Sacramental desire

Abstract

The work considers the theoretical dispute between different concepts of desire: "classical", structuralist, and post-structuralist. This dispute unfolds in two aspects: the social desire production and desire-scarcity connection. The author shows this dispute to be axiomatic and reflect the process of transition from an industrial society, which is based on shortage and lagging consumption, to a post-industrial society, which is based on excess and advanced consumption. The author relies on Lacan's and Kojve's concepts of desire and criticizes post-structuralist ideas of Deleuze, Guattari and Lyotard, particularly the concept of unconditional and unlimited desire. The article distinguishes between the concepts of innermost and sacramental desire in order to define the boundaries of the "desiring production". This distinction is applied in the analysis of "Solaris" by S. Lem and "Stalker" by Tarkovsky.