ANTIGONE: FROM THE ETHICS OF DESIRE TO THE ETHICS OF

235 Pages·2011·16.08 MB·English

ANTIGONE: FROM THE ETHICS OF DESIRE
TO THE ETHICS OF THE DRIVE
A thesis submitted for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
By
Sophia K. Papadopoulou
School of Social Sciences and Law
Brunei University
January 2006
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I
Brunei University, Uxbridge
School of Social Sciences and Law
Sophia K. Papadopoulou
Antigone: From the Ethics of Desire to the Ethics of the Drive
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ABSTRACT
In his Seminar the Ethics of Psychoanalysis Lacan mms at differentiating
psychoanalytic ethics from the morality of goods. Leaving the Aristotelian eudemonia
behind, he moves to the Hegelian dialectic of the Master and the slave focusing on the
negating power of the signifier over the good. He names this power pure desire which
essentially is the death drive that tends to deprive the Other of that good which
constitutes him as whole. The idea of coming to terms with the lack of the Other is
what Lacan wished to define as the ethical act which would bring about the experience
of jouissance. In order to identify such an act, Lacan moves to Kant and his
theorisation of the moral law. Kant proposes two readings thereof; one defined as a
void through which the drive transgresses the limits of the signifier and comes to terms
with jouissance and the other defined as the voice of conscience which restrains the
subject into the field of the signifier aiming at pleasure.
Lacan develops an ethics of desire. Even though Kant's first definition of the moral
law would have allowed Lacan to define ethics in terms ofjouissance, he follows the
second option and the idea that beauty can create a veil in front of the experience of
lack. This allows Lacan to propose that the ethical act comes about through the process
of sublimation which involves the redefinition of the subject's fundamental fantasy and
the inability of the drive to transgress the limit of desire. Nevertheless he has chosen
Antigone to show that the ethical act involves something more; that is going beyond
the signifier. It is through the idea of the Other jouissance that the drive can transgress
the limit of the signifier. This thesis proposes a redefinition of psychoanalytic ethics
through a reading of Antigone in terms of the Otherjouissance.
II
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my supervisor Parveen Adams for her unfailing support and
advice and constant energy for ideas' sharing throughout the research effort. Her
experienced guidance, enthusiasm and encouragement was a constant source of
inspiration for me.
Thanks are due to Liz Ackroyd for helping me get by the bureaucratic procedures.
Last but by no means least, I would like to express my gratitude to my husband George
and my family (Athanasios, Eugenia, Katerina and Dionysia Papadopoulou) for their
encouragement and love. I owe special thanks to my friend Natasha for her
understanding, support and love throughout the years of this research. I am also
grateful to my friend Peggy who shared long hours of frustration and anxiety during
the last months of this effort.
III
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
ABSTRACT .............................................................................. !
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................ .. II
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................... .III
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 2
CHAPTER II
THE OBJECT CAUSE OF DESIRE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE
IMAGINARY, THE SYMBOLIC AND THE REAL ..................................... 18
2.1. Introduction ............................................................................. 19
2.2. Hegel on human desire ................................................................2 1
2.3. Lacan following Hegel- the definition of human desire ........................ .31
2.3.1. The concept of desire as a function of the signifier. .................... 33
2.3.2. How is desire related to the Real? ......................................... 39
2.3.3. The fading out of the signifier. The difference between the Real and
the symbolic body .......................................................... .45
2.4. The experience ofjouissance .......................................................... 51
2.5. Conclusion .............................................................................. 57
IV
CHAPTER III
THE KANTIAN MORAL LAW AND THE REDEFINITION OF LACAN'S
PSYCHOANALYTIC ETHICS ............................................................... 59
3 .1. Introduction .............................................................................. 60
3.2. Kant's theory on ethics ................................................................. 65
3 .2.1. Human desire as an obstacle to the ethical act ........................... 68
3.2.2. The moral law and the ethical act .......................................... 71
3.2.3. The transcendental object through the ideas of beauty and
sublimity ...................................................................... 78
3.2.4. The two readings of the moral law ........................................ 87
3.3. Lacan's theory on psychoanalytic ethics ............................................ 88
3.3.1. The oedipal law and the Law of the Thing .............................. 91
3.3 .2. The Imaginary good versus the Sovereign good ........................ 93
3. 3. 3. The idea of sublimation in relation to beauty .......................... 10 0
3 .4. Redefining the ethical act in terms of the Other jouissance ..................... 10 6
3.5. Conclusion ............................................................................. Ill
CHAPTER IV
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE GREEK TRAGEDY-
LACAN AND ANTIGONE ....................................................................................... ll4
4.1. Introduction ............................................................................ 115
4.2. The aim oftragedy: catharsis ....................................................... II9
4.3. Tragedy and heroism ................................................................. 126
4.4. Summary of the tragedy Antigone .................................................. 135
4.5. Lacan's analysis of Antigone ....................................................... 136
4.5.1. The lin1it of Ate ................................................................ 138
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4.5.2. The zone between-two-deaths .......................................... 143
4.5.3. The beauty of Antigone .................................................. 149
4.5.4. The lamentation of Antigone ............................................ 153
4.6. Conclusion .............................................................................. 158
CHAPTERV
ANTIGONE: TRANSGRESSING THE LIMIT OF THE PHALLIC JOUISSANCE
MOVING TO THE OTHERJOUISSANCE ............................................. .l61
5 .1. Introduction ........................................................................... 162
5.2. Pure desire in relation to phallic and the Otherjouissance ..................... 165
5.3. The function of the Chorus and its distinctive role in Antigone ............... 170
5.4. Following the signifier to its extinction ........................................... 174
5.4 .1. The first scene - Antigone and Ismene ................................ 17 5
5.4.2. The first stasimo- a prelude of the plot .............................. .177
5.4.3. The second scene- Creon's declaration of the punishment ........ 179
5.4.4. The role of the messenger. ............................................. .180
5.4.5. The second stasimo- a hymn to man's advantages over nature ... 182
5.4.6. The third scene- Antigone defends her act .......................... 184
5.4. 7. The third stasimo - the Ate of Labdakides .......................... .191
5.4.8. The fourth scene- Creon versus Haemon ........................... 193
5.4.9. The fourth stasimo- the hymn to Eros ............................... 195
5.4.1 0. The fifth scene- Antigone's lamentation ........................... 199
5.4.11. The fifth stasimo- After the lamentation ........................... 205
5.4.12. The sixth scene- The prophesy ofTeiresias ....................... 207
5.5. Conclusion ............................................................................ 210
VI
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 212
6.1. Introduction ........................................................................... 213
6.2. Hegel's influence on Lacan's thought ............................................. 213
6.3. Kant's ideas on the moral law ...................................................... 214
6.4. Lacan's theory of psychoanalytic ethics .......................................... 215
6.5. Lacan's analysis of Antigone ....................................................... 216
6.6. Redefinition of psychoanalytic ethics in terms of the Other jouissance ...... 218
6.7. Conclusion ............................................................................. 219
REFERENCES .............................................................................. 222
Introduction
Antigone: From the Ethics ofD esire to the Ethics oft he Drive 2
Jacques Lacan in his Seminar Encore (1972-3) refers to his earlier work, the Ethics of
Psychoanalysis (1959-60), and claims that "with the passage of time I learned that I could
say a little more about it [the ethics of psychoanalysis] 1 And then I realised that what
•
constituted my course was a sort of 'I don't want to know anything about it"' (p.l). What
could Lacan have said that he didn't want to know about? Lacan would have argued that
the tragedy of Sophocles Antigone is not a proper illustration of the ethics of
psychoanalysis, for Antigone presents on stage what Lacan defines in Encore as the Other
jouissance. In the Ethics of Psychoanalysis, Lacan aimed at showing that the ethical act
signals the realisation of one's desire through the transgression of the limit of the oedipal
law. But he does not succeed in making the argument for such a transgression. Rather, the
ethical act of psychoanalysis is defined in terms of the subject's redefmition of its
fundamental fantasy in terms of the process of sublimation. Sublimation results in a
beautiful image. Beauty cannot be separated from the object of desire, the Imaginary
effect of the oedipal law. In other words, the ethical act indicates the reformulation of the
fundamental fantasy which is represented as a beautiful image since it covers up the lack
of the Other and inhibits the painful experience ofjouissance. This thesis intends to show
that Antigone goes beyond this.
Lacan indicates the aim of his Ethics:
The effect of beauty on desire seems to split desire strangely as it
continues on its way, for one cannot say that it is completely
extinguished by the apprehension of beauty. It continues on its
way ... but there is no longer any object (p.249).
Lacan tries to show the way beyond the effect of beauty, beyond the effect of the Other
on human desire, the disappearance of the Imaginary object, the semblant in front of the
Other's lack. Nevertheless, he does not succeed until Encore, fourteen years later, where
he describes the experience of the Other jouissance as different from the phallic one.
Phallicjouissance is achieved through the other as a partial object, beyond the field of the
'The use ofbrackets in between quoted material indicates explicatory additions of the author
Sophia K. Papadopoulou