Tracking the Lacanian unconscious in language

This paper makes two contributions to the emerging field of Lacanian Discourse Analysis (LDA), one by way of theoretical exposition, a second oriented toward the challenges of empirical analysis. In the first section of the paper I illustrate and develop upon the elusive Lacanian notion of the unconscious structured as a language. This discussion yields a series of important ideas: the assertion that a matrix of latent significations shadows any utterance; the distinction between statement/enunciation; and the concept of repression-in-language. These concepts provide a platform for the second section of the paper which draws on textual material collected by the Apartheid Archive Project (AAP) in order to demonstrate a particular procedure of LDA. This procedure entails an attention to discontinuous narrative components and the role of symbolic juxtapositions. It points, furthermore, to the value of making novel combinations of given textual elements as a way of querying what may be repressed in the text. Two important conclusions are drawn from this discussion, each of which indicates a priority for Lacanian practice. Firstly, the idea that the ongoing work of symbolic juxtaposition may be more profitable than ‘depth’ interpretations in conducting analysis. Secondly, that facilitation of lateral significations and associated significations should take priority over the aim of extracting a single over-arching message

Narrative form, "impossibility" and the retrieval of apartheid history

In what ways might we aim to retrieve or ‘treat’ apartheid history? Such a question, posed by the work of the Apartheid Archive Project (AAP), leads to another: what are the challenges that emerge in the use of personal narrative material as a way of retrieving apartheid history? The first section of this paper draws on a number of psychoanalytic concepts (ego-speech, screen memory, secondary elaboration) to identify the methodological limitations in the use of personal narrative material in retrieving apartheid history. The second section explores an alternative possibility for such a task and does so by way of Lacan's idea that a psychoanalytic cure entails ‘the elevation of an impossibility to a higher order of impossibility’. Such an approach emphasizes the value of ongoing symbolic activity in response to given (historical, psychological) ‘impossibilities’ presented by the trauma of apartheid. Multiple narrative attempts at grappling with such impossibilities are valuable not because they succeed in capturing the truth of the past or resolving it. Such repeated attempts at re-articulation are functional, rather, because they provide the basis for a new symbolic matrix, which in turn may enable transformation

Taking advantage of catastrophes: education privatization reforms in contexts of emergency

Episodes of disaster are powerful triggers of education reform. The sense of urgency and bewilderment associated with catastrophic situations (including natural disaster or armed conflicts) prove a seizable opportunity for education reform advocates, rendering other stakeholders more receptive to drastic interventions. In particular, catastrophic situations are distinctive enablers of privatization and pro-market education reforms in that they allow for a particularly accelerated and drastic advancement of such types of reforms