Situates Lacan’s theory of the subject within contemporary philosophical debates over freedom and agency.
In Signifiers and Acts, Ed Pluth examines Lacan’s views on language and sexuality to argue that Lacan’s theory of the subject is best read as a theory of freedom and agency-a theory that is especially compelling precisely because of its structuralist and seemingly antihumanist framework. Presenting new aspects of Lacan’s work and commenting extensively on the important yet unpublished seminars that still make up the majority of his contribution to contemporary thought, the book aims to make a Lacanian intervention into contemporary theory. In addition to Saussure, Sartre, Derrida, Lacoue-Labarthe, and Nancy, Pluth discusses works in political theory and identity theory by Alain Badiou, Judith Butler, and Slavoj Zðizûek.
Table of Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Lacan’s Subversion of the Subject
2. The First Thesis
3. Identity, or the Subject-as-Meaning
4. The Second Thesis
5. The Fundamental Fantasy
6. How Acts Use Signifiers
7. Badiou and Zizek on Acts and Subjects
8. An Act beyond Recognition
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Ed Pluth is Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Chico.
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