Analysing the Cultural Unconscious
Science of the Signifier
Published on 23. January 2020
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-1-350-08836-8 (ISBN)
Description
What are we doing when taking psychoanalysis from the couch to the analysis of society, culture, and arts? How is it possible to do so? How is it possible to move from singular experiences to universal structures detected in culture and society? Could psychoanalysis applied to art works become more sensitive to their aesthetics form?
Psychoanalysis is often disclaimed as non-scientific, since its main object - the unconscious - has no positive existence. This book, however, proposes psychoanalysis to be a "science of the signifier". It takes as its object the signifier - the signifying part of the sign - insisting that it always says more (or less) than intended, because its very materiality carries unintended messages. By defining the object of psychoanalysis as the signifier, this volume argues that we can speak of psychoanalysis as a science, even if it is closer to semiotics than biology.
Analysing the Cultural Unconscious builds on this idea by arguing that the analysis of the signifier is the way to understand not only the individual unconscious, but also the cultural one. Replacing a person's monologue on the couch with ideology criticism or a piece of art, applied psychoanalysis allows us to analyse culture and the arts in a new way, uncovering the cultural unconscious.
Psychoanalysis is often disclaimed as non-scientific, since its main object - the unconscious - has no positive existence. This book, however, proposes psychoanalysis to be a "science of the signifier". It takes as its object the signifier - the signifying part of the sign - insisting that it always says more (or less) than intended, because its very materiality carries unintended messages. By defining the object of psychoanalysis as the signifier, this volume argues that we can speak of psychoanalysis as a science, even if it is closer to semiotics than biology.
Analysing the Cultural Unconscious builds on this idea by arguing that the analysis of the signifier is the way to understand not only the individual unconscious, but also the cultural one. Replacing a person's monologue on the couch with ideology criticism or a piece of art, applied psychoanalysis allows us to analyse culture and the arts in a new way, uncovering the cultural unconscious.
Reviews / Votes
The problem of applied psychoanalysis has historically been unsolvable. But now, the appearance of Analysing the Cultural Unconscious provides a whole new way of thinking about moving from a psychoanalysis focused on the individual to cultural psychoanalysis. Assembling a wide array of top psychoanalytic theorists, this collection opens up a previously unexplored path to thinking psychoanalytically about culture. * Todd McGowan, Professor, University of Vermont, United States * Tremendously smart, topical and diverse in its address, this collection really does 'work' the signifier as it promises. These superb essays remind one (not that it is possible to forget) that psychoanalysis is always speaking - out of turn, out of time, but never untimely. * Sigi Joettkandt, Senior Lecturer in English, University of New South Wales, Australia *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
534 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-08836-8 (9781350088368)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Lilian Munk Roesing | Henrik Joker Bjerre | Brian Benjamin Hansen
Analysing the Cultural Unconscious
Science of the Signifier
E-Book
01/2020
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€36.49
Available for download
Persons
Lilian Munk Roesing is Associate Professor at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen. She has published four books (three in Danish, one in English) and a large number of articles combining psychoanalysis with literary and cultural criticism. Latest publication: Pixar with Lacan: The Hysteric's Guide to Animation (2016).
Content
Introduction
Part I: Science and the Signifier
I.1 "The Cunning of the Signifier", Henrik Joker Bjerre (Aalborg University, Denmark)
I.2 "The Echo of the Signifier in the Body: On Drives Today", Juliet Flower MacCannell (University of California, USA)
I.3 "Secret in the Body - the Fantasy Structure of Genes and Brains", Renata Salecl (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and Birkbeck College, UK)
Part II: From Couch to Culture
II.1 "Drives and Culture", Mladen Dolar (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and European Graduate School, Switzerland)
II.2 Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac and the Four Discourses, Kirsten Hyldgaard (Aarhus University, Denmark)
II.3 "Courtly Capitalism", Center for Wild Analysis
II.4 "Is there a Way out of the Capitalist Discourse?", Rene Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen)
Part III: Application
III.1 "Examples and Surplus-Meaning", Brian Benjamin Hansen (VIA University College, Denmark)
III.2 "Literature as Philosophy of the Real: Ethics and Sexual Difference in Coetzee's Disgrace", Kari Jegerstedt (University of Bergen, Norway)
III.3 "When I am Beside Myself", Linus Nicolai Carlsen (University of Copenhagen)
III.4 "Analysis Sounds Boring - Is there an Analytical Potential in Modern Electronic Music?", Anders Ruby (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Part IV: Materiality and the Signifier
IV.1 "Lol V. Stein to the Letter", Ida Nissen Bjerre (University of Copenhagen)
IV.2 "Lacan and the Archeology of the Subject", Carin Franzen (Linkoeping University, Sweden)
IV.3 "The Signifiers of Cherry Ripe - On the Trauma and Repetition of an Art-historical Motif", Jakob Rosendal (The Women's Museum, Denmark) (editor: Lilian Munk Roesing, University of Copenhagen)
IV.4 "Colour of Flesh, Flesh of Colour", Lilian Munk Roesing (University of Copenhagen)
Part I: Science and the Signifier
I.1 "The Cunning of the Signifier", Henrik Joker Bjerre (Aalborg University, Denmark)
I.2 "The Echo of the Signifier in the Body: On Drives Today", Juliet Flower MacCannell (University of California, USA)
I.3 "Secret in the Body - the Fantasy Structure of Genes and Brains", Renata Salecl (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and Birkbeck College, UK)
Part II: From Couch to Culture
II.1 "Drives and Culture", Mladen Dolar (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and European Graduate School, Switzerland)
II.2 Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac and the Four Discourses, Kirsten Hyldgaard (Aarhus University, Denmark)
II.3 "Courtly Capitalism", Center for Wild Analysis
II.4 "Is there a Way out of the Capitalist Discourse?", Rene Rasmussen (University of Copenhagen)
Part III: Application
III.1 "Examples and Surplus-Meaning", Brian Benjamin Hansen (VIA University College, Denmark)
III.2 "Literature as Philosophy of the Real: Ethics and Sexual Difference in Coetzee's Disgrace", Kari Jegerstedt (University of Bergen, Norway)
III.3 "When I am Beside Myself", Linus Nicolai Carlsen (University of Copenhagen)
III.4 "Analysis Sounds Boring - Is there an Analytical Potential in Modern Electronic Music?", Anders Ruby (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Part IV: Materiality and the Signifier
IV.1 "Lol V. Stein to the Letter", Ida Nissen Bjerre (University of Copenhagen)
IV.2 "Lacan and the Archeology of the Subject", Carin Franzen (Linkoeping University, Sweden)
IV.3 "The Signifiers of Cherry Ripe - On the Trauma and Repetition of an Art-historical Motif", Jakob Rosendal (The Women's Museum, Denmark) (editor: Lilian Munk Roesing, University of Copenhagen)
IV.4 "Colour of Flesh, Flesh of Colour", Lilian Munk Roesing (University of Copenhagen)