings in the sustentation of the psychic work of the latency appear in some clinical formations as the intellectual inhibition and the pertaining to school phobia.

Unter dem Begriff des Poststrukturalismus wird eine disparate, auf den Axiomen des Strukturalismus aufbauende und diese zugleich überwindende Strömung verstanden, die sowohl innerhalb der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften als auch in interdisziplinär organisierten Feldern wie den Gender Studies von großer Tragweite ist. Geteilt wird die Auffassung, dass kulturelle Phänomene allgemein sprachlich strukturiert sind. Seine Tendenz, unter die Oberfläche vermeintlich stabiler, monolithischer Strukturen zu schauen, qualifiziert den Poststrukturalismus für eine Anwendung auf genderwissenschaftliche Kategorien wie Weiblichkeit und Männlichkeit, deren Bedeutung nicht aus sich selbst erwächst, sondern die als Signifikate innerhalb eines (phallokratischen) Systems zu denken sind.

Ausgehend von der sog. "Fiedler-Debatte" des Jahres 1968, eine jener Auseinandersetzungen über Formen und Inhalte, Aufgaben und Möglichkeiten von Literatur, Kunst und deren Kritik, wie sie im Umkreis des Annus mirabilis so häufig wie heftig geführt worden sind, unternimmt diese Arbeit auf rund 340 Seiten den Versuch, mit (nicht nur) diskursanalytischen Methoden das in der "Chiffre 1968" besonders virulent gewordene Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Kunst, Literatur und Ästhetik auf der einen und den vielfältigen Politisierungstendenzen auf anderen Seite mikrologisch auf-zuschreiben und mit Blick auf eine ganze Reihe verschiedener Bezugspunkte und -ebenen zu erklären (z.B. bezüglich genereller Kunst- und Ästhetikvorstellungen innerhalb der (Neuen) Linken, hinsichtlich der Aufarbeitung der deutschen NS-Vergangenheit, der Auseinandersetzung mit Antiamerikanismus usw.) Dabei rücken nicht nur die vielfältigen, nicht selten geradezu antagonistisch auftretenden "deutschen" Revolte-Ansätze "um '68", sondern auch Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zu zeitgleichen Tendenzen und Debatten in den USA in den Fokus. Die umfangreiche Analyse der ebenso vielen wie vielschichtigen Ebenen der "Chiffre 1968" zeigt, dass von einem "1968"oder "den 68ern" nirgends Rede sein kann.

Ausgehend von der sog. "Fiedler-Debatte" des Jahres 1968, eine jener Auseinandersetzungen über Formen und Inhalte, Aufgaben und Möglichkeiten von Literatur, Kunst und deren Kritik, wie sie im Umkreis des Annus mirabilis so häufig wie heftig geführt worden sind, unternimmt diese Arbeit auf rund 340 Seiten den Versuch, mit (nicht nur) diskursanalytischen Methoden das in der "Chiffre 1968" besonders virulent gewordene Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Kunst, Literatur und Ästhetik auf der einen und den vielfältigen Politisierungstendenzen auf anderen Seite mikrologisch auf-zuschreiben und mit Blick auf eine ganze Reihe verschiedener Bezugspunkte und -ebenen zu erklären (z.B. bezüglich genereller Kunst- und Ästhetikvorstellungen innerhalb der (Neuen) Linken, hinsichtlich der Aufarbeitung der deutschen NS-Vergangenheit, der Auseinandersetzung mit Antiamerikanismus usw.) Dabei rücken nicht nur die vielfältigen, nicht selten geradezu antagonistisch auftretenden "deutschen" Revolte-Ansätze "um ''68", sondern auch Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zu zeitgleichen Tendenzen und Debatten in den USA in den Fokus. Die umfangreiche Analyse der ebenso vielen wie vielschichtigen Ebenen der "Chiffre 1968" zeigt, dass von einem "1968"oder "den 68ern" nirgends Rede sein kann.