The Site/Sight/Cite of Jacques Lacan or Forget Slavoj Žižek? Implications for Art and Its Education

Abstract

This essay attempts to introduce Jacques Lacan in an accessible manner through the explanation of a joke as formulated by Slavoj Žižek in order to develop what is the key to grasping Lacanian psychoanalysis —objet a. It is hoped that difficulties that surround other important terms within the Lacanian lexicon become more accessible through this example. Also, a strong distinction is developed between Lacanian psychoanalysis and post-structuralism, which has become hegemonic in visual cultural studies. I argue that Lacan is not a post-structuralist. Lastly, the essay attempts to question the Žižekian appropriation of Lacan by maintaining that there is another account of the psychic Real as forwarded especially by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, as well as Julia Kristeva, that may well have more import for the arts and their education. This remains as an unresolved tension.

Imaginaries of the Ideal Migrant Worker: A Lacanian Interpretation

“…To question the draw ings and recruitm ent practices they support on the level o f the real is to challenge the fantasies and linguistic signifiers that sustain their production and reproduction o f desire. By introducing a psychoanalytic dim ension in the analysis o f labour m igration, w e hope to set up a starting point for further research to explore both the strategies o f containm ent and com pensation in representation o f 'id eal' m igrants, and study the affective bodily intensities, w hich form the libidinal attachm ents o f fantasies peculiar to each individual (Jagodzinski, 2010). In so doing, in this initial study w e hope to have contributed to the em ergent research on relational and em bodied interpretations o f labour m igration (Findlay et al, 2013) to reveal often overlooked expressive elem ents o f m igrants' journeys.…”

“…First, drawn images attempt to create a place that is immune from the ruinance o f the subject and they develop the fantasy o f diffused identity (Jagodzinski, 2010). Through their drawings former migrants who are now recruiters attempt to distance themselves from the ruinance (caused by the challenging socioeconomic situation in Latvia) o f existing fantasies elsewhere.…”