Imagine There's No Woman: Ethics and Sublimation (Mit Press)

About this book

A psychoanalytic and philosophical exploration of sublimation as a key term in Jacques Lacans theories of ethics and feminine sexuality. Jacques Lacan claimed that his theory of feminine sexuality including the infamous proposition "the Woman does not exist " constituted a revision of his earlier work on "the ethics of psychoanalysis." In Imagine Theres No Woman Joan Copjec shows how Freuds ragtag nearly incoherent notion of sublimation was refashioned by Lacan to become the key term in his ethics. To trace the link between feminine being and Lacans ethics of sublimation Copjec argues one must take the negative proposition about the womans existence not as just another nominalist denunciation of thoughts illusions about the existence of universals but as recognition of the power of thought which posits and gives birth to the difference of objects from themselves. While the relativist position currently dominant insists on the difference between my views and anothers Lacan insists on this difference within the object I see. The popular position fuels the disaffection with which we regard a world in a state of decomposition whereas the Lacanian alternative urges our investment in a world that awaits our invention. In the books first part Copjec explores positive acts of invention/sublimation: Antigones burial of her brother the silhouettes by the young black artist Kara Walker Cindy Shermans Untitled Film Stills and Stella Dallass final gesture toward her daughter in the well-known melodrama. In the second part the focus shifts to sublimations adversary the cruelly uncreative superego as Copjec analyzes Kants concept of radical evil envys corruption of liberal demands for equality and justice and the difference between sublimation and perversion. Maintaining her focus on artistic texts she weaves her arguments through discussions of Pasolinis Salo the film noir classic Laura and the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination.