April 7-14:
Lacan formulated the conceptual landscape of the mind in three overlapping realms, following Freud’s notion of an unconscious that manifests itself as a series of representational and structural conflicts. Lacan is the most direct progenitor of post-structuralist thinking, in that his work clarifies, and systematizes, a fluid view of the mind and culture that effectively finishes Peirce’s project: after Lacan, it is not quite possible to speak about an artist or an audience with a fixed arsenal of core beliefs or even intentions. In the dialogues that define art and culture in the late 20th-century, Lacan’s work is evident in a constant displacement away from the study of artists, subjects, and selves, and toward the superordinate economies and ideologies that define transactions among them.
Resources on Jacques Lacan’s “Symbolic”, “Imaginary”, and “Real” <http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/symbolicrealimaginary.htm>
Other sources: <http://excerpter.wordpress.com/2006/05/25/clips-on-symbolicimaginaryreal/>
Further reading: Lacan, Jacques. “Symbol and Language.” The Language of the Self. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1956.
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Paul of Tarsus. Second Letter to the Corinthians. Background: in his missionary travels, one of Paul’s most significant works was the establishment of new Christian communities; forging not just a church of Christianity, but a utopic community of resistence. The context of Paul’s utopia, and the world which that utopia resists, is the “pagan” world view…the nameless, pluralistic, and polytheistic world view which was the engine of the now broken-down Roman Empire.
To resist paganism, Paul has to convince his followers of the divine meaning of Jesus’ acts on earth, and in particular Jesus’ resurrection. Grappling with the capacity of God to bring the dead back to life, Paul’s words also collapse into hopeless contradictions about what it means to be a body, both in the individual and collective sense. If God (or the universe, or nature) is a force of good, and can restore whatever good things are destroyed, why should we act on our own behalf, in self preservation? Why should we direct our own fate? And if we submit ourselves to the perfection of God (or the universe, or nature), what does it mean to be an individual, a family, a community, or a culture?
For a little more context and basic explanation, I recommend scrolling down, and choosing “Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)” under “Study Tools.”
Slavoj Žižek. “For Nobody and Nothing” and “Giving Up the Balkan Ghost”. In The Fragile Absolute - or why is the christian legacy worth fighting for? London: Verso, 2000.