Anti-Electra: The Radical Totem of the Girl

252 Pages·2019·1.365 MB·English

by  Elisabeth von Samsonow, Anita Fricek, Stephen Zepke

Anti- Electra
a univocal book
Drew Burk, Consulting Editor
Univocal Publishing was founded by Jason Wagner and Drew Burk
as an independent publishing house specializing in artisanal edi-
tions and translations of texts spanning the areas of cultural theory,
media archaeology, continental philosophy, aesthetics, anthropol-
ogy, and more. In May 2017, Univocal ceased operations as an in-
dependent publishing house and became a series with its publish-
ing partner the University of Minnesota Press.
Univocal authors include:
Miguel Abensour Sylvère Lotringer
Judith Balso Jean Malaurie
Jean Baudrillard Michael Marder
Philippe Beck Serge Margel
Simon Critchley Quentin Meillassoux
Fernand Deligny Friedrich Nietzsche
Jacques Derrida Peter Pál Pelbart
Vinciane Despret Jacques Rancière
Georges Didi- Huberman Lionel Ruffel
Jean Epstein Michel Serres
Vilém Flusser Gilbert Simondon
Barbara Glowczewski Étienne Souriau
Évelyne Grossman Isabelle Stengers
Félix Guattari Eugene Thacker
David Lapoujade Elisabeth von Samsonow
François Laruelle Siegfried Zielinski
David Link
A N T I
The Radical Totem of the Girl
E L EC T R A
Elisabeth von Samsonow
Translated by Anita Fricek and Stephen Zepke
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges the
financial assistance provided for the publication of this book by the
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
The University of Minnesota Press acknowledges the contribution of
Jason Wagner, Univocal’s publisher, in making this volume possible.
Originally published in German as Anti- Elektra: Totemismus und Schizogamie,
copyright by diaphanes, Zürich- Berlin 2007.
Copyright 2019 by Elisabeth von Samsonow
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other-
wise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and
employer.
23 22 21 20 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: von Samsonow, Elisabeth, author.
Title: Anti-Electra : the radical totem of the girl / Elisabeth von Samsonow; trans-
lated by Anita Fricek and Stephen Zepke. Other titles: Anti-Elektra. English
Description: Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2019. | Series: Univo-
cal | "A Univocal book." | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018037440 (print) | ISBN 978-1-5179-0713-6 (pb)
Subjects: LCSH: Feminist theory. | Electra complex. | Girls. | Totemism. | Social
psychiatry.
Classification: LCC HQ1190 .S2425 2019 (print) | DDC 305.4201–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018037440
For Gaia
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Contents
Acknowledgments | ix
Preface to the English Language Edition | xiii
Introduction | 1
1. Electra as Female “Oedipus” | 7
Positive Unrelatedness and Exogamy | 26
Constitutive Strangeness or Primary Exoticism | 46
Schizogamy | 51
Xenological Anamnesis | 58
Totemistic “Objectification” | 62
2. Radical Totemism and Automatism | 65
Theogenesis and the Twilight of Machines | 65
Totem and Xenocracy | 69
Animal Mummy and the Apparatus- Function | 73
Anthropomorphization of the Deity | 82
Apparatus or Weak Totem | 88
3. Totemism and Sculpture: Preliminaries
to a Theory of Schizosoma | 95
Metabolism and Therapeutic Schizosoma | 103
Pre- oedipality as a “Plastic Phase” | 106
Excursus: Plasma, Forming, Sculpture | 116
The Statue Delivering Oracles | 119
The Two- Body Doctrine | 126
The One and the Many | 131
Social Sculpture | 136
4. The Labyrinth: General Theory
of Schizosoma | 147
Pasiphae’s Cow | 150
The Satellite | 156
5. The Four Pre- oedipal Objects | 163
Failing Equalization and the Emergence of the Complex | 167
Electrification | 169
Appendix: Solyanka State Gallery | 181
Notes | 191
Acknowledgments
naturally, this book has more mothers than fathers.
It is dedicated to the memory of the splendidly impressive
thinker Gerburg Treusch-D ieter, the pioneer and guide,
who died on November 19, 2006. In October of that year
we had the chance to talk about this book, and as always
she listened closely and replied very constructively. I have
built my theoretical construction on her shoulders in the
hope of continuing her work. The last chapter on the lab-
yrinth is dedicated to Renate Lachmann, whose mental
and linguistic agility I treasure. I am obviously connected
to her by an unresolved labyrinth complex, which makes
her my spiritual mother and me her daughter. I lay the
same chapter at the feet of my endlessly admired friend
Friederike Mayröcker as a token of my affection. From
her I have learned that writing is always an incomplete
completion and a complete incompletion. Anti- Electra
has the nimble and profound Ina Rösing in her backpack;
her rare visits were like a wonder of nature and gave me
back a joy for my work, opening up a future I no longer
dared to think was possible inside the empire of the insti-
tution. Her understanding of the house, the most beau-
tiful characteristic of a universal ecosophy, shone like a
ix