Antigone and her double, Lacan and Baudrillard

In Impossible Exchange (2001) Baudrillard questions the sovereignty of the thinking–willing subject and invites us to reconsider the subject–object economy with emphasis on the latter. He also develops the notion of the impossible exchange as an opportunity for the individual to see itself from the outside and consider the ontological question as one of presence and absence. This paper argues that Baudrillard’s notions converge with salient characteristics of the Lacanian drive. Bringing Baudrillard and Lacan together creates a unique point of view from which to consider questions of destiny, freedom and choice as well as their expression in contemporary culture. Two modern adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone are used as examples

Lockdown, Conspiracy Theories: Inaction, Transmission, Stupidity

The pandemic has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories. In the past conspiracy theories have conveyed the voice of marginalized minorities but more recently conspiratorial thinking has been espoused by mainstream media and politics, giving rise to new questions of identity, individuality and ontology. The present chapter explore lockdown conspiracy drawing on Lacan, Simondon and Stiegler. The chapter illustrates how conspiracy theories conjoin subjectivity, truth and knowledge in late capitalism. In order to critique conspiracy theories, this chapter argues, we need to engage in a systematic and indeed radical examination of subjectivity and political power at the ‘end of times’, or more accurately, at a time when the principles of the Enlightenment generally supporting science and reason are beginning to fray at the edges

Reflexivity, Austerity, and the Value of the Useless

In this article reflexivity is defined as a neoliberal mode of thought, often evident in our research data as a circular pattern which fails to comprehend contemporary modernity. This type of reflexivity is illustrated with reference to austerity and food poverty. The article argues that while it might be relatively easy to observe this kind of reflexivity in others, it is much more difficult to gauge its effects on the researcher's own epistemological perspective. When attempting to do so, the premises upon which we construct academic knowledge and the importance of certain data that might, at first sight, appear to be “useless” come under scrutiny. Lacanian psychoanalysis and the works of Jean Baudrillard are used in order to explore alternatives

Conceptualising the Lockdown from the Point of View of Chronic Illness

This chapter examines the lockdown from the point of view of long term illness. The chapter puts forwards two key arguments: the first is that, like chronic illness, the lockdown can cause us to open and explore aspects of creativity and enjoyment we had not considered before and to connect with others we could not have known, were it not for our common condition. The second argument is that, as with chronic illness, the lockdown can create opportunities to question the discursive and material practices that constitute and determine our living practices. Sometimes closing the door to society may provide time to open up and explore the complex nature of our physical and psychic inhabiting of spaces

Death and the Real in Karkavitsas’ Logia tis Ploris’

Logia tis Plorisis by A. Karkavitsas is discussed from a psychoanalytic perspective, using Freud's notion of the death instinct and Lacan's Real, the order which encompasses death, loss and the distortions of reality in a single framework.' It is beyond the scope of this paper to give a detailed account of either the death instinct or the Real; we will start by sketching their theoretical underpinnings, allowing text and theory to illustrate one another in the subsequent discussion of particular stories. In discussing those stories, we will focus on how Karkavitsas fleshes out the border of life and death and how he represents experiences that exceed both the control of the conscious ego and the powers of representation. The aim of the present reading of Logia tis Ploris is twofold. On the one hand it attempts to show that the book could today be interesting to a readership much wider than the Greek speaking audience. On the other hand, it proposes that the collective por trayal of the sailor community be interpreted not only with reference to the laws internal to itself but also with reference to the established and commonly held laws that regulate all communities on dry land. This juxtaposition, it will be argued, allows us to read Logia tis Ploris as a symbolic gesture in which deadly evil is pinpointed and marginalised, allowing the prospect or, indeed, the mirage of a better world to emerge with this act

History, Fidelity and Time in Rhea Galanki's Novels

Rhea Galanki’s novels The Century of Labyrinths [Ο αιώνας των Λαβυρίνθων] (2002), Φωτιές του Ιούδα, Στάχτες του Οιδίποδα (2009) and I will be singing Louis [Θα υπογράφω Λουί ](1998) lend themselves to a reexamination of the past from the point of view of the present and for the sake of the present. The past must be accepted as an ‘impassable truth’. One can arrive at such a liberating interpretation after dismantling constructions of racial superiority, misogyny, the haunting of personal, collective or national traumas, and even the legacy of revolutionary idealism. Such an interpretation might prove helpful in dealing with contemporary challenges to identity at a time of new geo-political tensions, mass migration and rising neoliberal populism

The Construction of the Woman in Karkavitsas’ 'the Slender Girl'

Andreas Karkavitsas’ ‘The Slender Girl’ published in 1896 has a recognised place in the cannon of Modern Greek Literature. The following article attempts to highlight some of the issues that have not yet been raised with reference to ‘The Slender Girl’. The approach is psychoanalytic-feminist. It deals with the narrator’s confused objectivity and with Anthi’s portrayal which, it will be argued, is only partially favourable to the heroine and rests upon a deep seated male anxiety about ‘the woman’ and ‘her desire’. In theoretical psychoanalytic terms, the present reading explores the difficult relationships of the subject and the Other as these are filtered through Symbolic, Imaginary and Real experiences. According to psychoanalysis, a transition such as ‘being married’ is not only a position one is expected to occupy, but a position to be assumed and recognised as one’s own. In that sense, the present reading explores subjectivity and sexual identity in the making

Masculinity as Moments of Becoming: an interdisciplinary account

It is generally accepted that the socio-political changes in late modernity have resulted in a massive revision of masculinity. Several theoretical positions have been put forward in order to account for this revision, among them the abandonment of the polarity masculine/feminine. Yet the outcome of the revision and whether masculinity is actually reinforced or subverted in the process remains an open question. The present paper addresses this question from the perspective of ‘reflexivity’ and the ‘reflexive ordering of self-narratives’, the main mode or production of identities in late modernity. It is argued that from a methodological perspective, the combination of reflexivity with the cultural term ‘fantasy’ may produce a more versatile model for the decoding masculinity. ‘Moments of becoming’ in this dual framework are turning points which do not simply produce consciousness or similarities-based femininity but anticipate the failure of all the presuppositions and practices that support traditional masculinity

Locating the m(o)ther

When women embark on a journey of self-discovery, which often bears strong similarities to the psychoanalytic process, they eventually reach the realm of the M(O)ther. In some cases the latter is a heterotopic place, both an actual place in which women contemplate the complexities of their maternal attachments, and a literary/metaphorical locus with which women express the contemporary shifts in the maternal iconography and the representation of femininity. Combining Lacanian psychoanalysis and the Foucauldian notion of heterotopia, this paper discusses the role of the heterotopic maternal place in three contemporary Greek novels arguing that such a place has the potential to become a permanent ethical locus for contemporary women. Accommodating both the traversal of fantasies and symptoms and the departure from the conventional hierarchical order, it inaugurates a critical attitude towards the world and oneself by means of a transgressive or 'traversarial' ordering