Badiou's Lacan And The Beckett-Event

Wright, Colin

Abstract

Alain Badiou, one of the most psychoanalytically informed philosophers writing today, has called Jacques Lacan his “master” yet he also deems him to be an “anti-philosopher”. This chapter will do two things with this tension. Firstly, it will explore what Badiou takes from Lacan, especially around his theory of the subject, but also what, as a philosopher rather than a psychoanalyst, he necessarily leaves behind. Secondly however, it will also explore Badiou’s very Lacanian encounter with the literature of Samuel Beckett. It will be argued that, just as Lacan's engagement with the writings of James Joyce led him to completely revise his psychoanalytic theory, so Badiou’s encounter with Beckett led him to transform his own theory of the subject, pushing it in the direction of an affect that has to do with a preparedness to act: namely, courage.

Citation

Wright, C. (2023). Badiou's Lacan And The Beckett-Event. In J. Tambling (Ed.), The Bloomsbury Handbook to Literature and Psychoanalysis (267-278). London: Bloomsbury Publishing

• Publication Date: Apr 6, 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 21, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 3, 2023
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Pages: 267-278
• Series Title: Bloomsbury Handbooks
• Book Title: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Literature and Psychoanalysis
• Chapter Number: 20
• ISBN: 9781350184152
• Keywords: Alain Badiou; Jacques Lacan; Samuel Beckett; Psychoanalysis; Philosophy
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/25366428
• Publisher URL: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/
• Related Public URLs: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbury-handbook-to-literature-and-psychoanalysis-9781350184152/
• Contract Date: Aug 1, 2021