/~ontesting the Oedipal Legacy "
Deleuzean vs Psychoanalytic Feminist Critical Theory
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1.
Psychoanalysis
1.1.
Alice Doesn't: Teresa de Lauretis'
and Feminism:
Disobedient
Daughters
2.
Loyal to the Law: Judith Butler's
2.1.
Butler's Use of Foucault and Its Limits
97
2.2.
Psychoanalytic
J08
2.3.
. .. and Foucault's
2.4.
Oedipus Eternalised:
Psychoanalytic
Lense 93
Parting Pains
Butler. ..
121
Response
135
Parodic Performances
3.
Beyond Daddy-Mommy-Me:
3.1.
From Foucault to Deleuze
Towards a Deleuzean
155
3.2.
Oedipalisation
163
3.3.
Schizoanalysis:
3.4.
Deleuze and Feminism
3.5.
The Feminist Backlash:
Attempted
Fusions
211
4.
Cultural Critique as Schizoanalytic
Practice
221
4.1.
Sarah Kane Between Rhizomatics
A Practice
Methodology
152
177 194
4.1.1. 4.48 Psychosis
224 227
4.1.2. Crave
250
and Psychiatry
As a result of the submission
of this thesis, written in the field of Critical Theory
at the School of Modern Languages Doctor of Philosophy whose constructive production
(Nottingham),
I was awarded the degree of
in June 2003. The thesis was supervised criticism,
detailed
of this thesis possible.
comments
by Jon Simons,
and moral support
made the
I cannot thank him enough for his patience
and commitment. Claire Colebrook,
external
examiner,
this thesis, gave me invaluable
and James Penney,
feed-back
search, which, as a result of an inspiring into both directions
- the Deleuzean
internal examiner
and ideas for further, post-doctoral and challenging
and the Lacanian
sent. I sincerely thank them for a most stimulating
of re-
viva voce, will venture perspectives
they repre-
debate and their thorough en-
gagement with my work. Working
at Signum Publishing
in Hamburg
for the greatest part of writing this
thesis, I have to genuinely
thank Sigmund Prillwitz
cellent working conditions
and for tolerating
Having
been introduced
to my work at the Centre of Women's,
Queer Studies at the University would
theoretically
of Hamburg, Johanna Meyer-Lenz
fit into and encouraged
Geschlecht-Kultur-Gesellschaft Gesellschaft ranging
features
of
the
analyses
which, I hope, my Deleuzean
me to publish
LIT
an interdisciplinary
from historical
and Wolfgang
Loh for ex-
my frequent absent-mindedness.
Verlag.
Gender
and
felt my thesis with the series
Geschlecht-Kultur-
series of authors on Gender Studies,
to sociological
debates
on identity
stance will make a valuable contribution
politics to. I very
much thank the editors of the series for their interest in my work. This thesis also benefitted
greatly from inspiring
ideas with Philip Goodchild
and Barbara
toral circle at the Humboldt-University regularly
meet with; the debates
'Dialog zwischen den Disziplinen' Studies
at the University
Kennedy;
discussions Christina
and exchange
of
von Braun's doc-
of Berlin which I was kindly invited to
stimulated
by the readers of the lecture series
at the Centre of Women's, Gender and Queer
of Hamburg;
as well as from exchange
and debates
with the co-founders
of the on-line publishing
forum www.gender-kritik.de.es-
pecially Annette Geiger, Maren Witte, Stefanie Rinke and Hedwig Wagner. A range of Anglophone In the following, with priceless
I would like to thank those who have contributed
and fundamental
emotional
support
to this thesis
and whose influence
in my
life provided the ignition sparks for this body of research.
sis to argue the female experience structures
of contemporary
Butler use psychoanalysis universality
Knut Schmiedel
endured my deterritorialisations
ing support. He is my idol in courage,
with loving patience and trust-
and for all his assistance,
especially
ing the last year, I return much love, admiration
and deep gratitude.
Yasmene
McGray
dur-
within the Department
Ridon,
Anna Kirchner
thank for daily support in Hamburg; I am especially
unforgettable;
der identities
and Olaf Sanders, for exchange
grateful to Mark Schmiedel,
I
of ideas and
for his warmth, and for
teaching me to dance, and to John Hughes, who designed and kindly allowed me to print the cover image. And thank you, Malcolm Deleuze one sad November
Imrie, for introducing
morning in 1995. 'You went to university
did not teach you on Gilles Deleuze?' and complained ... !
Finally but most importantly,
me to
and they
Well, you know us Germans, I went back
and trust that nour-
serenity and patience provided
of turmoil, and his sparkle lit up dark Hamburg when he is around, and nothing seems impossible.
stability in times
days: everything
is brighter
seems to be a month of departure,
promise rebirth. Jennifer Ann Schmiedel,
pression
of women.
heterosexual
before the lights of the Advent
nee Bryan (t 18.11.200 1), taught me to
my choice of paths with trust and the estimable
go. This thesis has grown from this trust, and is dedicated wit, laughter and lightness: to forget.
gen-
ones Western society curthese identities
with which they theorise subjectivation:
by theorising
and the
the existence of alternative
the stereotypical
Even if psychoanalytic
identities
or Judith
necessitated
feminism
by Oedipalised
can account
the social construction
i.s
to unveIl and opfor non-
of heterosexual
de-
sire, they cannot escape a logic in which these identities continue to lack the union with the (m)other. Hence, if woman continues to be associated
with her sex,
she will remain what will always have to be fetishised and repressed. The aim of psychoanalytic
feminism to 'liberate'
been traditionally
subjectified
ties that do not fit the objectified prescribes,
women from the Oedipal dogma w~ hav.e
into, to allow for the conception woman that patriarchal
is thereby repeatedly
I argue that in order to account for alternative construct
of gender Identi-
society and Oedipal
foiled. gender identities
we have to d~-
the binary structure of sex as well as of gender. If we are not enunCl-
ated as woman but as a thousand tiny sexes, we escape a molar notion of identity we can never fulfill, and which will render us lacking. This lack, if theorised
value the now and to trust in the future. She always tried to understand tures, supporting
on the psychic
essentialism
I will argue that their effort to disclose
through psychoanalysis, November
biological
gender identities behind the masquerades
socialisation
it was Tom MUller's resilience
ished this thesis. His generosity,
in order to deconstruct
within and underneath
rently prescribes.
is contingent
society through psychoanalysis does not help to stop the objectification
Caro-
and Beate Aschenbrenner
of oppression
society. Jane Gallop, Teresa de Lauretis
thwarted by the methodology
and lively discussions
of Critical Theory made Nottingham
line de Grahl, Ronja Hackmann, inspiration.
Rebecca
feminist theorists employ psychoanaly-
of the Oedipal complex, suggesting
alternative Shah, Jean-Xavier
poststructuralist
my ven-
ability to let
incarcerates
us in a losing position, whereas the a~m of
feminism should be to enable the articulation ence. This, I believe, is not achieved and/or sex', but in an unknown to articulate
of a positive affirmation
in merely defining
multitude,
a plurality
or, to speak Deleuzean:
n-l gender'. We have to find a theoretical
language
of dIfferof gender
in the ability with which to
to her love, beauty,
to her memory that no place, no time, will teach me
, such as Anne Fausto-Sterling who argued for the existence of five different sexes in The Sciences, March-April 1993, pp. 20-4. . . 2 n-l is a mathematical formula described by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1987) m their A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and ShiZOl'hrenia. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, p:6. Whereas n is part of a whole, n-l is part of something that is always becoming: we have to trace a lme of fhght
present them and grant them existence, critical theory has not accomplished. terminology
psychoanalytic
which, I argue, psychoanalytic
theory is based on, and which I will reveal over the
course of this thesis. This terminology a binary dialectic
feminist
The reason for this failure is the ambiguous can, in all attempts, not be removed from
that freezes man and woman in separate
realms, from where
The popularity perceivable
of psychoanalytic
commentary
in Western
such as The Independent
Die Zeit or Die Welt in Germany.
or The Guardian
His analyses
There is nothing wrong in believing
the cultural ministry of the county of Northrhine- Westphalia
man and woman. There is, though, an intrinsic
dilemma
in trying to theorise a
change in their relation from within this binary opposition, explained
in psychoanalytic
tion between precondition
terms. A psycho-logic
the sexes based on man's
if this opposition
need to control the (m)other,
will sustain a warring relation.
of the phallus, and
this phallus will, in spite of all feminist critique and reinterpretation, with male supremacy.
and this
'There is no sexual relation '" argues
Lacan; there is no union without the promise of the exchange associated
is
will reiterate a fixed interac-
A dissociation
always be
to a feminist progress.
on film analysis or alternative ludi's Backlash' of Hollywood
all efforts
Since the theoretical
new
or in academic discourse.
or the interpretation
of dramatic the possibility
of alternative
to report about
gender identities or change within gender relations,
structures
the seen or heard immediately
of psychoanalytic
hinders, I argue, the perception
onto an
change in gender relations.
count for difference
is a summary
of Lucan's Grosz
elaborations
(1990)
as it does not describe
feminism has the potential to acof gender and sex. Hence, this vs Deleuzean
feminism
where we can articulate enunciation
resistance
of women in patriarchy
and non-sexed
as the base for resistance.
This resistance
on the phallus Lacan:
as signifier A feminist
ordering introduction.
logic that cannot articulate
the ratio of London:
"Wolf, S
Naomi (1991): The Beauty Myth. London:
Faludi, Susan (1993): Backlash.
The Undeclared
Vintage. War Against
Women. London:
of
against a system
the new a line of flight can lead us to, has to be
in her Jaques
and
I argue, from
than in taking the
is not one against another sex. It is a resistance
and binaries, against a psychoanalytic
whether they 'becoming'
in-between,
much more effectively
on the
feminism can ar-
through its focus on a Bergsonian
It is as a non-gendered
mechanism;
in itself, then, might not be
feminism
beyond the Oedipal law. Deleuzean
the in-between.
as de-
oppressive
grounds of what they can 'do' in relation to cultural commentary, ticulate change and difference
of gender
Description
beyond the binary opposition
can account for difference
of 'beings'
This sentence
debates.
that prove that this did not lead to a
thesis will assess the merits of psychoanalytic
and comprehension
of the subject through the Oedipal complex.
from the dimensions we have available, the unique, subtracted from the multiplicity to be constituted.
of women
of women through Lacan, we
patriarchy's
what a text is, but what it can do. Deleuzean
an in-between
desire and used by Elizabeth Routledge, p. 137.
of the oppression
being one of many publications
feminist critical theory in cul-
other than those that are based on lack and binary oppositions
scribed in the constitution
description
seem to have been frozen in redescribing
texts in analysis or staging - often forsakes its power to represent
Oedipal stage. The dominance
or Susan Fa-
on a positionality
and mainstream
sustainable
whether in the cultural pages of newspapers
tural commentary
films in European feuilletons
the answer. This thesis will defend Deleuzean
by remapping
4
feminist readings - int1uence readings
to promote
hi/stories,
or to portray difference,
that supports Lacanian
power of cultural
has the potential
- such as film criticism
The Beauty Myth
approach
in relation to the opinion-forming
Critical commentary
cultural texts at the ICA in London. The int1uence
- basing their feminist
within patriarchy
are seldom missing in open talks
such as Naomi Wolf's
in application
criticism. Cultural
theory
bestsellers
(Germany) in 2001.
cultural and critical theory, such as Renata Salecl,
Mark Cousins, Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman of feminist
in cultural debates
and was granted a research award of € 500 000 from
Other stars of psychoanalytic
Backlash difficult
Zizek is omnipresent
of woman from lack cannot be
sustained within the confines of Oedipal terminology, notwithstanding by feminist psychoanalytic critical theorists to rewrite it. This is especially
Birds or Coke
bottles are not feminist as such, but follow the Lacanian notions that I will argue to be detrimental
of two sexes: to believe in
is
in Great Britain or
of Hitchcock's
they need to reiterate a warring relation in order to keep desiring each other. in the binarism
Europe
in the regular columns written by Slavoj Zizek in int1uential Euro-
pean newspapers,
in England and Germany,
3
cultural
Vintage.
an
alternative to a system of sexed identities which woman must be oppressed.
that will sustain a warring relation in
he able to promote them, and again, intluence into a thousand
cultural production.
tiny sexes, if we do not feel enunciated
If we split up
as woman, we might,
after all, be able to speak in the symbolic order. Is this a post-feminism
I am suggesting?
I believe it is a feminism,
if, following
Judith Grant', I define feminism as the 'lense' that detected the oppressive ture of gender. It is a feminism in the sense that I argue for a Deleuzean ing-woman,
which is not defined by woman's
or the subject position
form, organs and their functions
to which she has been assigned.
and Guattari, the girl's becoming
the theSIS - was stolen first, and was substituted But the answer cannot be to fall into the 'trap' that man can become
According
- a term that will be elaborated
molar entity, but to become molecular molecular,
strucbecom-
to Deleuz~
of this enunciation,
too, and both transcend
was created in the enunciation
any molar notion.
I
'humanism':
girl
of woman. We have to get beyond her, back or
Not one that theorises
all men are equal. But 'humane' the same rights.
non-gendered
and non-sexed
the human subject, nor one that argues that
in the sense that all identities,
but from its midst, from where the enunciation
all sexes, have
Guattari provide the vocabulary,
within a world that naturalises tempt to deconstruct
gender binarism.
its nature, it repeatedly
the sexes. Psychoanalytic
transsexuals
In spite of psychoanalysis'
seems to reinscribe
out of
What we want to find has not been
we have to create the descliption.
is its very own Body without Organs, every becoming-woman 'doing',
this ethical foundation
of Deleuzean
that describes
a constitutive
feminism of undergoing
feminism,
this difference
of dialectics.
will be discussed
then, is a political programme: psychoanalysis
the eternal
to an ontology
lack at the base of the subject. The Deleuzean
perative to create is an Other to the 'truth' municating
Each making
is original. This
return, in order to eliminate reactive forces, cannot be compared
tions and desiring-forms hermaphrodites,
we have to draw these becomings
described yet - we have to 'make' it by finding ways to articulate it. Deleuze and
whereas
It is difficult to fight for the rights of homosexuals,
of woman, or of man, distract
that, if we make them visible, will disrupt molar notions.
which is a
beyond girl or boy. This is why I believe that a feminist
politics should aim towards a post-enlightenment
from the sea of the molar - not from underneath,
cultural texts. This doing is not a 'finding'.
was stolen. I believe they are saying that a prediscursive
towards the molecular,
We have to skim the molecular
We have to 'make things do things':
read Deleuze and Guattari not as arguing that a girl existed as a molar entity before her becoming
steps through which we can shed our molar skins.
as woman.
instead'. The girl has to set an example so
and hence, this thesis will
suggest careful and successive
from active becomings
on throughout
by her enunciation
In this process, we must be careful to avoid idealism,
throughout
differences
can only ever reproduce that Deleuzean
The difficulty
im-
in com-
this thesis. Deleuzean
have to be made visible,
and is limited to binary rela-
feminism,
through
action, can tran-
scend.
at-
the binary into
feminism can describe the wrongs of patriarchy,
but it
does not seem to be able to change it. Therefore,
I believe we have to actively
The most recent figure of the priest is the psychoanalyst,
with his or her
create change, we have to discover the molecular
underneath
three principles:
psychoanalysis
tion of woman through patriarchy. the notion of 'woman'?
Who are 'they' who were accumulated
Who are 'they' who enunciated
ill
In actively
telling
not letting them be buried under a molar notion, we present be-
comings and can aIiiculate alternative
Judith Grant (1993): Fundamental , Thousand Plateaus, p. 276.
6
under
woman? Who lies in the
shadow of t.he molar, who does not fit into either category? theIr story,
a molar enuncia-
Feminism.
desires. And in this articulation,
London:
Routledge.
we might
demonstrated genitality.
Pleasure,
Death, and Reality. Doubtless,
that desire is not subordinated
That was its modernism.
found new ways of inscribing
to procreation,
or even to
But it retained the essentials,
it even
in desire the negative law of lack, the exter-
nal rule of pleasure, and the transcendent
idea of phantasy.
8
Psychoanalysis
demonstrated
even genitality.
that desire was not subordinated
But through
through lack and narcissism
a description
- concepts on which psychoanalytic
theory is based - a binary dialectic where mothers
is conserved
sleep with his mother and Electra never becomes cation wiH not cease being predestined
tive argument:
only in a world
where Oedipus
to fight the war of Oedipus
for as 'failures'.
identities
after all, it was psychoanalysis
that liberated
scious the difficulty
of attaining
gendered
identities
could be articulated,
and Freudian
analysts
ade'. With Lacan's
focus on language
underlying
subjectification
changed.
Against
identities
inscribes
This thesis does not argue that psychoanalytic
various strategies
description
feminism is essentialist.
change and to redefinition.'9 incorrectness.
Essence is a precarious
What Deleuze
specificity
and Guattari
And still, I risk the accusation
thing else: that psychoanalysis the discussion
contingent
was essentialist.
around this concept forecloses
example,
and
and difference'
Ill.
This phi-
not to forget that subject to
lis methodology.
Feminism,
Nature
of alternative
gender identities
ler's accusations
of 'essentialism'.
of lingUlstlc definitions, accusations
chapter on~, wh.ere I
that are not based on bmary °PPOS1-
The motivation
of closet Hegelianism,
for femmlst progress.
is not one of wmmng a war
which would undermme
account for a possible change of gender structures. unknown multitude of alternatives,
I
But-
and D~leuze against Butler's
critical theorists who suggest ethics, not determinisms,
both theIr value as
and also their potential to
The victory fought for IS an
that I find Foucault and Deleuze have greater
potential to theorise than psychoanalytic
discourse.
Finding ways to critique the 'essentials'
Deleuze and Guattari name, which cre-
, t es me. . G org W F . Hegel's conception of the unhappy conSCIousness as on . "ma de:cribed in The Phenomenology of the Spirit: the constitutive lack at the base of the subject. Dialectics
as the autocratic
I could call
of, really, meaning
some-
investigations
that
motivator
of subjectivation
IS used by
Judith Butler to defend Jacques Lacan, and, to an extent, Sigmund Freud ..One of therewith,
London:
throughout
but to defend Foucault
the aims of this thesis is to deconstruct
& Difference.
feminist progress with
and in chapter three, Deleuze.against
word, at present laden with
will be introduced
restricting
feminist theory in order to reveal the traps t~at mh1b1t the
will: in chapter two, defend Foucault,
contingent
the dialectic
desiring-structures
ject, in order to substitute
'nature'
that describe
of the subject and
the ps~choanalyt1c
sub-
a 'tyranny of the past' with the possIbIlIty of account-
ing for and evoking changing imaginaries.
of
by posing a II
Speaking.
functionalist,
This I will argue thoroughly
dissect psychoanalytic
I would like to emphasise
theorists
9 Fuss, Diana ([990): Essentially gan & Paul, p. 20. 1IJ Ibid.
determinist,
call essentials,
I follow Fuss in believing
These investigations
I call psychoanalysis
ate inescapable binarisms (ie lack-desire, castrator-castrat~d~ male-female), . back to the psychoanalytic concept of the desmng subject that means gomg .
sustain the
and constantly
'more ambitious
in
of gender
and fetishise her.
length of another thesis. It suffices to quote her: 'It is important
'basic components'.
were
could be detected
debate would, as seen in Diana Fuss' prominent
essence is a sign, and as such historically political
desire
a lack at the base of the subject that locks woman in the
(m)other, and hence, will justify man's need to denigrate
losophical
sexuali-
of the uncon-
that the psychic structures
into binary gender identities
notion such as presented
lion the focus on which, I argue, would be beneficial
this process as 'masquer-
this I argue, that any psychoanalytic
against a dialectic
discussed in this thesis.11
conception
and heterosexual
and the symbolic,
to argue that it was through psychoanalysis
account of difference
Lacanian approaches
_ or becom-
alternative
With the discovery described
l>ckuzean tlie
and Electra,
This might seem a highly provoca-
ties from the stigma of being pathological.
construed
wants to
a subject. Forms of subjectifi-
how change can occur if alternative
ings - can only be accounted
or
of the subject feminist critical
that operates
stay phallic and men fear castration;
and it is questionable
to procreation,
of the constitution
Routledge
Ke-
again that my notion
of Lacanian
I discuss in this thesis. Again: the interpretation
feminism
of Lacan's
work
~s strictly restricted IS
to t~os~
broad, and other readll1g~
'h as Joan Copjec's or Jacqueline Rose's, target exactly those interpretatiOns of Laca~1 dlscusse sue ,. . , . f .. '. d which I articulate over here Whether they escape the accusations I direct at Lacaman emlDlsm dO . . . b d' d I where This thesis cannot d,scuss the first few chapters is a question that wlll have to e ,scusse e se .' . . d · d' . I I·t dy of L'lcan's work would be leqUIre and assess every reading available - a close an d 111 IVlC ua s u. . ~~.... .' d . .' t . Bllt th,'s. is. not the aim of this thesis: the aun IS to du;cuss a general ten ency In f or sue h a plOJec 1980' s Lacanian
feminism
and the pitfalls it created.
Butler's Hegelianism the dialectical
could lead to a much larger debate than the one concerning
desiring
structure
lack, and the gender binarism
of the psychoanalytic that is its product.
unable to account for 'real' difference 12
Slavoj Zizek
subject that is based on
My accusation
Further, it could be argued that what I, following
•
that Hegel is
beyond the binary is strongly refuted by
as Hegelian dialectics - a desiring based on a constitutive
Butler, describe
lack - is a very limited
notion of dialectics.
This thesis will not have the scope to discuss dialectics
depth. The Hegelian
dialectics
I will refer to closely follows Butler's
term in her work.13 I will, following dialectical
determinisms
this account,
with the
called the Oedipal
lemma: the vicious circle of a gender war built on psychoanalytic dictate a certain form of desiring, that we lack.
Alice Doesn't by patriarchy,
Many poststructuralist
feminists,
theorisation
structures
dithat
which follows from the science that 'knows'
'female experience',
although
criticising
which was 'that complex
tions and perceptions,
which en-genders
politics that, following
Alcoff, constitutes
sessed in relation to woman's be assigned their individual
the dogmatism
define feminism
inherent in
as tile analysis
of habits, dispositions,
of a
associa-
one as female'I", or define an identity a 'positionality'I'.
This position
is as-
binary Other, man. Cultural realms call of course
and dominant
codes which engender
portant to describe a new, anti-dialectic emphasises
engagement,
methodology
and the in··between,
with which we can make these becomings
A Foucaultian
notion of resignification
the conception mentin
t> 10
of alternative
his work with Deleuzean
one as male or
ture specific traits that do not fit into the defined stereotype.
or 'positionality'
for one cultural realm secures their reiteration: By arguing
- like Teresa
existence
could
the codes of the 'female experience'
created in their analysis, and in the creation of stereotypes, automatically.
de Lauretis
schizoanalysis,
I introduce
a theoretical
and to exist, which, in my mind, psychoanalytic
Ian··
and Deleuzean
and even
feminist theory cannot do. And yet, although Foucaultian
cultural theories might allow us to 'move on' from where femI-
nism 'got stuck', they cannot account as empathetically those individuals
who define themselves
a certain dominance
as 'women',
of 'habits, dispositions,
en-genders
one as female'
discourse
that can theorise
for actual pain felt by
and as such, as victims of
associations
and perceptions
which
in their own culture. Here, it is still psychoanalytic this pain and take these individuals
provide one possible explanation
stereotypes
exclusion
does, referring
are
is practised to Lacan,
There is nothing
for their subjection
seriously
and
(and, one might add, might
even if - as will be argued - it cannot provide the foun-
'wrong'
with a feminism
women. It is one possible mode of resistance the power structures
we are surrounded
of new gender relations, feminist
l'z' k S . - Ize, lavoJ (1993): Tarrying with the Negative. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
tion, complement
For Butler', definition of Hegelian dialectics I refer mainly to her Subjects o(Desire and The Psychic Lire o(Power. 14 d L . e auretls, Teresa (1984): Alice Doesn't. Femini5'1n, Semiotics, Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p.182.
ries that might help to construct
13
Alcoff, Linda (1988): 'Cultural Feminism vs Post-Structuralism. The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory' in Signs, 13:3, pp. 105- I36.
that aims to better the position against dominating
of
powers within
by, and it is one possible practice of the
self. This thesis merely argues that it excludes, that it bars progress as in the development
settles it. My integrative
15
can enable
One thereby force-
that their non-amalgamated
break open, confute and change. Defining
that might fea-
discourses
guage that can account for movement and progress, and allow alterity to breathe,
therefore be therapeutic),
fully maps them onto a structure
a
and social change. By comple-
dation for a political strategy to change their situation.
genders
and provides
visible.
through reiterative
gender identities
text individually,
risks amalgamating
Our description
form of desire through Deleuze, one that
becoming-Other,
female, but I argue that, even if these traits are analysecl for every cultural conone nevertheless
woman as she is
which do not define themselves
of their existence is defined as idealist by a Lacanian logic. This is why it is im-
to become apparent
of gender,
identities
as woman are negated, and we cannot describe their becoming.
most poststructuralist a psychoanalytic
- that there is no agency beyond alternative
use of the
only be concerned
that create what is commonly
in
Iilroughout ellunciated
and deconstruct
nism can be left altogether. theorists - Lacanian,
as it intensifies approach
it simultaneously,
in order to integrat~ the~-
a line of flight from which the plane of feflll-
It is an interplay
Foucaultian
the gender war rather than
aims to widen the feminist percep-
of different
and Deleuzean
feminist theones
- and their individual
of woman with that which might lie beyond it. Basically
and
concepts
then, I advise cultural
and critical theorists to move two steps forward, one backward,
until we finally
reach the open sea, where walking becomes redundant form of progress will take over.
altogether
and a different
"\lIIlC'1l In society. A focus on the binary will always support biological ,hICI~'
that proves that humanity is made up by men who inseminate
"iI" hear children, \\;11. WI
The notion of lack in Lacanian
psychoanalysis
is for many feminists
tive concept. I will argue in this thesis that it is anti productive, its productivity
in relation to its potential to account for an unknown
gender identities multitude
and sexes. I believe in the political
of sexes: hermaphrodites
necessity
are a deviation,
a dysfunctional
ability to determine
diversity of
to account for a
do, after all, exist, and are discriminated
against in our society. One could argue that they only constitute jority - is constituted
a produc-
as I will measure
derivative
a minority, they
distinct sexes is highly contested,
that there is evidence
there exist within the animal as well as the human species reproductive corrected
in infancy",
hermaphrodites"'.
our bi-gendered
could argue that they only constitute
and that this in itself constitutes
social
roles
- such
a foundation
as mothering
'men',
of the gender
non-reproductive
linen', or any genders that have not yet been mapped - appear within a gentheorisation
l\lllstitute
of gender binarism
a binary opposition
,1';lIlic'. The exploitation Iii.: definition
as a luxury of modern civilisation
to viewing gender binarisms
that
and per-
And, if these were not surgically dramatically.
We
a minority because of social selection:
world would change
hav-
ing to fit into a bi-gendered world, we breed phenotypical biologically as well as socially.
but to develop
a theoretical
'evidence'
language
forms - social and/or biological
'men'
and 'women',
of women on the grounds of their reproductive
Ilism based in a notion of woman's biology, a functionalism,
experience
functions,
or positionality
for the
11-1
that can enunciate
- cannot be perceived,
If psychoanalytic
women against an Other, the existence
I am not in any sense arguing
has allowed us to detect the mechanisms choanalytic
feminism
- especially
of their oppression.
cannot change the situation,
striction the binarism of sex poses is intricately psychoanalytic
feminism.
that, in psychoanalytic
This problem
been and do not
psychoanalytic
feminism
feminism
gender I believe in,
I argue that psy-
linked to the problem intrinsic to
is the concept of a warring opposition
theory, will inevitably
women become. This reproduction
them. Alternative
life
nor be able to proliferate language
that can le-
defines the positionality
of 'in-betweens'
is easily negated.
of My
as a trap into which even the anti-essentialist describe woman as mere enunciation the male homo-logic,
reproduce
itself, no matter how
is secured through the sophisti-
domination,
sion causes our enunciation nate us. In supporting
post-structuralist
as birth machines,
analysis - we are caught in, as Rosi Braidotti
change in the perception
[7
Die Fortpilanzung with 'sexual
anomalies'
sex [see Hird, Myra J. (2000)
and Rieder, Katrin (2002) in Ariadne: pp.S-15], they mostly stay invisible.
Forwnliir
of Anglophone
they fail to create
a
of gender stereotypes.
Mossingen-Talheim:
born are, still, immediately
in Feminist Theory, Volumc
episodes
and show where
Jacques Lacan, himself having been influenced
As the four per cent of babies
rected' into a distinct
der Geschlechterverhiiltnisse.
theorisations
- Lacanian psycho-
terms it, a tyranny of the past. I
psychoanalytic
feminist
of culture in
and hence, man's need to domi-
hope to make visible this vicious circle by presenting
(2002):
feminisation
a theory that endorses this mechanism
feminism will show that the focus on the binary in the of
who
we are caught in a vicious circle: Oppres-
positionality
does not help to alter the position
and serves
feminists
fall. By arguing that women have to break
by arguing for an anti-humanist
order to resist patriarchal
-
but only describe it. The re-
critique of psychoanalytic
16 see Ebeling, Smilla Talheimer Verlag.
a femi-
writes a history, a
that women have not historically
and feminism
description
of woman's
'01'-
capacity,
that is difficult to overwrite.
continue to be oppressed,
'powerful'
debate about sexual binarism:
if they cannot be spoken about, if there is no theoretical gitimise their existence.
and
of women on the grounds of their reproductive
cated means feminism has found to describe this warring opposition, This thesis, though, will not look at the biological it is not my aim to present empirical
and thus
as 'natural'
of the human race, which - in the ma-
by 'real' men and women. One could argue back that the
haps even parthenogenetic
<'1:11
Different
'evi-
and women
surgically
I, Number
Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte,
'cor-
3, p. 350;
Nr. 41, 2002,
exchange
by Levi-Strauss'
analysis of the
of women, provided the means to articulate the theory that women do
not have access to the Symbolic trol women
originated
and are defined as the Other. The need to con-
in their reproductive
capacities,
and their voices were
buried underneath
man's words. 'The feminine'
tual and theoretical
processes.
gue with. The problem
This is a fact that this thesis does not want to ar-
starts with the mode of resistance
nism chose. Post-structuralist
to masculinity
a position of resistance.
to by a historical
means of (temporary)
as a base and turned it into By using the realm women
power relation
self-definition,
and mode of production
post-structuralist
the theoretical
approach
incarcerates
woman in
that 'made sense' of this power relation and positionality, its own sense-making
mechanism:
In Elizabeth
Grosz'
with the mother.
Desire, in the symbolic
As long as woman
machine
and monster-mother.
women's
reproductive
in order to delimit its seductive
with this (m)other,
Applying
capacities
from this power relation questionable
identifies
a theory
were exploited,
that sustained
how we cannot repeatedly
Lacan defines
to return to a symbiosis
order, is the desire for the (m)other,
and hence, for that which has to be controlled power.
reading,
of desire through the impossibility
1X
as a
feminists lock themselves
in this abject position. This is because psychoanalysis,
the unfulfillability
femi-
The episodes I will discuss in this
thesis show this strategy to be counter-productive. were assigned
psychoanalytic
feminism, unable to define what woman should be
beyond 'the abject', used this 'Other' a positive affirmation,
became the blind spot of all tex-
she remains
that makes
sense of how
and how psyches
these oppressive
birth-
developed
gender relations,
it is
"kntities
out of their 'origins'
("Ionisers
had justified
their treatment
and construction
()ther spoke back as many and diverse,
as 'essential'
as the Other, but the
and in-essential
In a psychoanalytic
post-structuralist
neath', but only use the definition
sense, cannot retrieve
of a male homo-logic
what was 'under-
that defined woman as
Other, but these tongues remain within a language of gynocentricism,
is often compared
19
Braidotti
to post-colonialism.
But what Linda Alcoff or Rosi
forget, is that former colonies did not construct
basis of a theory that explained
their oppression.
new identities
The colonised
on the
created
new
the Other,
and thus invite further colonisation. There is of course, an important
difference
feminine that falls into the functionalist that Linda Alcoff describes. lrigaray,
Herself critical of the French feminists,
as 'her work borders too closely on essentialism'''),
especially
she nevertheless
believes that women should be defined through their particular power relations defined by patriarchy:
ecriture
between an anti-essentialist
trap I just outlined and a 'positionality'
position within
' ... the internal characteristics
of the per-
son thus identified are not denoted so much as the external context within which that person is situated'''. childbearing
functions,
If woman got into an oppressed position because of her and was described
in, or inscribed
and peaceful, how can the description
into this position
The post-structuralist
as
of this situation, and an identity
politics formed from it, argue with these internal characteristics Feminism
at once,
finding new identities as well as retrieving those that had been buried. Feminists,
nurturing
confirm these roles.
on the one hand, and values and self-images
;Illapted from the colonisers on the other hand. The economy and language of the
answer is: by psycho-analysing
assigned to her?
why woman was incarcer-
ated in this position by man. But can an analytic tool that describes the fetlshlsation and oppression
of women as a result of a repressed
desire for the (m)other
point a way out of the war of the sexes? l' Grosz
refers primmily
choanalytic
experience'
(in Ecrits: A Selection,
where Lacan describes fragmented
to 'The mirror stage as formative how the formation
and in nursling dependency
tion prefigures
its alienating
the other, and before language
restores
trans!. Alan Sheridan,
of the I - through
on 'hnmoral
destination,
of the function
Routledge,
residues
of the maternal its function
p. 4) ... 'It is this moment
of human
tips the whole
throngh the desire of the other, constitutes others, and turns the I into that apparatus though it should correspond henceforth
dependent,
by the Oedipus complex.' 19
Braidotti,
to a natural maturation
in man, on a cultural mediation
as exemplified,
New York: Columbia
(Ibid,
into mediatization
by the co-operation
of
a danger, even
of this maturation
Psychoanalytic
University
Press.
feminist theory grew out of and in resistance
radical feminism. for everyone, language
Whereas
'male identified'. body's
liberal feminism
radical feminism
and culture, reproductive
being
20
Ibid, p. 407.
2l
Ibid, p. 433.
demanded
to both liberal and
equality before the law
argued that male domination
extended
into our
not only our legal status, and accused liberals of being
Patriarchal
oppression
functions,
hysteria, caring, low self-esteem
in the case of the sexual obejet,
(Ibid, p. 5-6.)
Rosi (1994): Nomadic Subjects.
with
(Ibid, p. 2) 'The
thrust constitutes
- the very normalization
This forma-
to anticipation.'
knowledge
its objects in an abstract equivalence for which every instinctual
1977),
of identification
as snbject'.
from insufficiency
in psy-
of the self as
organism'.
in the dialectic
mirror stage is a drama whose internal thrust is precipitated that decisively
London
vision - opposes perception
'before it is objectified it, in the universal,
of the I as revealed
found its precondition
but typical masculine
in the female
or feminine traits (such as
etc) were in no way biological
but due to male
supremacy,
and it set out to describe this process in order to prove that woman's
With this argumentation,
experience
was defined by and directly linked to their oppression.
llhject-relation
though,
psychoanalysts
Dorothy Dinnerstein
Mitchell, they use psychoanalysis An early book in second-wave
radical feminism
was Kate Millet's
tics, which was echoed twenty years later by Camille Paglia's whose feminism
celebrates
Simone de Beauvoir's
woman
as powerful
famous phrase:
die: this is the truth incarnated aggression
and misogyny
revolution,
to refuse
mother goddess.
Both follow
'From the day of his birth man begins to
in the Mother.'22 De Beauvoir had explained
biologically
and her conclusion
to have children,
because
the sexual
and mothers assigned to a subordinate
a man, which in her existentialist
approach
male
had been to 'live' a society, women
realm. By living like
and Nancy Chodorow.
to show that child-bearing
that man was born of woman - did not make women their monopoly
on early childcare
was not 'natural'
Like
in itself - the fact
'fearful'
in themselves,
but typical of contemporary
patriarchal society. Different parenting or gender structures would lead to different psychologies,
as men who were not mothered by one woman alone might not
have reason to fear woman's are left wondering
castrating
power. In this line of argumentation,
how we can change parenting
make-up, determined
and reproductive
power of women caused such fear in men that, in our patriarchal had to be objectified
Sexual Poli-
Sexual Personae,
she falls into the same trap as second-wave
in family structures
such a way that women continue
structures
we
if our psychological
where women mother, subjectify us in
to desire to mother and men to prove their
masculinities".
every woman was free to do, women
could choose to become active subjects in relation to the Other. Paglia rephrased
Jane Gallop accuses Mitchell
these findings in arguing that in being aware of man's intrinsic could empower themselves.
rationality'24 and of placing 'the feminist as observer in some sort of t10ating po-
fears, women
sition of omniscience
of denying
... Such positioning
himself within the signifying Psychoanalytic
feminist
Juliet Mitchell
proach, critical of Freud's description even more biologistic could be challenged
rightly
than Freud himself, inscribed through the theorisation
feminist point of critique was that Freud's that the 'psychic
reality'
that did not represent Lacanian
rewriting
psychoanalysis, unconscious
he defined
the 'reality'
theory of sexuality
for women created strongly
that proved the difficulty
advises
of achieving
Psychoanalysis
symbolic order could create different psyches, in the Mother'
ap-
a politics
an essence into woman that
of the unconscious.
could not be theorised
hence, their social construction.
that this feminist
and yet suggesting
of the female 'nature'.
and use of Freud,
as resistance
'the truth incarnated woman in patriarchy.
objected
of femininity
was prescriptive,
feminism
sexuality
defending
a
to re-instate
without an analysis
of the
fixed gender identities
and
could prove that change in the and hence, different
was merely
dependent
Mitchell
formulations
whose distortions
stereotypes:
psychoanalysis
woman's
experience
could successfully
need to place
'falls back into the unconscious-denying,
contin-
that do not greatly differ from those of the feminists
seemed
as contingent articulate
tion: not only had women's superior
to have a more adequate on patriarchal
contradic-
originated
in repres-
radical feminism defined as uniquely female and were created by oppression,
'mother goddesses'
cess to the prediscursive.
held an inherent
'way of being', her experience,
to the male 'way of being'
power as historical
means to theorise
society: femme n'i!xiste pas. It
that radical feminism
sion, but the set of behaviours
Lacanian
too. Female
was refuted by a Lacanian denial of ac-
psychoanalytic
feminism
rightly articulated
on the image of 23
Having
no access to the symbolic attachment
unity.
mined by her own mother's
The
24
The Daughter's
25
Ibid. p. 12.
to her mother,
Her mother's
leads to a chain reaction The Rocking o{the Cradle and the Ruling o{the World. London:
and already
is less likely to bc relinquished
her homosexual mother-child
(1987):
the subject's
she has exposed'''.
Lacanian
their mothers
22 Dinnerstein, Dorothy Woman's Press, p.127.
ignores
chain in order to be any place at all'. In speaking
The recurring
a normative Mitchell,
of ethical discourse, gency-based
'any attribute of the mind other than
rejection
rejection
of unfulfilled
Seduction,
p. 9.
being symbolically
castrated,
women's
than in men who fear castration. a woman
will want a child
of her daughter's
as substitute,
own independent
of the latter's
striving
independence
that leads to a continued
for aggressive,
attachment
to
But having to give up to recreate
development
'clitoris-driven' dependence.
a
- deteractivity
-
that there was no 'woman'
beyond patriarchy,
woman was a blank page, that
could, for now, only be filled with a positive affirmation
of her own enunciation.
But this positive
I argue, unintentionally
affirmation
of her own enunciation,
reinstalls exactly this 'essence', will eternally fight against.
this fear-inducing
mother goddess men fear and
I ion
- conceive
of man as more mono-logic
not psychoanalysis These are questions Criticising
Gallop poses in her rewriting
ecriture feminine
woman that is reiterated Julia Kristeva
and Luce Irigaray,
both having been influenced
Derrida, state clearly that woman does not exist: she is enunciated By defining
a female imaginary
as resistance
to the monolithic,
and posing a positive, male homo-logic,
by and reiterates
constant questioning
by patriarchy.
gender identities. The promising
femininity
they are intensifying
the struc-
of identity,
and therewith
of the mistakes she sees in her contemporaries, my thesis with a detailed discussion
pal vicious circle. Her aim to refute inevitable
to change mother-daughter
tionships
than parenting
structures.
(Irigaray)
or mother-child
This is their constructive
(Kristeva)
rela-
advice for women
of how to escape the Oedipus complex and the consequential feared by men.
castration
monopoly
on early
Kristeva's
or Irigaray's
and Chodorow's
childcare
freezes
description
preservation
of a perceived
unconscious.
man, describes dominance
created
woman,
nance, sustaining patriarchy,
in a vagina sexuality
of women's
dentata-image,
tion through psychoanalytic
the Oedipus
is the
and woman's
defined by her binary opposition complex
will be reiterated.
way of being reiterates
resistance
to
If male
male domi-
how can it be overthrown?
excludes
the possibility
and his consequential
need to oppress
woman, it also
that men might be fluid as well and makes them seem
more phallic than they actually might be. The experience
of lack is felt by both
sexes, but it is men who have to fight back the tears. The erect penis, can, after all, be seen either as monolithic
of its inevi-
had at least embarked overcome,
structures
and signification
show the possibility
Only a Lacanian in themselves,
of an out-
focus on enunciation
and Irigaray and Kristeva
on this course. But by creating a dichotomy
the French feminists
A deconstruction
focus on language
that had to be
were freezing both genders in separate realms.
of these separate realms would blur the boundaries
and create
more scope for change. But this attempt is sadly thwarted
as Gallop uses psy-
choanalytic
she on the one hand
highlights
language Lacan's
to deconstruct
the binaries. Whereas
emphasis on nobody having, but both sexes needing the phalhim for linking the idea of the phallus with the pe~is.
this connection
that this link was not unjustified
on the one hand, but on the other, argumg
as it represented
the supremacy
power in Western society, Gallop gets caught in the inevitable that, by reading her closely, leads to an interpretation sis that ends up being more biologistic
of patriarchal
feminist dialectic
of Lacanian psychoanaly-
than the feminist essentialism
she criti-
cises.
phallic power, or as pure desire, need, vulner-
able exposure of very fluid and soft testicles, not psychoanalysis,
and universal Oedipal subjectiva-
always leads to a reiteration
side to the existing order she describes.
lus, she rightly criticises
from a notion of women as Other, fluid, not only justifies
man's castration-anxiety
are the reasons why I will open
Mitchell did not convincingly
Trying to deconstruct Creating
reasoning
could question phallocentric
could be seen to con-
order: the trap of their feminism
experience,
a of
tability and universality. Gallop argues that without using Lacan's
account
of the 'truth'
anxiety
'truth' in women which puts a face on the symbolic
Woman's
a teleology:
woman
of feminine
serve rather than disrupt the symbolic order's
psychoanalytic
deconstruction
in order to question coherent identities locks Gallop in the Oedi-
more intensively, But, just as Dinnerstein
of
of her work: I will aim to show that using
psychoanalysis
possible
a 'truth'
potential of her approach and yet, her repetition
tures as in new parenting
it seems more
psychoanalysis.
the war of the sexes, she advocates
tures we already have instead of looking for change outside of our gender strucforms. Within an Oedipal psycho-logic,
of Lacanian
for exactly this problem of reiterating
by Lacan and
gyno-Iogical
than they actually are? And could
itself be used to analyse this phenomena?
of longing for another body. Does
made by men, adapted by women - their daughter's
genera-
Lacan's
preferential
treatment of the phallus is foundational
ing. But in spite of Gallop's
critical discussion
to Lacanian reason-
of it, she simultaneously
it into her own analysis. She thereby ignores the insolvable
extends
problem that the em-
ployment
of Lacanian
multaneously pression 'truth'
psychoanalysis
of woman
in patriarchy.
of woman, the inherent
still holds. Woman's
better - at least, more privileged
psychoanalytic
the op-
to deconstruct feminism
experience
the penis/phallus
as oppressed.
because
'more'
the
inherited
in relation to male oppression,
woman's
that Lacan is favouring
when si-
with 'reality',
In spite of her attempt
is theorised
can define
and
Gallop's is, in fact,
- makes her employ a theory that cannot allow
for change to occur: woman remains kept on a fear-inducing
corresponded
contradiction
experience
only male oppression argument
will always entail an ambiguity
arguing that his favouritism
'less', lacking, less privileged.
hole that once was whole,
The focus is
and that woman
aims to
(re)fill, which forces man to control her.
This thesis argues that the deterministic sort to psychoanalysis ten in resistance hy resisting
to orthodox Lacanian
mainstream
on Lacan's
and Freud's
and insecurities
'The Daughter's
but we are given no alternative.
Seduction',
structs the equation woman = irrational she involuntarily choanalytic
re-emphasises
reasoning,
erected in rebellion
had criticised in difference
Even if she decon-
and fluid, and man = rational monolith,
the necessity
and her alternative
to patriarchal
non-monolithic
that are veiled behind authority and
for the masquerade
- a female homosexual
through
psy-
economy to be
power - recalls the impossible
solutions
she
feminism herself.
to woman's
de Lauretis for having found strategies them: 'Lauretis
to talk about feminist issues without es-
an essential characterization
by basing her conception and events de Lauretis
on real practices
selects to concentrate
ture. De Lauretis does not 'work through' 'f,
a 'beyond'
our subjectivation choanalytic
to existing
as reproducing
reasoning
relations
while simultaneously
a sophisticated
locked themselves
way to explain
not necessarily has therefore
Therewith,
their own oppression,
into their own cage: theorising
but presupposes
which becomes impossible
on castration
but it
Oedipality
back onto the Oedipal struc-
in order to discuss its overcoming,
their essentialism
of the subject through
allow her to conceive of an 'outside'
psychoanalysis
does not
to the Oedipal cage.
a new sort of feminist politics is preferable:
they
oppression is defined as
is not convincingly
a psychoanalytic
Judith Butler argues that if a stable notion of gen-
it seems
of woman other
complex
Like Gallop and de Lauretis,
der no longer proved to be an adequate foundation
universal. Their aim to contest cultural or radical feminist strands
with. The constitution
OedIpal
within her structure of argument. Hence, de Lauretis'
it is stuck. By
their universal
or caring mother, even if the Oedipus
not been achieved,
Sadly, the
on demonstrate
it could be argued that psy-
through a universal theory does not allow a different conception than as hysterical
theorising
to explain the female experience,
cannot theorise a notion of woman beyond patriarchy. finding
and events.''''
work falls into the trap of not being able to conceive of alterity, and thus suffers
existing relations,
enables feminists
but
of materialist
Oedipus in the analyses she discusses
the same fate as Jane Gallop, whose use of Lacanian By promising
fea-
of subjectivity,
Even if they would leave room for different interpre-
tations, she remaps them, through psychoanalysis, in Alice Doesn
or psychological
that can follow from a rejection
practices
in cinema,
of woman in main-
start. Linda Alcoff praises Teresa
starts with no given biological
analyses
settings and psychologies.
as women. De
experience
had to be found within the representation
she also avoids the idealism Gallop has to be credited for elaborating
Laura Mulvey, who had argued that only
stream film, which, again, offers a promising sentialising
film criticism was writ-
film could we find new identifications
Lauretis argues that there was no 'outside' but that resistance
theorists who re-
relevant in relation to the opinion-
I'orming power of cultural criticism. Teresa de Lauretis'
tures and thus avoids assuming
writing, their vulnerabilities
traps poststructuralist
fall into are especially
reasoning
dealt based
anxiety and penis envy cannot release woman from the Beauvoir-
der and identity and that takes the 'variable methodological structuralist nist binarism
and normative,
feminist theorists,
construction
if not a political
feminine
she advocates
genealogically
ian equation womb = tomb. 26
Signs, p. 431.
27
Gender Trouhle, p. 5, my italics.
of identity as both a
goal.'27. Like other
of the Oedipal set-up but nevertheless
Gallop and de Lauretis,
of genpost-
she criticises the universal ontology and deternu-
ception of the subject to theorise genderisation
for feminist politics, perhaps
one that contests reifications
resorts to a Lacanian
subjection
'working
in order to transcend
in Western
through'
con-
socie~y. Like
our Oedlpahsed
en-
a binary gender lOgIC. In thiS
'working
through'
or open mourning,
in this analysis
or 'therapy',
periences
'women'
share are detected
and articulated,
demands
and solutions called for. Hence, Butler and her contemporaries course of the genealogical
deconstruction
various ex-
can be defined argue that, in the
of the notion of 'female identity',
pro-
1 '1111 not in any sense denying that individuals
organs
Iwal and raise children and have needs that have to be defended and represented, 1 :1111 arguing against the perception
of a homogenous
group of (m)others
lIave matching biologies and feelings, as the concentration in some cases not only excludes
differences,
visional unities might emerge in the context of concrete actions that could serve
1:11
purposes other than the articulation
dominating features these individuals
of identity.
with female reproductive
who
on that which is simi-
but also distracts
from other
hold and share with other individuals
out-
side of the group that nurses, so that the nursing feature and concept of 'mother' I ask myself, though, how these provisional representations,
unities, these provisional
can avoid having the reiterative
function Butler, in her introduc-
tion to Gender Trouble, warns against: 'What relations of domination sion are inadvertently politics'?'
sustained
and therefore
when representation
advises:
'Perhaps,
feminist
becomes
paradoxically,
and exclu-
the sole focus of
"representation"
hecome the most dominant one. And it is this categorization t
im to being integrated
into a structured
that easily falls vic-
theory based on a coherent concept of
(m)others: the one way street of psychoanalysis
with its Oedipal complex and
castration anxiety that, as argued, leads into a dead end.
will
be shown to make sense for feminism only when the subject of "women" is no-
A theory describing
where presumed.'''
mother, and hence, desire as the desire of the (m)other, will always produce cas-
How then, though, can 'women's
issues' be represented?
Linda Alcoff argued: 'How can we demand legal abortions, or wages based on comparable
worth without invoking
As
adequate child care,
tration-anxiety
a constitutive
and the phallic woman
proved an adequate mechanism
a concept of "woman"?'
lack based on the loss of the union with the as fetish. Feminist
psychoanalysis
to show how existing gender structures
has
subject
children to a world in which they would reiterate the gender war. But this diviIf the power and success of patriarchy
is to accumulate
women under one gen-
sion cannot be dissolved but only reiterated by psychoanalytic
eral categorisation
- a process which Gilles Deleuze would describe as reactive,
creating a 'molar'
notion of women - would it not be more helpful to start right
of existing relations - has to give way to the creation of the new.
here, and to dilute this molar notion into the molecular, give up a the political identity Linda Alcoff envisages thousand
tiny sexes'? Molecular
genetic scientists
into n-I identities?
to be eternally
bound to the (m)other,
finds a positive evaluation,
do not speak of binary sexes
theory that takes woman,
(m)other, as a base? How can they be enunciated their 'enunciation'?
Within
woman seems
a molar construction
politics will always be, even or especially coff suggests, we are stuck for answers.
Judith Grant believes
that it is possible
child care, or wages based on comparable
And how
see Rieder, Katrin in Ariadne.
adequate
enunciated
as
if they do not feel addressed by of woman which an identity
the non-essentialist
positionality
Al-
aim of feminist politics is the end of gender and the creation of new human beings who are self-determining opment of their own constantly
and fully participate
evolving
viduals ... Our biological
in the devel-
subjectivity ... the end of gender
means that gender will no longer mediate the relationship sex will simply become
between indi-
one of the many facts
about us as people like our hair or eye color.")
affectivity, " Ibid, p. 6, my italics.
legal abortions,
invoking the concept of 'woman' . She believes that the
Although we will see Deleuzean
29
to demand
worth without, or, even better without
the base of desire. Even if this (m)other
are there women who are not the (m)other?
would they fit into a post-structuralist
which
or a psycho-analysis
To
in order to give birth to a
anymore, but critical theorists still do." And within this binarism,
- whether a genealogy
reasoning,
is the feminist dilemma. Description
which turns becoming
feminism shifting its focus from subjectivity
to
into a notion that reveals its force beyond 'the
subject',
the 'end of gender',
that is the motivating idealist trap Lacanian psychoanalysis; evolving
psychoanalysis
detected
worse, does it not re-install
just determine
to fully participate
'subjectivity'
non-gendered
or rather, gender binarism,
is the feminist
utopia
force of this thesis. But does not Grant fall into exactly the
- or, in Deleuzean
Can we
of our own constantly
terms, becoming?
Is her notion of a
world not naIve? Can there be subjec-
by engenderisation
into a binary system of femi-
11I,lIthButler uses Foucault's 1111 IIti-gendered I""grcssive.
gender (binarism)' discussed
is naIve. Within the language
of psychoanalysis,
act outside of our engenderisation find a new theoretical
language
the 'end of
of the psychoanalytic
in this thesis, there are no non-gendered
klliinism,
subjectivities,
that can articulate
difference
- be that physically, pre-Grecian
psychoanalysis
yond"
is a cultural
power
dream, one that postpones ing subversive power itself."
our inability to
but within his notion of resignification
tion: situated in alternative plemented
discourses,
with a Deleuzean
but by an enjoyment
of affirmation,
we can attain new identifications.
by a fixed lack,
the feminist
could be the way out which the description
through psychoanalytic
reasoning
does not seem to guarantee.
accused of ignoring female genealogies
and desire on male genealogies
stated that women's
to 'take control
demand
Agreeing with radical and psychoanalytic
utopia
of the status quo Foucault has been of the in-
only. He boldly
of their bodies'
seemed
ironic.
feminism that the liberal ideal of legal
equality for every citizen masks a certain history of sexualisation, that this is exactly why one cannot create resistance from one's sexualised
de-
the molar up
and of basing his theorisation
terplay of power, knowledge
that can be read
that argue women could be as facts':
within existing power relations, then
sexuality that is "before", "outside", or "beimpossibility
and a politically
the concrete and contemporary
possibilities
for sexuality
If the exchange
impractible
task of rethink-
and identity within the terms of
of women had been the sculpting power of a sexuality that cre-
ated a desire to give birth (by depending produce
such desires
in order
its emergence
into culture'?
'which require and
their reproductive
ends'),
on what
32
Butler fuses her deconstruction
that feminist theorists of identity's
allows for resignification
of the 'truth'
of
approach that seems to lift us beyond the psychoana-
lytic cul-de-sac
from Millet to Gallop lead us into. But-
dependence
on reiteration
and reiterative
through simple lack of repetition,
practices
and is influenced
by
her reading of Foucault. This reading presents him as able to account for change beyond psychic resistances.
If we complement
these findings through the work
of Gilles Deleuze, we have the tools with which we can embark on a programme of deterritorialisation
from the molar, and can describe
through enduring, will influence other becomings.
he concludes under-
to effect
ler's description
- as Linda Alcoff suggests _
position in this history. One has to genealogically
on social practices
grounds could Kristeva impute 'a maternal teleology to the female body prior to woman with a Focaultian
Any molar notion of woman will repeat the gender war. Breaking into the molecular
Com-
we can describe an ethics of continuous
territorialisation from the molar that can direct us towards Grant envisages.
functions
within
and reitera-
our engenderisa-
notion of desire as not constituted
tendencies
or similar 'historical
constructed
of a normative
draws, in order to account for social change. In chapter two, I will turn towards act outside of subjectivation,
accounts
matriarchy,
the postulation
Michel Foucault,
tive practices, there is no tyranny of the past that predetermines
which makes her work seem
or socially, or both - as men, claiming an Amazo-
If sexuality is culturally
beyond the genus
who can account for change without denying
or in historical
of a
feminists
and we cannot
chain their Lacanian
psychoanalysis,
either in the focus on their reproductive
Ili"n pre-history,
into male or female. That is why we need to
of gendered identity, beyond the signifying
identi-
the Oedipal dogma inherent in Freu-
Like Gallop, Butler warns against the biologistic
IlIlll ecriture feminine
within the language
'desexualising'
History of Sexuality to describe the possibility
world and to deconstruct
d,,," (and, to an extent) Lacanian
'strong' As I said in the beginning:
through
is a practice that can be seen to be political.
and object-relation
a liberal feminist ideology?
in the development
(or rather, multi-gendered)
tivities that are not determined ninity and masculinity?
in Freudian
I.llId this position in order to create resistance II<' 'lksexualisation'
31
Ibid, p. 30, my italics.
32 Ibid, p. gO.
how our own practice,
But by criticising
Foucault for not being able to account for the process
jection without resorting
to an essentialist
fies her own return to psychoanalysis: jection and its resistances has to be redefined
conception
only psychoanalysis
without resorting
tances could define subjectivity analytic notion of foreclosure. identities
we are subjectified assumed
thologising
essential
Foucaultian
A distancing, to could give
poststructuralist
his lack of the lack sug-
11<'1
defence
with the (m)other.
and unconscious
essence. With this notion
reiteration
with the psycho-
parodic performance liS
resis-
of the gender
the space to mourn the inhibiting
remains
identities
a 'masquerade'.
by presenting
Further,
psychoanalysis,
I kleuze) tll
I!le
it
could be shown that any gender could take on any other gender identity.
as well as to the Freudian
as a base for her prescription
of parody as
a static real and hence, also the binary dogma that
work in Gender Trouble had enabled us to escape. I criticise
of Hegelian
dialectics
as masked Hegelians,
hold on to Lacanian
as well as her portrayal
of Foucault
(and
as it is her Hegelian reasoning that allows Butler
psychoanalysis.
body and the construction
Hegelianism
defines the overcoming
of identity as the motivating
of
force of desire. La-
canianism deduces from this dialectic an essential lack at the base of the subject which it desires to fill. Not only does this lack of the Other follow a gendered structure that we can theorise to be determinist
by demy-
them as masquerade,
to Lacanian
1,"lilical strategy, re-installs 11<'1'
effect, show that no gender identity can ever
but always gender
foreclosure
without an underlying
identity and, through the distancing be perfectly
because
sub-
1!llller's later recourse
, \'nel'pt of mourning and melancholia
'real'33
from a symbiosis
But if we read the real as always deferred, of a new real, Butler aims to combine
could theorise
to a bodily essence. Lacan's
to be subject to change,
gested a w/hole that could not be detached
of sub-
of the body, Butler justi-
by defining the real as the union
with the (m)other. But also, this lack of the lack dictates a structure of tragedy, an ongoing failure of identification, sue. This mourning,
from which a mourning
process must pur-
this ongoing lack, is reactive:
it holds on to the tyranny of
the past. The real remains tied to an overpowering
and static moment, which is
our origin in the mother. I will argue, though, that Butler's foreclosed
negativity
internalisation, ler describes.
notion of a contingent
that would induce the tabooisation
which would lead to the melancholy If the real is always subject
loss, and no melancholy.
cised: the w/hole with its contingent,
predetermined
gendered
there is no unspeakable to parodic perform-
resistances
and sexual iden-
with. The carnivalesque,
of the crying drag queen reveals this failure. It is therefore
prising that gay drag culture and parodic philia and misogyny: dichotomy. Oedipal
cally performing,
performances
the parody linked to it intensifies, The binary
engenderisation, is conserved
structure
by the same practices
and Felix Guattari's
through Deleuze's
of duration
son's philosophy
ontology
pendant
that he appropriated
of time - to disprove the Lacanian
subject.
to 'the id', created from Henri Berg-
'tyranny of the past', mean-
that anchors the analysis of a subject in its childhood. and hence, on becoming,
not sur-
moment of production
by Butler psycho-
The war of the phallus remains
and the phallic woman remains a fetish.
The BwO is Gilles Deleuze
ing a rigid methodology
drag to be parodi-
of the self Butler's
concept of a Body without Organs is introduced
as a means to point beyond the coherent psychoanalytic
their focus on Bergson
rather than eradicates,
that is psychoanalysed
In chapter three, the Deleuzean and described
parodic
do not escape phallo-
and which she celebrates
analytic approach had theorised to be subversive. intact, women remain objectified,
But-
of a static real which she had formerly criti-
tities, which the drag queen fails to identify
through
of failed identification
to change,
a
of a love object and its
Hence, I believe that her reference
ances cannot negate the repression
presentation
real cannot constitute
production a
of one's very own BwO, as well as its moment of anti-
- its neurosis
desire as productive
and resistances.
Through
Nietzsche,
Deleuze
defines
- it engages in relations instead of thriving on filling a lack.
Deleuze does not emphasise between.
the reactive,
Glasses are not half-full,
but the active: becoming
but half filled in Deleuze;
and the in-
and with his con-
cept of the BwO, there is a real that can account for changing imaginaries: created in every moment of change the BwO experiences. chine that undergoes
constant
termined through foreclosure in the womb.
In
every moment of change is a
changes,
It is
The BwO is a ma-
and creates resistances
that are not de-
of an original real that is constituted
by our origin
I believe that a focus on these ongoing changes and in-betweens for articulating choanalysis
gender diversity,
as analytical
coming-woman, one's deviations ritorialisation,
tool. One becomes
by constantly
is more helpful
than to reiterate the Oedipal law by using psyBwO in describing
deterritorialising
one's own be-
from the molar and in affirming
from it. Perhaps, then, it is our task to describe woman's instead of her interpellation,
or celebrating
identification
as an open mourning
come-woman
instead, we are able to speak in the symbolic
her tragically
ritual. If we refuse to be woman
ticipate in its constant re-articulation.
To advocate
the reactive,
change of perspective
this thesis aims to promote; influence
believes
of signifying
enduring,
It is a through
and thus, other cultural
chains, but simultaneously,
he
does not believe in the identity of a subject but defines bodies as beina constib
tuted by forces
that relentlessly
interact:
the body is continually
Without believing
in action, he describes
careful interaction
and negation of boundaries
becoming.
an ethics of becoming-active.
notion of agency and the realm of becoming
of what resembles Deleuze
a
aims to install a language of affirmatIOn
,I!IVIly that can shed light on identities
,,1\:,
\ Ii
- or becomings
- that lie in the shad-
fascist structures.
II '"
Ihis Deleuzean
description
IIIIIIS 8xperimentation
It is a
a Foucaultian
describes.
He eases us
from a Foucaultian thinking of 'identity' and 'agency' into a world of affirmation and becoming through an ethics of revealing the latter.
of desire as 'life-affirming'
and engagement
(;IOS/, criticises
psychoanalysis
1',\'lld8r relations,
1':1istructures ·l(l8ntities'.
for not being able to transform feminism
ironies, and tensions associated She aims to concentrate
by concentrating
the structure of
does 'demonstrate
the
with the passages to mascu-
on 'lines of Hight' out of Oedl-
on what lies in the shadows of coherent
other Deleuzean
of dif-
body. Deleuzean feminist Elizabeth
even though psychoanalytic
Similarly,
in a sense that af-
that is useful for the theorisation
Ii-II'nC8 and the rewriting of the Oedipalised
'1Ilil8rent paradoxes,
in the breaking
in
as a failure:
,",[ IIIvil8S us to copy it, to employ it in our own work, in order to advocate a
linity and femininity'''. Deleuze
frameworks
I'"
a tradi-
the half-full.
through
other theorists,
whereas Deleuze
beyond
failed
instead of being or
tion of cultural
being read, it will hopefully commentators.
111"111 IIIIlg process',
this seeping
order, and can par-
becoming
It is a change of tradition,
that emphasises
can only describe
""1",,,1
deterbut be-
mourning is an ethics that has to be promoted. commentary
,,"11111Ilwlll, to seep beyond the domains of control that Deleuze has the potenII d I" ll\l'orise by looking what a body can do, not, what it is. Psychoanalysis,
sexual
feminist work such as that of ROSI Bral-
dotti or Miriam Fraser aims to look at that which is beyond the Oedipal in order !o find new explanations Oedipal framework, inG thinas do things' b
for cultural
texts that cannot be remapped
and hence, enables the conception
shows that we can invoke an 'ethics'
b
lecular underneath or a practice
onto an
of alterity.37 Their 'makof revealing the moI . YSIS
the molar just as we can promote a practice of psychoana
of genealogy,
and hence contest suspicions
that schizo analysis is
idealistic. The 'truth' of gender and sex can be questioned through the phenomenological body images are arbitrary.
in a Foucaultian/Butlerian
study of the way we map sensations Even Freud"
sense
in our body:
already argued that every part of the
Deleuzean
theorists
who critically
Dorothea
transcend
Olkowski,
Butler's
Rosi Braidotti
Lacanian-Foucaultian
body could take on the meaning of any other zone, but only in the cases of psy-
carry it further away from her Hegelian-Lacanian
chosis and neurosis.
define a feminist agenda. Feminism,
In order to alter body images in patriarchy
portant to attain a 'very different body than the dichotomous
self-conception
division
and a very different
of sexed bodies into two types'''.
actly the ability of bodies to always extend the frameworks 34
Grosz,
University
Elizabeth
today, it is im-
work on hysteria,
word from the past, even if a fixed female identity definitely
It is ex-
used to deconstruct
which attempt to
gions of the body image may take on the meaning " Ibid, p. 82.
and uses his theory
of other repressed
background,
to these poststructuralist
organic
(1994): Volatile Bodies. Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington:
Press, p. 78. Grosz cites Freud's
and Elizabeth feminism
nevertheless theonsts,
stIll
IS not a
is and Deleuze IS
it. Each suggest a fusion with Irigaray, arguing for an antl-
humanist feminisation
of culture. This is where my turn towards Deleuze differs
Indiana
that par1icular
sexual zones of the body.'
Grosz,
and aim to
're-
36 37
Ibid, p. 203. It has to be mentioned
talking about morphologles .
that Grosz,
though,
belongs
".', of seX rat h cr t h·dn clasmg
tari are aiming at with their concept
of the BwO.
to those theorists
. .. '. that Hlrd would cntlClse
th e b'l11L' 'try altogether , which Deleuze
f . or
and Guat-
from their work: I will show that I perceive tential his philosophy
of difference
an incompatibility
provides
in using the po-
to account for change on the one
hand, and in an attempt to define a female experience
the trunk, but put them to strange new uses
and unstructured
and hence is the foundation
for Deleuze's
potential to write a new feminism that is not based on a common experience, on individual
experience
how feminist
issues in a poststructuralist
Deleuzean
beyond
Oedipalisation.
landscape
of binary oppositions
world positions
feminists.
Having
and Guattari use the rhizomatic structures
declared
something
multiplicity
by constructing
It is not enough to cry 'Long live the multiple!',
one has to construct
cannot
increase
in number
without
Deleuze
and Guattari
the multiplicity
reject 'any idea of pretraced
tagmatic'39, and biologistic ductive
economic,
changing destiny,
hereditary,
could be added. To subjugate
model is the sort of a pretraced
destiny
psychoanaly-
formations
that one could even enter them through
assuming
the necessary
are taken
powers
and subjective
affections,
to find a foothold
in
that are Oedipal or paranoid or even worse, rigidified territori-
alities that open the way for other transformational possible
precautions
for psychoanalysis
self ... Accounting
to serve
and bureaucracy
operations.
as a foothold,
It is even
in spite
of it-
proceed by tracings: they can begin to
throwing out rhizome stems, as in a Kafka novel.41
it with 'the
- always n-l. .. '. Dimensions in nature,
increase in number as the multiplicity
given to it - divine, anagogic, historical,
and deconstructed
one will often be forced to take dead ends, to work
burgeon nonetheless,
one already has available
hence, 'the laws of combination
with signifying
n-l
the unique from the multiplicity
then it is plausible
or the root-tree,
[... ]. For example,
his-
dimensions: a rhizome is created by subtracting to be constituted.
number of dimensions
tracings
that could lead away from this structure
new. The aim is to 'make'
the heavily criticised
If it is true that it is of the essence of a map or rhizome to have multiple entryways,
Deleuze
their genealogical
in a non-sexed,
re-map their own tracings rhizomati-
sis:
closed systems: by first
then tracing
it is a becoming-woman
and Guattari
the
to the constant
war on binary structures,
feminism:
way. Deleuze
cally and even reintegrate
in which the fight against a male
method to deconstruct
into their components,
tory, and then looking for lines offlight towards
could be articulated,
that offers a solution
battle, the anger and the feeling of vulnerability
breaking
but
Going back to the question
Ilon-gendered
answer would be: take out the binary, and you erase the enemy. It is
this deconstruction
.
on the other. This mapping is Deleuzean
A BwO is rhizomatic
'40
whatever
that the rhizome
against, aiming to liberate sexuality not only from reproduction
name is
structural
sexuality
and
grows'''. or syn-
to the reprois working
but from genital-
ity as such. Deleuze and Guattari pose the idea of mapping against that of trac-
Whereas it is true that a BwO cannot be an identity, but that constant deterritorialisation is the motor of becoming-woman, responsibly
chosen construction.
follower of his predestined
path, struggling
a slave to his own psychology. affirmative
'gendernaut'4"
this becoming-woman
The constructor
is an ongoing,
is his own master, whereas the
to fill what he lacks, is described
The crying drag queen is very different
who exists, but who cannot be accounted
as
to the
for or be
ing, but even a rhizome can develop roots and radicles and can turn itself into a fixed image. Constant
1X
Thousand Plateaus,
39
Ibid, p. 13.
p. 6.
re-mapping
is called for. To be rhizomorphous
is 'to pro411
Ibid, p. 15.
41
Ibid, pp. 14-15.
42
Ibid, p. 19.
43
Monika Treut portrays alternative gender identities
nauts' (l998).
Her characters
as Texas Tomboy,
in San Francisco's
are less gender impersonations
whose clitoris is presented
bay area in her film 'Gender-
than non-distinct
on a huge pornographic
gender identities,
poster in her girlfriends
such house.
represented in psychoanalytic sent those identities.
and we have to create n-I ways to pre-
language:
III<' :I~sthetic listener skims the molecular H!<'lllities, by articulating III
Alternative
desiring production,
for Deleuze/Guattari,
ing texts such as their Thousand native identities
gendered
or cultural texts who tell of n-l alter-
and desires. Psychoanalytic
map deterritorialised production
Plateaus,
cultural
nism can achieve,
criticism,
though, can re-
meanings onto a structure that affirms one specific desiring
only: one created in an Oedipalised identities.
can evolve through read-
society that creates intelligible,
This will be shown, in a section on what Deleuzean in two different
readings
of Alien: a psychoanalytic
Femireading
:I
psychoanalytic
teleology,
p:lr~d to Hegelian
describing
logic that will always emphasise
111l"1:lncholy.I argue that Deleuze ',I'II-realising
from the molar by actively creating
them instead of reactively
them according
their failure, their intrinsic
and Guattari do not describe rhizomatics
but a political program,
and can therefore
as a
not be com-
dialectics that dictates a lacking subject, and what it lacks, if
I;lk~n through Lacan, is the union with the (m)other. Again: it is not enough to "bout 'Long live the multiple'. 'procedures
for rewriting
:Ind activities"",
As Grosz shows us, we have to actively develop
of the kind involved
in transforming
and this thesis aims to highlight
one's practices
some of the n-l alternatives
of
reading texts that lie in psychoanalysis'
shadow. The focus, then, is on becom-
seeped beyond it had Barbara Creed not sprayed weed killer. In chapter four, I
ing-active: on describing
the process of becoming-woman,
will attempt my own schizoanalytic
()ther to a tyranny of the past.
reframes
the narrative
to fit into Oedipal interpretations,
the molar, I read Sarah Kane's indecision
between
this becoming
becoming
practice:
whereas it could have
trying to skim the molecular
texts as presenting
hermaphrodite
and being, between
I aim to reveal and to present.
from
the in-between,
selves and an
active and reactive,
and it is
Sadly, her work infuses people
The problem to be solved, then, is thus summarised: basis for the Lacanian theorisation
in the intelligible,
psychoanalytic
A focus on the in-between,
ing, could present very different identities ing subject: subjects in construction, affects their becomings,
to the gendered,
psychoanalytic,
in constant change, represented
or the description
of their becomings,
focus on the in-between that can account for difference describes where they should arrive at.
on becomlack-
through the
create. It is this
beyond a teleology
that
consequences
theorisations
(namely the exclusion
be refuted unless we deconstruct well
as
its
of lack, is a concept from which sophisticated
can be elaborated.
desiring-production,
Deleuze/Guattari's
to approach
would call the
cault's theorisation to a different
both
of
scientifically
notion of consciousness
which
can
be
done
as
through
concept of the Body without Organs with its own definition does not eliminate psychoanalysis, deterritorialise.
of the interplay of power, knowledge
perspective
on resistance,
can construe
into a feminist future, which will be a feminism Thus the aesthetic listener is also reborn with the rebirth of tragedy. In his
and their
of that which lies in their shadows) cannot
of bodies and forces. This deconstruction
what Nietzsche
These theorisations
the psychoanalytic
uses it as a root from which to continuously I attempt, in my Deleuzean readings, rebirth of the aesthetic listener:
the Hegelian consciousness
that desires to overcome the body and make its identity, the idea of which is the
with the need to stage her on an Oedipal plane in order to keep her territorialised the non-transcendent.
on an
Additionally,
but Fou-
and desire which leads a different
starting point
without the attachment
to one
defined sex.
place in the theater, a curious "quid pro quo" used to sit with half moral and half scholarly pretensions
- the 'critic'.
Everything
has been artificial and merely white-washed
in his sphere so far
with an appearance
of life.
44
Returning
to Alcoffs
be theorised,
question of how women's
I do believe that a feminist
and attached to the ongoing identity-construction woman in a Deleuzean
issues in patriarchal of a non-gendered
spective. 44
suddenly
has another
dimension,
the focus on the 'small penis' suddenly
There does not seem to be any melancholy
Kaufmann,
Walter,
ed. (2000):
The Basic
Writings
changes
our per-
in Monika Treut's characters. ot"Nietzsche.
London:
Random
House, p. 133
from sex becoming-
sense. Only then can we escape the Oedipal dogma and
solve the feminist dilemma caused by the employment The phallus
society can
identity should be removed
of psychoanalytic
critical
theory, as, by taking out the binary, we rob the enemy of its power. My cultural criticism,
then, is a political
detect and show '[BwOs] development
project: I want to make texts do things, I want to
who are self-determining
of their own constantly
between the molar, binary description
evolving
and fully participate
[becoming]'
of gendered
identities
underneath
in the and in-
that psychoanalysis
suggests.
"sychoanalytic
feminist theory is 'stuck'. It is locked by its own methodology
;\ vicious circle that reiterates rather than eradicates .I~('ndered identities: 'linguistic
revolution',
I said I advised theorists
to take two steps forward
and one
of human subjectivation,
By adding the mirror stage to Freud's
hie identity: nobody could own it. Within contemporary
Thousand
Plateaus
supremacy,
Foucault,
Deleuze,
one (forward):
Lacan; Foucault,
Foucault,
Deleuze,
Step two (forward):
Lacan, but most importantly,
the phallus signified patriarchal
Lacan; the dance goes thus: Step
was not universal,
Deleuze,
(hat the unconscious
Step three (backward):
the dance will not end on a final note or position. It
is the open sea, where we stop walking and start swimming,
of on
description
Lacan described the phallus as the signifier of impossi-
back. This walk is composed like music, as Deleuze and GuaUari had intended A to be read, or a dance. The rhythm would sound like this:
perceptions
Through Lacan's
the Oedipal complex came to be defined as contingent
social and cultural conditions. In the beginning
stereotypical
it cannot solve the problem it articulates.
in
society, shaped by male
power. But, if the Oedipal complex
we should be able to generate was no longer structured
social and cultural change so
by the Name-of-the-Father,
and
the phallus ceased to be associated with male power. But how?
yet still move for-
ward with our own legs, that will halt the dance and bring different theorisations
My assumption
altogether that we cannot nor should predict.
leads to further qucstions. universality,
that psychoanalytic
feminism
Does Lacanian
or rather, non-necessity
why are feminists pal complex,
of the Oedipus
attracted to Lacanian
low for another conception
is unable to solve this problem
psychoanalysis
theory? If Lacanian
of woman,
feminism inherited
which is conveniently
Resisting
and yet having been influenced
feminism
employing
Lacanian
theory affirms woman's complements
radical
theory does not al-
employ a theory that defines the 'truth'
woman, where their official aim is to deconstruct
concept
If it does not,
of woman apart from one defined through the Oedi-
what makes feminists
I argue that psychoanalytic
really prove the non-
complex?
'experience',
it? radical feminism's
affirmed
fundamental
by psychoanalytic
theory.
by the tradition of radical feminism,
theory constructs
feminism's
a 'truth'
her role as victim in patriarchal
notion
of woman
rior, and preferable
Paradoxically,
woman's
to man's standards.
sion and is the standard for feminism
society. It
as being universally
her self-definition
'way of being' is theorised
This 'woman',
a
of woman. Lacanian
pressed, and implies the same problem: that woman cannot be theoriscd of this oppression.
of
op-
outside as supe-
who evolved in oppres-
or a feminist revolution,
is dependent
for
on her binary other, the dominant male. Without the defining
binary other, feminism
has no basis to fight from, as it cannot define woman
without a common experience.
This basis, described by a psychoanalytic
theory
that easily collapses
into biological
determinism,
can only reiterate
the warring
relation of this binary set. Psychoanalytic ralness'
theory, as often as it is rewritten,
continues
to support the 'natu-
man and woman, who have a prede-
way of desiring each other: man will always fear woman and will aim
to control her, woman will always want to have the phallus that she is said to be lacking. Oedipus and Electra are just two of a multitude be able to account for, because the binary definition restrictive.
As an epistemological
gender is counter-productive but by defining
their husbands,
of identities
of gender is hierarchical
basis for feminism,
the definition
by not only being ethnocentric
a fixed interaction
we want to and
of distinct
and discriminating,
between the binaries from which there is no
to be that strong. And, the more furious
I'ltl' psychoanalytic IIIl'
feminists
discussed
in this thesis will continue
familiar triangle of daddy-mommy-me
III)',a 'tyranny of the past', as it determines ,hange,
a world-view
that cannot
feminism
this fixed interaction, firms it. Officially, their interaction has provoked
is a sophisticated
theory with which we can describe
but which, as this chapter
will show, simultaneously
though, this is not its aim. The fixed definition
has been criticised an ongoing
critique
order to avoid essentialist
by psychoanalytic and rewriting
presentations
choanalytic
feminism
masquerade
as fixed gendered
identities.
and woman's
in binary opposition
gue, though, that the description
of the evolution
scribes a psychological
that can be equalled
necessity
ism, a one-way-street
of subjectivation.
istence of alternative
routes, ignores the mapping
themselves,
of each other's
of gendered
has been to reveal man's identities
feminists
The analytical
and
approaches
in
The aim of psyneurotic
of these neurotic
psychic structures
acknowledge
determin-
And this concrete tracing refutes the exof alternative
subjectivations
method that describes
within the lanthe neurotic con-
construction,
as this
chapter aims to show. Psychoanalytic main daughters,
feminists
might bc rcbcllious,
them a certain place within a family structure. rcbel against this structure own mcthodology,
but in all rebellion,
faithful to a theoretical
methodology
The more vehemently
they will rethat assigns they aim to
from within the place they were assigned
the stronger
the structure
becomes.
that are unable to - or alternatlVely
)',l'ndered _ identities apart from those that remain within this Oedipal triangle. My argument, that the feminist application
of Lacanian psychoanalysis
the gender war rather than dissolves it, is demonstrated
reiterates
by discussing
who aim to find ways to define a possible to Lacanian
poststruc-
change in gender
feminists Jane Gallop
and her reading of Luce lrigaray, I aim to prove the counter-productivity choanalytic inherited
feminism: I will show how Lacan's _ or, were conveniently
how the use of psychoanalysis 'man' and 'woman'
adopted
inherent ambiguities
- by psychoanalytic
plays in to the mythological
that reiterates the fundamental
rather than eradicating
of psyhave been
feminism, construction
and of
concepts of radical feminism
them.
Jane Gallop aims to provoke psychoanalysis lyse feminists
psychoanalytically.
the symbolic
order, she suggcsts
therapeutic questioning
Their rebellion
by their against
through feminist theory, and to ana-
Instead of a radical, rebellious interruptions
overthrow
and interrogations,
of
a gradual
process, as a means to change the fixed relations. But by basing the of either 'party'
on radical feminist concepts
on the one hand, and
the Oedipal dogma on the other, this strategy is just as ineffective.
I will here
extend and reverse her project: on the one hand, it is shown how radical feminism is affirmed by psychoanalysis,
by remaining
alternative
need to
drives de-
to a biological
struction of a fixed identity does not allow for an alternative
in
to each other. I ar-
and gender identities that do exist, but are rendered unintelligible guage of psychoanalysis.
af-
of gender and
existing
that Deleuze criticises for construct-
relations through Lacanian theory. Referring Psychoanalytic
a position of
\VlIlllan is, the stronger man needs to control her. How then, can feminism win?
luralist feminists
escape.
defines and reiterates
"1'1" )sition. The greater the anger, the mightier the phallus and vice versa: the ,dl;dlus has to be huge for resistance
of a world that is divided between
termined
1II<"Irrathers, their brothers,
psychoanalysis
on the other, I argue that feminism
to reiterate the 'truth'
we will see, inhibits the generation are two points to be considered, as an analogy _ the 'encoding' not aiming at a detailed
uses
of woman. And holding on to this truth,
and articulation
of social change, Here, there
namely - to use traditional and the 'decoding'
analysis of Lacanian
cultural studies terms
of psychonalytic
psychoanalysis
theory. I am
- or, to put it an-
other way: I will not attempt to understand whether Lacan's
work is prescriptive
come of this discussion
what was encoded. The discussion
or descriptive
of
is well known and the out-
has been as diverse as interpretations
and perceptions
texts can be, and it is doubtful that this debate could be accomodated
of
in one the-
Perhaps The Daughter's
Seduction,
and feminism, by dephallicizing thinking
the encounter between psychoanalysis
the father, can avoid the pitfall of familial
in order to have greater
effect upon the much more complex
power relations that structure our world.'
sis alone'. Instead, I am arguing that the distinct way it is used in selected episodes of Anglophone
feminist discourse
can be termed determinist propagation
and cultural theory poses 'realities'
and are as such, in my opinion,
of change. Further, the continued
into this determinist avoids orthodox
detrimental
use of psychoanalysis
trap and I therefore support a poststructuralist
psychoanalytic
write reality, and therefore,
language
altogether
open up possibilities
that to the
risks falling discourse that
in order to be able to re-
for change.
I Jilrortunately,
questioning
woman in patriarchal ily gynocentric. tablished
Patriarchy
through
imaginary
to Jane Gallop, Lacanian
psychoanalysis
that Lacan
highly ambiguous.
questions that can lead to social awareness, identities
have to be methodologically
enables the articulation
and hence, change. She believes that
described,
as only by having a methodol-
ogy with which to describe them can we call them into question. choanalysis contingent criticises
is a methodology
that describes
on social and cultural conditions, Lacanian
psychoanalysis
the development
for presupposing
their own theory
in patriarchal, questioning,
Gallop it de-
to hide their weakness
in patriarchy,
was shaped
by their
we could only question
the perspective
Oedipalised the Oedipal
in
behind
the psychoana-
need to dominate he is a subject
society and culture. But, as there could be no 'outside'
feminist perspective:
as
from a feminist perspective
women. Lacan values male over female sexual organs because our genderisation
of identities
the phallocentrism
misogyny, perfectly described by the Oedipal complex, concerns
within phallocentric
psy-
own need to have his penis veiled as phallus. Basically,
then, Gallop aims to show that the male necessity lysts themselves:
Lacanian
and thus, as transformable.
scribes, and suggests it should be psychoanalysed order to reveal Lacan's
of
from a
a woman would have who was constituted
society. By creating awareness, structure
from within,
to
that formed
transparency,
our psyches
argues
, see Fuss, Diana
(1990):
Essentially
Speaking.
Feminism,
Nature & Difference.
Grosz (1990): Jacques Lacan: A feminist
introduction,
London: Routledge,
is socially
contingent.
of Oedipal subjectivation
Law' to man and 'lack' to woman, establishes and the inability
tuted through Oedipal subjectification scribes a femininity
querades
to describe
questioning
society simultaneously psychoanalysis
from the same grounds
effected
is interwoven
be imagined? of feminism
without posing their mas-
How can a psychic development
This logical quandary through
psychoanalysis.
against Lacan was really a resistance
locks the discussion deconstruct
to man, de-
its binary other. The subjectivation
man. Lacanian
as cultural and social necessity?
ray's resistance
woman other than consti-
through the Oedipus complex. How, then, can Gal-
fixed identities
side of this necessity Gallop's
that cannot be broken
from which to criticise phallo-
to such an extent that it cannot describe gendered identities
other than those constituted lop criticise
it can be ar-
and thus, in stark opposition
that can only reproduce
with phallocentrism
This, as we will see, is
of essentialism
a circularity
process that made her into woman in patriarchal of misogynist
as being es-
is based on an
in itself, the allocation of 'the
out of. The need to focus on a female perspective centric psychoanalysis,
psychoanalysis
and this symbolic
But even beyond the question
the development
- of
similarly
Arguing that Iriga-
against the father, again
within the Oedipal circle: the fixed identities
are reaffirmed
by using psychoanalysis
out-
concerns
she wants to
as critical theory.
through
could be revealed,
and change could be generated.
Kegan & Paul or Elizabeth
- or, rather, the experience
is defined by Lacanian
the Name-of-the-Father,
gued that the description According
from the position
society leads Gallop to define a femininity that is necessar-
Routledge London.
Gallop, though, argues that Lacanian
psychoanalysis,
choanalysis,
of social change. His important
can be used to conceive
structural linguistics
emphasised
and hence,
the biologism
, Gallop,
evaded
Jane (1982):
The Daughter's
Press, Ithaca and New York, p. xv.
the installation
contrary to Freudian psy-
of gender in patriarchal
that can be found in Freud.
Seduction:
Feminism
and Psychoanalysis,
focus on culture
Arguing
Cornell
that
University
women who had been raised within patriarchy genderisation
neutrally,
she concludes
step outside it and overthrow feminist Juliet Mitchell's
the patriarchal
in the unconscious".
Gallop counters
Mitchell has advocated
of patriarchy.
sharply:
[...] to be represented
'The goal of a feminism
who use psychoanalysis
induced to take on the role of mothering psychoanalysing phallocentric
to explain
in patriarchal
oppression
intact and unexplained.
and Juliet Mitchell'
perceived
necessity
social
'castration',
and
because
trism, the functioning
of discursive
and signifying
its universality.
111111',:; has~d on a Lacanianism 111111 llie feminist
foundations.
Ilid lIot determined
Lacan's and femi-
that flirts with biologic determinism,
and is used
',IIIIi by Gallop. Her questioning
has to reiterate his ambiguity in order to af-
This clashes
Id,.t1lm:entrism is conditional
In discussing
of psychoanalysis
with her conviction
on contemporary
by biological
that Lacan's
social and familial arrangements
'facts'.
and
feminists
like
Castration
in deconstructing
the
prehension
and
this implies a symbolisation
of the Oedipus
they did not question
can only reiterate
1I111'"'lIilics we can see how the tight interaction
on
of patriarchal
Hence, Freudian
could not succeed
universality
Her critique is
,I" (11'dipal complex,
why women are
society: by focusing
the status quo, they risked leaving structures
Nancy Chodorow
infused
can no longer be the overthrowing
One cannot kill the Father who is already dead".
at those theorists
women's
not be able to
order - which, in psychoanalytic
view, would lead 'new structures
with the Freudianism directed
could not look upon their own
that they would therefore
complex
may derive support from privation,
of the object, since the Real is full and 'lacks'
nothing. In so far as one finds castration
the domain of phallocen-
systems. This is what Gallop
that is to say, from the ap-
in the Real of the absence of the penis in women - but even in the genesis of the neuroses, it
is never Real but symbolic and aimed at an imaginary object.'
believes Irigaray is better at, and aims to extend into her own work. The real, argues Grosz, has to be displaced and recoded if women's bodies are to Through
a reading of Irigaray,
'outside'
to identities
questioning
Gallop argues that there cannot be a complete
formed within the patriarchal
of these formations.
se, as it would lead to 'another form of paralysis ferentiation',
Gallop advocates
immediately the patriarchal choanalytic
that identity
called into question'''.
'must be continually
The problem,
- woman is oppressed
from identity per
- the oceanic passivity of undifassumed
formed
in patriarchal
within it, fuses the
society - with the psy-
dogma: woman is woman because she is subjectivated
society that defines the Oedipal through awareness
predicament.
and
I argue, is that arguing from
order as base, and from identities
feminist foundation
order, but only a constant
Not looking for a liberation
The argument,
in patriarchal
of course, is that
the Oedipal set-up will change. But woman, defined through
he categorised women's
as necessarily
incomplete,
genitals have the same ontological
cording to Lacan, this recoding
mediates between the real and the symbolic, lack men have disavowed".
as socio-linguistic ' ... although Lacan's
Juliet (1990): Psychoanalysis and Feminism, London:
Mitchell,
4
The Daughter's Seduction, p, 4.
, Mitchell
aims to highlight
focusing
enough
feminist
theory that provides
and the regularities
on Lacan's
how a Lacanian rewriting
Penguin
Freud can help us analyse
of Freudian
theory,
a mere sociological
of social life [see Chodorow,
explanation
choanalysis and the Sociology ()j'Gender. Berkeley:
ideological
By not
and can hence become an ele-
culture which renders the lack of
to the boy, and whether the choice of the phallus
signifier does not naturalise
male dominance.
Grosz argues:
account is directed to the phallus as a signifier, not to the
if not impossible,
to an a priori privilege of the masculine that is
to dislodge",
and his focus on the symbolic versus
the biological
becomes unclear when reading:
'Lacan
March-April
relations
The Reproduction oj'Mothering. Psy-
The University
of California
Pressl. although he is not
(Seminar
'Jaques Lacan, p. 117. , Ibid, p. 123.
that
blurring of self and other renders
object-relations
of infant social and parenting
The Daughter's Seduction, p. xii. One is tempted to call this attitude Foucaultian mentioned in her work. 6
structures.
her work seems to resemble
Nancy (1978):
difficult,
Books Ltd" p, 415,
utility. Ac-
imaginary
What remains unclear is whether it is
lack of power in contemporary
her actual penis so horrifying
and
'where women represent for men a
detachable
ment in the symbolic circuit of exchange. only women's
in the narcissistic
The identificatory
the penis, with all other extremeties,
in the real, men's
status and functional
is undertaken
penis as an organ, it is committed 3
because
1957, pp. 851-2) quoted by Grosz in Jaques Lacan, p. 116.
the fact that the penis is dominant in the shaping of the body-image dence of [an autonomous,
non-biological
this may shock the champions
imaginary
of the autonomy
dominance is a fact and one moreover tural influences alone. 10
anatomy].
is eviThough
of female sexuality, such
which cannot be put down to cul-
Illat men have power and women do not'I'. Gallop quotes Lacan describing
the
phallus as 'the signifier intended to designate as a whole the effects of signified, III
that the signifier
conditions
them by its presence
adds: 'It is glaringly disproportionate
as signifier'13 and Gallop
for one particular
Ihe whole of the effects of signification.
signifier to "designate"
By what right does this part, this portion
.';ignify, represent the whole?'" The primacy of the cultural over the biological
is blurred in Lacan: is it the gap-
ing hole, the lack that has to be filled, that causes the fear of castration, the mother's
or is it
lack of power, that makes her lack of a penis so terrifying?
But what would happen if we left it there? If Gallop decided that man had no rinht to define himself as powerful and to construe a theory in which his genitals w:re favoured - what would become of woman, of her experience?
Gallop poses a similar criticism entitled
in chapter seven of The Daughter's
'Writing Erratic Desire'.
Lacanian
psychoanalysis,
With the 'phallus'
the question
Seduction,
being the prime signifier in
arises of to whom does the phallus be-
would be :ubjected
to the Father's
Law, if she would not learn to speak man's
language, which makes Lacan define her as, really, non existent?
long. Lacan adapted the term from Freud, where it was equated with 'penis', and
woman be if she could speak, if she was not suppressed,
placed it in a different definition thus:
to man - how would we define woman as group?
context.
Gallop accurately
characterises
his individual
If Gallop fears exactly this 'oceanic The phallus,
unlike the penis, is lacking
The phallus symbolizing
unmediated,
to any subject,
fulljouissance
male or female.
must be lacking for
her female positionality, phallocentrism
passivity
intersubjectivity.
is always
criticises Ernest Jones for having tried to introduce
That is our human lot of castration."
of Freud's
'castration',
In 'Of Phallic
of who possesses
swered by Lacanians coincidence
the phallus
as belonging
to nobody.
before,
thus an-
But Gallop objects that it is 'no
that the phallus is linked to power, by way of the notion of potency.
The phallus is the attribute (always necessarily sumedly
is, as mentioned
omnipotent
King, the Other).'
and omniscient
Although
phallic
the Lacanians
veiled) of the powerful mother,
the symbolic
(the prefather, the
claim that neither sex can be or have
the phallus, and thus, women had no reason to rail against the phallus,
(1953):
'Some
Reflections
on the Ego'.
International
II
The Daughter's
Seduction,
Journal
for his discovery
that his mentor Freud,
by installing this gender-neutral there were 'disporportionally'
more male sexual symbols than female, and, as he perceived 'fear of aphanisis'. in castration-anxiety,
"Ibid,
Freud's
notion of
as sexist, he wanted to substitute it with a gender-neutral
Aphanisis,
the Greek word for 'disappearance',
as a grave loss, and in Jones's
p. 97, my italics. Here, Gallop's
opposition Jaques
Freud's
term. The male sexual organ was overweighted,
essentialise Lacan,
instead
Lacan for having supported
as well as society in general, were phallocentric
the castration-complex
Concelt , Gallop
and Freud's
was u~ed, as case, thIS was
[...]
will support a structure in which it seems reasonable
no.34, p. 13, emphasis added by Grosz in Jaques Lacan, p. 123.
Lacaman
the term 'aphanisis'
'as long
as the attribute of power is a phallus which refers to and can be confused with a penis, this confusion
Proportions:
and congratulates
original term. Jones tried to compensate The question
the loss of
support o.f Lacan's,
does not come as a surprise: she reverts back to Lacan I~stead ot
taking a step forward.
mediated signification.
III
of undifferentiation',
effective
to Lacanian doctrine,
What would
if she was not the Other
then her criticism but simultaneous
any subject to enter the symbolic order, that is to enter language, Human desire, according
What would
woman be if she was not destined to undergo the Oedipal complex in which she
of Psychoanalysis,
echoes Diana Fuss' critique of Lacan'seffort
to the all _ the phallus. And if that was her binary opposition,
tially Speaking, 13
Ecrits, p.285.
14
The Daughter's
p. 96.
objection
woman: By claiming that woman did not exist, she had no essence, but essentlally
p. 1L) Seduction. p. 20.
to destood
10
was it not male? (see Essen-
the loss of libido. For Jones this termin I ' for change in gender relatio~s. a ogy provIded greater scope to account
" , "llIllHlllated by the feminism radical feminism defines. In order to define eiii"
I
I,acanian
psychoanalysis
or feminism
""I'I!'lIily, that borders on biological Gallop accuses Jones of havin t' d' " introducing a gender-neutral t:r:~ T~: :~:~:;~J~a~h:~neqU~lity of th~ sexe~ by because men were the st . muc weIght III socIety ronger, more domIllant sex L 'flaunts' the phallus the 'ph II' d' , . acan, on the other hand, , a IC IsproportIon'l5 L ' " Iocent ' , " ' ' acan IS a pnck' in his phalnsm - centnc denved from the G k· ' _ and is therefore more 'honest' ree WOld kentrem, meaning 'to prick' - more representatlve of wh t . society _ than Jones HI'S aI'm t' " . a men are III our . a correct thl' ' r ' 'The liberal, humanist tradition which alw S IllJUSlce lS psychoanalysed by her: ies of obscene truths mak th ' ,ays threatens to re-cover our discoveres e recoCTllltlOn of " t r " ' distribution between me db, cas ra lOn , of a certaIll unfair complementarit and, n an women" subject to revision in the direction of ternal to us bU;is ou:~:my etry. TThllshberal, humanist ideology is not just ex, " reVlSlon, in the psychoanal
ego. le ego lS the psych' .' r '16 "" IC agency Iesponslble for y Ie sense. The IllJustlce' h 'G " exists as the truth which the e ad' "ere, m allop s VIew, manist tradition. g nee s to hIde, havIllg been formed by the hu-
I ,.dl<>p's subtle questioning 100,:,:,\()(l
and male dominance
15
Ibid, p, 18, Ibid, p, 21.
" Jaqaes Lacan, pp, 122-t25,
- but the weaknesses
Idv he ignored by renaming
- female op-
that are its origin: the male
does exist and should not sim-
Lacan' s core concepts
leads Gallop to support
a
1IIt'Ihodoiogy that cannot be detached
from an ambiguity
that borders
on bio-
\<>)',Icaldeterminism,
on this ambiguous
methodology,
we will
In her dependence
,I'" that Gallop can only support the psychological !'ll'ssively drawing them into a biological ',"L'ures woman's choanalysis),
definition
I:\lcd, Without
the definition
wdl as psychoanalysis
between
and without
use of 'voire'
of castration"
her concepts
ter, superior.' Freudian adequacy,
18
back to Freud's
as
concepts,
she
- a homonym
was congruent
biologistic
articulation
around a sight: the sight of a phallic presence
of in
sight of a phallic ab-
What is more visible, is 'simply more, in other words betby arguing that the girl's recognition
and the ensuing
fetishistic
investment
in rewriting this
of her narcissistic
in a substitute
phallus, was based on sensing, not seeing the male phallus. Lacan's trism as exemplified
tenden-
for 'voir' - at the junction with Freud's
Gallop wonders whether Lacan really succeeded
biologism
of psy-
of feminism
these concrete
the boy, sight of a phallic absence in the girl, ultimately sence in the mother.'
this progression
questioning
the one with the other.
notion of 'castration'
recurring
Whereas
that social change cannot be articu-
of stark opposition,
decompose,
male and female identity
'the "discovery
opposition.
guarantees
,'annat follow her strategy of confronting
cies: Lacan's
polarity of the sexes by pro-
(which is vital for a 'feminist'
it simultaneously
in the central importance
tion of lack leaves a trace of ocularocentrism the focus on the phallus as constitutive Nevertheless,
16
aims to reveal not only the inequality
"",f to dominate. Arguing that male dominance
('allop draws Lacan's The influence of rad' Ica If",emlmsm as resistance to liberal feminism determines Gall ops defence of Lacalllan psychoanalysis, If the b ' f h ' women and men cannot be d' I' aSlS a er argument IS that ma e equa by mere r ' f concepts, she presents a fundamental belief in ' I enamIllg a psychoanalytic detected behind the veil of h' ,ma e supremacy that has to be umalllst reasomng She' h ' ture is embedd d . I . aJgues t at patnarchal struce III cu ture much deeper than the surface of na ' , ence. It penetrates society through subtle mechanisms th t h .mIllg could Illfluquestionings aim to ' a er IllterrogatlOns and sume that ~acan's Crhev~al.pt:esuPPosIllg this inequality, though, makes her asOlce a concepts such 'h II ' valid; they represent the actual ine' as p a us and 'castration' are fines woman's oppressio B t ~ahty women are subjectivated into that deIus in Lacania ,n. u, as rosz has shown, the preference of the phaln theory IS not SOCIally contingent. If sac' al h . could not be articulated by L ' h I C ange occurred, It acalllan teary." Neither , I add ,au c ld c h ange be
- we have to retain this Lacanian
determinism.
in-
for the male ocularocen-
of the mirror stage in his theorisathat is reiterated
in his adoption of
of sexual identity.
because men are better situated in society, Gallop supports the La-
canian terminology.
She herself, then, refutes Lacan's
focus on the symbolic,
.. repulsl've as it would remind men of animalistic
gives him a little push over the edge at that fragile point where his intended
1
theoretical
Ild'l
progress
emphasised
could collapse
back into Freudian
in her turn to Freud at the same instance.
further into biological
presuppositions
biologisms,
and this is
that affirm the psychological
press woman, but also, that provide woman.
a fundamental
In Civilisation
Freud argues in a footnote
need to op-
base from which to theorise
\\l
1111
Ii
,II
,
I I suck them into an 'un mediated
III (
,
. '. Again Gallop
II",
From here, she ventures
(
the fear of losing
one's
, I .. I') as the reason why 'anal' d
l(
III
(;
,., 1111;11 smells that seem repugnant and its Discontents,
times, menstruating
women influenced
that in former
the male psyche by means of olfactory
stimuli, but since men started walking upright, the sense of sight dominated of smell. The former menstrual
'attraction'
that
turned into a taboo, similar to gods
turning into demons when the period of their cultural reign has ended. All other explanations
of the taboo on menstruation
ing here from discussing
and criticising
were of secondary Freud's
biologistic
is important to state that Gallop distorts his argument: of sight to the degradation
nature
l9•
theories
relation
nis may be more visible, but female genitalia
in detail, it
'Freud links this privilege
of smell, and ties the whole problematic
ference. Perhaps smell has a privileged
Refrain-
to female
to sexual dif-
sexuality
have a stronger
theory of the tabooisation
of menstruation
strual blood - or hormones,
this is not clear from his text - had on male sexuality.
(It could be added that no doubt olfactory
stimuli similarly
.1
attraction
men-
worked vice versa.)
II,,',,' two footnotes,
confusion is supported
anyway since walking upright, this is an ambigu-
in some discourses
tabooisation:
on the contrary,
stimuli'
genitalia
(not:
is neglected.
to 'civilised'
Freud exphc,
'manly'
o~ un-
He is refernng
men (he is obviously
•
to
spea~:ng
whether
I" III
:lIld not scientifically
,1'\llality was repressed
throu~h evolution,
and hIS
proven. Yet, Gallop argues that the fact that an ~nal (whether unconsciously
11111\ and libidinal displacements,
or biologically)
~ed
:0
subhma-
and it was exactly these that MIchele Montre-
I.IY valued, as they did not represent
,,('\uality',
smells are bemg r~-
a desexualisation,
which, according to Gallop, was Lacanian
but a 'mastered
form of
'desire'.
Ilcsire was 'ex-centric', Ily
and into libidinal
, '(·ve Montrelay
,IL ,I
.'
had a displaced displacement.
centre, forced away from 'anal' sex~al-
Desire, or Freudian
says if desire is phallocentric,
('entric. Con, overemphasized
libido, was masculme,
then female sexuahty
and with a bit of imagination,
means 'prick', animalistic
IS con.
poses a c~nt agal~st
we end up with c.unt and pnc~, whIch intercourse.
Deslfe, though, IS eccen-
(ric, argues Lacan:
can still
testosterones
a basis for male pride. In any case, the argument
that female sexuality - not necessary tinue to do so.
.
hIm
through his statement that all thIS was mere sp~cula~
be reminded
be detected and do not underlie
eroticism
status
or whether the sense of smell has diminished
I"",,:nl "WII
is very simple, non-displaced,
as it cannot be denied that male 'olfactory
and Its Discontents,
'civilised'
there is a general confusion
a phallus. But as 'centric'
now, it is, in his view, because man does not want to of his 'primitive' origin.21 Considering his argument that man's
sense of smell had diminished
.
vny Victorian sexuality) but that might still excite other European fo.lk.- In
If this has to be repressed
ous thesis, especially
with the body of the
[...] The pe-
smell.'2I) Freud's
refers to the former
,d
connection
refers to Freud to support this thesis, misreadmg
.tllother footnote to his Civilisation
III
I\.IIII(;S
1111
drives that, given
\V.IS
111111.1
Lacan writes that the phallus
are
The 'prick'
seems to be
the game. It is the ec-centricity
- did smell, but not that thev con.
the 'prick',
'can play its role only when veiled'
at the centre of phallocentrism
[ .. :].
unveils the phallus and spOlls
of desire, the avoida~ce of the centre, .of
which keeps the phallus its privilege
as slgmfler. ~ sexuahty
which would remain at the centre, whether the centre be a vagma or a peGallop, nevertheless,
adopts the 'smelly'
from there refers to Michele
Montrelay's
female into her line of argument term 'odor di femina'.
and
This 'odor di
Seduction, p. 27, my italics. . .,. . h' f 'med posslblhlies which ave not 'Nevertheless, these things are at present no more t h an uncon [[ '. ' .. been substantiated by science. Nor should we forget that, in spite of the undeniable dePdreclatlOnhOhf . I . . whom the strong genital 0 ours w IC olfactory stimuli, there exists even ll1 Europe peop es among . , Civili aare so repellent to us are highly prized as sexual stimulants and who refuse to give them up. ( l
22
The Daughter's
23 19
Freud, Sigmund
(1969): Civilization
tute of Psycho-Analysis, 20
The Daughter's
21
Civilization,
and Its Discontent.
p. 64, footnote.
Seduction,
p. 64, footnote.
p. 27, my italics.
London:
The Hogarth
Press and the Insti-
tion, p. 43, footnote no. 3.)
nis, would no longer be phallic, veiled phallus.24
no longer promote
the privilege
of the
. '" Ildy, supporting ",. I.
~acan poses feminine
'jouissance'
tigUIty stands for immediacy, contrasts gues:
what Montrelay
as contiguity
intimacy,
against the phallic veiling. Con-
sparks of spontaneous
calls a 'sublimated
phallocentric
sexuality,
orgasm'.
and
Gallop ar-
I..
his writing on the phallus because society was phallocen-
;tlld this should not be 'covered up'. But does not the use of 'masculine' 1Il1llille' language
support such phallocentrism?
Icminine, and libidinal displacements
III<"
""11 ,I the concentric,
ble 'con', sometimes
spelled
taminates
the usually
presence,
an evocative
tended'
'com',
phallic,
mediated,
ment, the insistent
closure,
language
Although
which con-
with a bodily
the words
to lead us ever forward
definitive
statement,
[... ] At the very moment
is asserted,
the cunt clamours
big stink. After the 'big stink', feminine
texts when the sylla-
are 'in-
metonymi-
conclusion
of argu-
'con', the display of cunts gives us an immediate
tact with the language. phallic privilege
veiled
'odor di femina'.
to have other significations,
cally to some possible
and Lacan's
repeats with a frequency
sexuality
Lacan
or the phallus,
in Lacan's
text when
for recognition,
has nothing
his phallic
con-
is momentarily
'desire',
a feminist resistance
apparently
biologistic
that is gynocentrically
defining the phallus as belonging
route clearly connected
determinism,
to the war of - not the phallus - but the veiled
smell, that reveals the omnipotent,
powerful,
who they have to confront with a monolithic
of femininity,
its
phallic mother that men fear, and rationality
in order to control her. If
the penis would be revealed, it would spoil the game of desire: 'There is no sexual relation',
argues Lacan, that is not veiled - and, as we have seen, it is debate-
able whether there could be other forms of masquerade types the Oedipal complex describes. of critiquing
his phallocentric
apart from the stereo-
Gallop follows Lacan's
terminology
24
The Daughter's Seduction, p. 29. Ibid, p. 31-32.
of his animalistic
of the homo-logic,
man
origins, the
monolithic law.
1t'11,il it is dubious whether Freud really created this image, why focus on it? If I;,can is ocularocentric,
if Lacan privileges
why support this phenomenologist
the phallus because
biologism?
, Oil', not Lacan. It is Gallop who re-names ,1I1l1;who assigns the interruptive,
he is visible,
It is Gallop who finds the syllable the empty space: the concave, the
the irrational
and the lacking to the feminine,
.llId the law to the masculine. ( :allop designates
and structures
Ilian to the 'symbolic'
gender, assigns woman to the 'imaginary'
in a French
simultaneously. who 'loves'
feminist Talking
the hysterics
tradition,
although
about Cixous
and
she criticises
in her last chapter
her friend Clement detached
herself
lrom, Gallop writes:
ambiguity
instead
from another level. She is taking him
It cannot be a question here of choosing imaginary. frustrates
notions
symbolic or Cixous's
of opposition.[ ...]... we must learn to make
'open or shut' a matter of indifference. word 'bisexual' choanalytic bisexuality'.
Both Clement and Cixous use the
in their texts in La jeune nee to name some sort of posi-
tive goal. Bisexuality
imaginary,
Clement's
Indeed, the fact that the two are bound together into one book traditional
has traditionally
been linked with hysteria in psy-
theory. But these women writers are talking about an 'other Neither
the fantasmatic
nor the fleshless, joyless
resolution assumption
of unity in the symbolic, but an other bisexuality, and accepts both the imaginary
25
the
defined. Lacanian
to nobody, is through this
penis. And the reason why it needs to be veiled is the 'truth'
to be reminded
IIlIIlIh, the castrating mother, the interruption
'Keys to Dora', Drawing Lacan back, via her own reading of Freud, into biological
to Gallop, Freud refers to an 'odor di femina'
1<,11,'.;. Man fears the 'big stink';
Ihese distinctions
burnt out by the sparks of jouissance.
25
Gallop describes
effect the celebra-
of woman. It emphasises
makes a
left to assert about
privilege
and
ofjouissance
posing the phallic prick against the lack, the empty space.
1,'1 liS recount: According There are moments in both Montrelay's
to the masculine,
concave cunt as the 'nature'
I
I" III';' opposition,
The allocation
of differences
in the
of the fact of one's lack one that pursues, loves 26
and the symbolic, both theory and flesh.
This would be a fruitful suggestion nance of psychoanalysis,
and a stable bridge away from the domi-
if she had not defined a few lines before the connection
between theory and the symbolic with Lacan, and hysteria, the imaginary, with women:
flesh,
I
"'
,I"
\
I" "I"
theory views the imaginary
as a 'pure effect of the symbolic',
but it might also be said that the imaginary tency' to the symbolic (Montrelay), imaginary
embodies,
is necessary
to 'embody'
fleshes out the skeletal symbolic,
Since the
it is possible to see
the Lacanian devaluation of the imaginary as related to a hatred of the flesh, of woman and of pleasure. 27
."'.lIla's 'odor'.
Furthermore,
,'ll
of gender binarism occurs, she draws
III, 11l'11 calling for a revolution
base. It is the small assumptions
that create a binarism
that appears natural: Gal-
to women, and hence women to the imaginary.
is more body about woman than man? She argues that 'more' mediately
mean 'better',
who are better situated.
because
such as testicles. The 'justification' in male domination.
is, realistically,
for phallocentrism
often
confronted
with unmediated
and penis-envy?
Would that not always in-
sex? Is not Jones right to install a
gender-neutral
keeping
male domination
is universal,
Further,
these terms insinuates
where this cannot even be said from one country is still prevalent,
but in single households,
and gender struc-
'traditional'
terminology
change might already have occurred How should we account these individuals
for these other than in the
do not fit into anymore?
afraid of this diversity, of the non-accountability
phallus to disappear.
in the veil does not necessarily
society defines
(;;J1lop's questioning
,
. ''J
Will .
of psychoanalysis
'fits'
from a feminist perof change, as t he 'woman ,
,hk 'therapeutic'
into the psychoanalytic
it too harmoniously
of feminism
through
psychoanalysis
of feminism leads her to prescribe
paths. The first one, the erection
complex
describes
two impos-
of a female homosexual
law, which is Gallop's
the Oedipal
per-
repeats thiS logical
must be barred to any woman who is subjectivated
!'cllder binarism
world-View
to stir up serious trouble., Equally,
"I woman. The other one - braking the incest-taboo
in patriarchal
SOCl-
own base for her defllll~lOn - could only be taken If the would remain
in place,
and
'iJl~nce would not be effective. Thus, we will see how her supposed questioning 11IOUn~S into a reaffirmation
Is Gallop
of change in society?
(Jallop argues that feminists their claims of 'neutrality',
of the 'essentials':
feminism and psychoanalysis.
ina their own seductive
create one big enough for the
But by not engaging with him in the first place, there might
should be psychoanalysed or 'objectivity'
phallic power, which was an effect of having been sewere rebellious
nothing but a veiled vulnerability,
an unfulfilled
academic
exert her own power over her students.
was produced
uncertain,
patriarchy
man's exclusive
in order to reveal that
are false: they were not acknowledg-
dl~ced by their fathers. Feminists
'truth' To look for 'holes'
body if
ever
that
alone. There might be certain aspects where male domination tures might have changed.
patriarchal
,'1Y and subject to the father's
sinuate that men, after all, are the stronger 'fear of aphanisis'?
questioning
",onomy,
do we have to con-
how can femlllism
1""'live cannot introduce or allow for the articulation
vulnerable',
'more
. .
jouissance,
1<-11 will always fear them, as they so much seem to need their veil.
- the penis _
can only be cultural, ie lie
If power shifts, if sexism diminishes,
tinue to speak of castration-anxiety
does actually im-
it is those who own the phallus
But 'more'
But what
in a society which she has defined as existing in
J:.
I,·,tly, and complements
lop links 'embodiment'
to look tor the
I"
11,,11
retains its
suggestion
"I';H!OWof a dead father.'" If every man fears to return to his mother's
resent the symbolic.
and feminism
is blown up to 'maternal'
ii"
it back into a safe and known territory, where women are hysteric, and men repWoman retains a fixed identity,
the 'odor difemina'
by Gallop as
in the phallic text is nothing other, in my opinion, than
\. wc have seen, Gallop's Every time an opening in a fixed definition
and, therefore,
the vagina vendata - stigma film noir aimed to portray
"" 'I<11'111." ofjouissance
to give 'consis-
it (Laplanche).
to diminish his blown up status. The visibility
\\'
'III"
Lacanian
"l'l'ortunity
,"'""IIIl"C of the penis due to its visibility seems just as 'accepted'
L
by patriarchal compensated
daughters
whose 'tru~h' was
longing that made the temlllist The exertion
society: Because
paternity
of her femllllst was corporeally
for that with the law that marked chIldren as
property: they carried his name. But, in order to establtsh patn-
archy, fathers had to establish their power by transference, their bodies and forcing them to embrace phallic power conveyed could not possess."
a stubborn
resistance
The physicality
by denying daughters
their law instead.
A daughter's
against the dominant
who were to embrace her law in-
stead of her body. The need for phallic power was determined frustration,
father she
she was denied by him (so that she had to
embrace his law) she also denies her students, Law, by the inherited
own
aggression,
and exploitation
by the Father's
()I/C".
Irigaray could see this irrationality
and helplessness
',lit: does not see it, that she makes him into a law-giver, ',Irumental
for her arguments
against psychoanalysis,
on the other hand, it is
IlCcessary so that she can appear to be outside the law. Yet she is not outside the LIW, and cannot be, as her own discourse .';l'!
establishes
another law itself. She, her-
f, is afraid to lift the veil of the one she accuses of possessing
Illtt:restingly, Gallop here affirms my own argument
against patriarchy,
psychoanalysis
to define itself, and even manipulates
,')adly, though,
Gallop
a female against a male phallus. But how?
been ousted from the Lacanian
Luce Irigaray
accused Lacanians
Department
of not wanting
psychic mechanism
of Psychoanalysis,
to lift the veil of the phallus
which would reveal the simple penis of their psychoanalytic 'veil the status of the father's
father, Lacan. To
"phallus" is to endow him with a Phallus which he
then might give to any daughter,
to any analyst''''.
The argument,
then, works
Ihc methodology
been seduced herself: she describes phallic than he actually 'phallicising'
Irigaray as making 'her fathcr'
is, just as the Lacanians
their father. Irigaray,
accusing
by referring to the classical consistency Lectures.
were accused
she has
Freud more
by Irigaray
Freud of patriarchal
;lIlalysis, which we have recurringly
- in a paper on 'Femininity'
The poem is called 'Questions'
dle of femininity,
a symbol of helplessness
as erratic as Irigaray's
questions
cannot possess
in
and consists of It
in the face of the rid-
in This Sex Which 1.1' Not
of feminism the father,
vt:iled herself as law, whereas
through
the
she steps back
process she describes can only reaffirm of feminism and psycho-
seen to be constructing presupposes
a double-bind.
Gal-
an Oedipal structure: the daugh-
and is constituted
by his law instead.
she merely wanted immediate
Irigaray
contact with the
rather, to have his phallus. The law she tries to exert was not 'her own', but one created by woman who was constituted Gallop concludes
monolithism
various riddles. Just one answer is given: 'And a fool is awaiting the answer.'" appears as an erratic interruption,
of
of his scientific text, had ignored a poem
Freud inserted - without comment or explanation his New Introductory
oflrigaray,
psychoanalytically
she chooses to explain the interaction
IlT
psychoanalysis
it for its own definition.
The only way out of this dilemma, then, has to
illto the vicious circle, as the therapeutic
from her own frustration,
to Gallop's
this symptom
against her: feminism uses
It:ad via therapy to free oneself from the seducer. And herewith,
lop's psychoanalysis
but makes her father even more phallic in order to jus-
explains
of seduction.
vice versa: the daughter not only veils herself in phallic power to protect herself tify her own rebellion. According
the phallus.
of phallic power.
One logical solution to this dilemma, as Gallop suggests, was to pose matriarchy
After having
if she wanted. That is on the one hand in-
by the father's
law: femme n' existe pas.
that the only solution to the dilemma of a 'male homosexual
t:conomy' in which the phallus was a phallus, in which the Name-of-the-Father constituted
subjects that were essentially
exploitation homosexuality
male, could also result in dissolving
the
of phallic power us such: women had to erect 'the same', a female that glorified female
standards.
A female homosexual
would be just as phallic as a male one, as heterogeneity fied, rigid representation,
but it protected
economy
was reduced to a uni-
woman against the father's
seductive
power. 2'-)
'The seduction
which the daughter
body. The seduction her to embrace The father's
desires would give her contact
the father of psychoanalysis
his law, his indifference,
law was a 'counterphobic
exercises
his phallic
mechanism'
uprightness.'
if he gave into this desire?
'potential
argues Gallop,
Because,
with the father as masculine
sexed
her his body, his penis, and asks (The Daughter's
(Ibid, p. 76), that protected
desire. What would happen havoc'?
refuses
Why does the daughter's
'The father gives his daughter
Seduction,
p. 75).
the father from his own desirability
his law and protects
present himself
from her desire for his body, protects
himself from his body. For it is only the law - and not the body-
which constitutes 30 Ibid.
(Ibid, p. 77.)
3'
Ibid, p. 62.
him as a patriarch.'
a
But without a female homosexual
economy,
a female narcissistic
way to represent herself, a woman in a heterosexual be engulfed
by the male homosexual
sent her difference.
economy,
encounter
ego, a
will always
will not be able to repre-
Woman must demand 'the same', 'the homo' and then
not settle for it, not fall into the trap of thinking a female 'homo' is neces-
sarily any closer other."
A homosexual
to a representation
of otherness,
an opening
for the
economy
should be created.
Woman
should fight the patriarchal,
phallus, create her own, female one, only to simultaneously
economy we could be thinking of (or rather: that Gallop is think-
ing of) could be lrigaray's
femininejouissance
Not One. But if we focus on 'multiple'
as described
female sexuality
monolithic
male phallus we detect an inescapability
suggestion.
Grosz describes
in opposition
of Irigaray's
question
phallic power per se. Sadly, Gallop here falls into the same trap she
critisises
Mitchell
for; further,
she erects exactly
the kind of generalisation
Mitchell criticised in second wave feminism.
to the
and Gallop's
First, she calls for a feminist
revolution
just as Mitchell
does, generated
by
is he who, afraid he too might be
women who are seduced by their fathers. A female homosexual
revolution
castrated as he realises his mother's
lack of a penis, invests in a fetish in place of
be staged where women refrain from searching for their fathers'
approval. If so-
the maternal phallus. This fetishism
will, as an adult, save him from psychosis
ciety is as binary as she believes
the fetish object therewith
'takes
how the fetishist
in This Sex Which Is
monolithic
call it into question,
over the role of the missing
soothes his fear of castration.
the mother has a phallus: 'erected'
by Irigaray
(and Gallop)
Does this fetishistic
investment
fear of castration?
achievement
Similarly, sexuality
phallus"'!
vulva etc is
step out of their subjectivities
it to be, how are women supposed
tence of a certain kind of female phallus, a form of homosexual would 'represent
her difference',
to the male phallus
symbol.
wise enough to evade biologisms
for the two theorists,
or their
that divide women from men. Although
in the male penis
as the phallic
sign?
mirror
And what
is there in placing one phallus against the other - can it not only
- but common
of otherness,
wards difference,
could originate,
economy
'patriarchal'
she cannot refer back to her own 'homosexual
feminist
resistance
Most importantly, investment termines
Irigaray
and Gallop
describe
taken to the extreme? nothing
Is the
this importance.
him as the law-giver
of the male phallus,
The overestimation
(because
homo, the powerful
an opening
up to-
is needed in defence against the
phallus, who threatens
to 'engulf'
a woman if
economy'.
but a stubbornness?
the need for a female phallus only arises from a heightened
in the importance
any closer to a rep-
a questioning,
if the 'homo'
lead to war, a war of the genders? Is, then, the focus on a female phallus nothing - revolution
'female standards'
an opening for the other', it seems just as contradictory
that from this female homosexual
other than a feminist
a daughter's
sentiment,
Gallop admits that woman 'should not
fall into the trap of thinking a female "homo" is necessarily resentation
economy that
assuming there is a female - not nature, she is
as an 'answer'
of the female
to simply
and desires? Second, she assumes the actual exis-
ward off psychosis
of male phallic power? Does not their 'erection'
investment
_
and
Irigaray seems to insist that of labia, clitoris,
If woman does not exist, is not the celebration
phallus the affirmation the fetishistic
the multiple
maternal
is to
and the question
of the male phallus
after all, even the Name-of-the-Father
is who deand naming has to be
Gallop admits that Irigaray blows up the phallus in order to define her own position against it, and argues that this was due to her fear of unveiling phallus. What is she afraid to discover? lus? Irigaray
suggests
herself
the father's
Why is she so scared to unveil the phal-
in Speculum
that, in order to question
phallic
given and does not arise from nowhere) leads Gallop and Irigaray to the conclu-
power, one should lift the mantle of the law, reveal the naked penis, unveil the
sion that a female homosexual economy has to be erected that would give birth to 'truly' female subjects with a feminine language.
phallus. This does not mean that the father should make love to the daughter, but that it was necessary
to question the incest taboo. At another point, in This Sex
Which Is Not One, this negated love-making Although, interrogates
according
to Gallop, a feminist perspective
psychoanalysis
that from this position
- is determined
- the same with which she
by patriarchal
of woman, from this experience,
society,
she argues
a female homosexual
an intended
'orgy with the philosophers',
towards emancipation.
33
Ibid, p. 74, my italics. .Jaques Lacan, p. 164.
that Irigaray sees as an important
Love, though,
the bodily specificity
with step
to Gallop, Irigaray is afraid of making love to
her father: to have an orgy was less intimate. and aggressive.
34
According
with the father is substituted
was engaged
I would add: it is more detached with 'idealized
and towards dreams of complementarity,
desire, away from and the union of
opposites,
difference
resolved into the One. '" Irigaray was afraid of the phallic
power that might not diminish through her identity as a daughter. effective
to defend
unveiling,
Gallop argues that it was therefore
oneself
against
father-love,
feminine desire, some desire for a masculine ther's law.'"
and she was afraid of losing
and therefore,
'in order to rediscover
some
could be no sexuality
without veiling37:
body that does not respect
the Fa-
by having detached
sex
into a female homosexual by patriarchal
response?
assumption,
ther's phallic power and would therefore
himself afraid that somebody
(Is Lacan
his naked penis? And
laugh at its size?)
It is not the love-making imaginable
with the father Irigaray hints at that is so very non-
and repulsive,
because
canian sense is very common
that Irigaray was afraid of her fa-
not want to make love to him, is not
sadly, non-sexual
in 'traditional',
love-making
in this La-
veiled father-daughter
relation-
ships. Yet the simple transgression
of the sexual taboo would endanger
ray's identity, not only as daughter
of a father, but also, as the woman she de-
Iriga-
fines herself as: the victim of Oedipalisation.
Ernest Jones would say: she fears
aphanisis,
she is used to. Sleeping
lic the father is made, the more difficult
father in order to unveil his phallus would not 'work',
the stronger the 'revolution'
it is to install an equality
has to be and the more unlikely
of the sexes,
it seems that this
will succeed, that women will unite under the banner of homosexual-
ity. Why, if one has theoretically vulnerability,
concluded
that the phallus is but a veiling of a
a naked penis, should love-making
that one's identity as a rebelliousmaking was risking unification
be so threatening,
and, in all rebellion,
ter was at stake? The argument
that love-making and idealisation,
has not been unveiled before intercourse
takes place. Love-making 'grown-up' vulnerability,
that is left room to breath.
tion' works only in two contexts: for protection
finally helpless - daugh-
cannot
act of love-making,
Idealisation
, unification,
such as in a parent-child
'romantisaon the other
a sexuality in which each partner is afraid of the other's non-phallic-ness. the stereotypical
form of sexuality,
by no means universal
portrayed
not been mentally sexual intimacy
unveiled.
necessary?
gain the recognition given/received
one was denied?
p. 79.
But, can this recognition
not only be
phalluses
wish
by having an orgy with them make sense -
would it not rather keep her own status of being the phallus, being veiled - in masquerade
- intact?
or in This is
Gallop, trying to assess why Irigaray
would rather have an orgy with philoso-
phers than sleep with her father, is avoiding
the fact that mere incest will not
unveil the phallus. Is she doing this so that she will not have to unveil the phallus at all?" There is no reason why one could not theoretically incest taboo and live with the revelation covers vulnerability
according
masculine
women and
to other sexual economies.
In
investigate
the
that the Law of the Father, the phallus,
and will to power, and still, and because of it, 'rediscover
37
Elizabeth
Grosz,
elaborating
Lacan's
XX: There is no direct, unmediated
though, this unveiling
never takes place, these
constituted peatedly
Seduction,
why is
divert the father from the mother, to
if the phallus stays veiled? And would therefore Irigaray's
to unveil her forefathers
famous
relation
at the beginning
that 'woman
is no sexual
relation'
the sexes. The obstacle condition
of human
the solid. Gallop
him', (The Daughter's
from his Seminaire
to love, so central subjectivity
to chi-
and sexuality,
by the Other.' (Jaques Lacan, p. 137.)
of the book she does unveil the phallus.
does not exist', as the reigning
fluid in order to preserve anyone understands
line 'There
between
It is the internal
as they are by a rift governed
" Confusingly, The Daughter's Ibid.
If the phallus has been mentally unveiled, To childishly
valric forms of love, is not external.
the Lacanian idea of love-making,
with the
if the father's phallus has
in most classic cultural texts, but
in a world that does accommodate
feminine men, that live in partnerships,
where
relationship,
losing the joy of an identification
'un-
it is exactly each other's
where one partner is dependent
and acknowledgement
as love-
can only apply if the phallus
veil' the sexual partner. In a responsible, individuality
other than
was too seductive,
both partners take notice of each other's
36
'There is no sexual relation.'
could see his vulnerability,
her own excuse for not unveiling the phallus of her father Lacan. The more phal-
revolution
35
an unveiling could not take place, and there
- where she can show her
a phallic power that is, really, determined
I am not sure whether Gallop's
in order to remain existing. This is how it was writ-
ten into our language,
own phallus, stay veiled, instead? Or by withdrawing society and can only generate a misogynist
has to reject the non-phallic,
more
- an orgy with the philosophers
economy that celebrates
cannot exist: woman desires the phallus, in order to exist, and man
politically
How is this other desire to be discovered:
with her 'fore'-fathers
sexualities
cynically Seduction,
system demanded remarks
Lawn
a discourse
that Lacan 'babbles
states in Encore rethat excluded
the
on for years before
p. 39), very fluid, very unscientific.
some feminine desire, some desire for a masculine body that does not respect the
phallic than he actually is. Although
Father's
the book and reads her readings of certain feminists critically in this light, she is
law.' The question
is, why Irigaray/Gallop
suggest
against the father be kept up, and why one should withdraw economy in order to find this form of desire - because cease to respect the Father's
Law? Because,
that the defence into a homosexual
one does not want to
by perceiving
the father's
ability behind the phallic mask, one would carry more responsibility ter - as an equal? By forming an independent
vulner-
as a daugh-
form of desire in exile to the famil-
just as much trapped in a vicious circle that the use and discussion lytic concepts
reiterate,
familial roles fails as the binaries
ened in the father's presence. The father's
ial relation.
and, contrary to Gallop's
intention,
veiling;
the familial roles of father and daughter
main locked into their vicious cirde: the anger, the need for recognition
re-
persists.
evaluate
The question could of course be posed, that if I accuse Irigaray as well as Gallop how can an outgrowing
occur? This, though, is not my concern
there are familial relationships ready has occurred, choanalytic
as well as individuals
but that we cannot account
language.
This might be because
- in the individual
are less phallic, familial structures
differ from the 'classic' or notions of authority
perception, modes.
If, though,
it is theoretically
process can not occur (as in Lacan), it is impossible account for difference.
If the suggestions
- I assume that
for their existence
feminists
theorists to break the bond
Although
serves its omnipotence
attempting
to demythologise
by presupposing
have been given a springboard
Oedipality
the Oedipal, Ernest Jones'
stretched
her inability to escape, to remain in the victim's
position.
within psy-
cases - fathers
model, awareness
has
This chapter
argued that feminism
and psychoanalysis
they share a basic concept: the definition pus complex.
Her oppressed
position
reiterate
each other, as
of woman as determined
in patriarchy
is reaffirmed
choanalysis
as methodology
with which to criticise
choanalysis
as the critical theory that proves woman's
feminism.
Similarly,
oppression
psychic mechanisms
determined
that this
universally
oppressed.
of alterity, to
production,
as Deleuze would call it, reveals the feminist reluctance to move out
give are either violently
to
of the daughter's
is affirmed by a feminism Psychoanalytic
position,
that needs to define woman as
feminism's
counter-productivity,
palised society, in which women are seduced by men to participate
phallic power, detecting
methods
transference
argues that feminists
in investigations and seduction.
of their own abuse of
Agreeing
that I am using a
form of analytic method here myself, that aims to detect normative that unjustly claim to be universal,
can
definitions
I wonder why this method has to be 'psycho-
analytic', why it has to follow Lacanian very normative, limiting, strict.
psychoanalysis,
which is obviously
Gallop treads in very Freudian footsteps
around the Oedipal dilemma,
so
this behaviour
oppression, reiterates
as a result of feminists'
the inevitability
of this seduction,
cally speaking
- could be the eroticisation
theorised through a Deleuzean
Nietzsche
noted above, is sometimes examples
she is referring
drawn worse than Freud himself would have it in the to - she, too, makes at least one of her 'fathers'
more
and the impossibility altogether. of one's
theoretical
of living
according
only by concentrating language
that
of resisting it.
What - psychoanalyti-
as a reluctance
to a reactive morality instead of undergoing
responsibility achieved;
in their own
own suppression,
can be
to become a master in-
stead of a slave. Deleuze would argue that psychoanalytic turn. Only by letting go of the Father's
which, as
own situation within an Oedi-
does not get us very far. We remain within the same language
We will have to turn to another methodology
according
or anti-
which is that of victim and princess in one. To psy-
paths, change cannot occur, and more im-
from psychoanalytic
through our
are dealt
run away, which both are impossible benefit
psy-
and ontology
to conceive
Gallop
by the Oediby using psy-
choanalyse
- not occurring.
out
instead and to use his law to justify
phallic power by sleeping with them, or to
is - theoretically
con-
in contexts where she could
into new territories:
attempt to unveil their 'fore' -father's portantly,
Gallop
shadows,
in which this process al-
changed a daughter's with in alternative
protective
to
why a certain theory is em-
Gallop herself has not yet made the move outside of this famil-
hand is rejected in order to clutch Lacan's of not facing their own wish to remain within their father's
out of their
are left intact. I agree that it is important
braced, but it appears that, although she encourages to their 'fathers',
of psychoana-
and her aim to seduce father and daughter
analyse oneself as a theorist, to critically
ial relations, this form of desire always stays a desire in exile, and will be threatphallus stays intact, powerful,
she analyses her own seduction throughout
feminists prefer living the test of the eternal re-
law, I argue, and bravely taking on the
to another,
on alternative
could
feminist
gender identities
with which we can acknowledge
progress and finding
be a
their existence can we ac-
count for change in gender relations.
In Deleuze,
this affirmative
form of living
is not due to a psychological
predisposition,
but an ethical choice. Without the
language of psychoanalytic more freedom.
feminism,
Gallop advocates
to slowly detach oneself from the love-hate
there
are less excuses,
but definitely,
(-laving critically
evaluated
some of the Lacanian
tural criticism to elucidate how psychoanalytic tionships
a 'therapy'
the Oedipal
structure
secures the same terminologies
determines,
but her form of 'therapy',
and structures
place, and does not allow for a perception
rela-
I argue,
that describe the bond in the first
of another relationship,
nor for an-
other way of looking at society as such. In the next chapter, we will see how the interaction
of feminism
and psychoanalytic
criticism
that repeats the double-bind
tagonists
are described
familiar structures
according
film theory creates
we have here analysed.
to psychic
structures
the Oedipal complex determines.
to a very narrow interpretation woman's
- or feminism's
feminist psychoanalytic
of narrative
a feminist
film
The film's
pro-
that are formed by the
This presuppositions
and characters,
- position in patriarchal
native gender constructions
concepts
used in psychoana-
lytic feminist theory, I would now like to turn to a concrete example from cul-
leads
choanalytic
traps even in Judith Butler's
stereotypes
through parodic performances.
the implications
attempted
deconstruction
more responsible
as painful as it might be - is the only road to independence, in a schizoanalytic deconstruction cultural commentary.
of these psy-
In my opinion, a different
- created through locating oneself in a different, of Lacanian
sible perceptions
feminism delimits the perception
down a possible multitude of identities,
of identities,
Cultural
criticism is one practice with which gender diversity can be promoted.
In order
to prove the non-universality
that we
of the Oedipus
Oedipal
or of pos-
subjects.
hear and are confronted
into tightly defined
complex,
with single voices, alternative
it is important
experiences.
they be heard if their narration is coded through a psychoanalytic
But how can feminist lense?
I believe it to be important
to unveil the voices that could promote a diversity
beyond the psychoanalytic
interpretations
set-up, a reasoning
that, as repeatedly
that bind the narrated
into a binary
shown, locks us into a vicious circle.
one that reiterates
society, but ignores the alter-
that could be detected in the film if we took off our
lense. We will discover
of cultural texts by narrowing
of gender viewpoint
position first,
which we will find
psychoanalysis
and Deleuzean
Teresa de Lauretis
is a post-structuralist
feminist
psychoanalysis
is based on its restrictive
simultaneously
uses psychoanalysis
structures
character,
within society. De Lauretis'
yet, like Jane Gallop,
of psychoanalytic
feminisms.
Resembling
Lauretis
weaves in and out of psychoanalytic
deconstructing
others. Just as in Gallop's
from Lacanian
discourse
Gallop's
feminism,
and its reiteration
of fundamental
and Narrative
latter, radical position, was first published
to fully depart
feminist
concepts
rather than, as feminist
Cinema',
feminism,
hinged
but nevertheless
Laura Mul-
representing
on a critique
critique of radi-
of Mulvey,
fails to come up with alternative
is therefore concepts that
in spite of her attempts to do so. De Lauretis'
retical approach will be discussed through'
this
in Screen in 1975 and at the time was
text in feminist film criticism. De Lauretis'
cussion - her 'working
de
using some units and
erase or ignore him altogether.
vey's famous essay 'Visual Pleasure
allow for gender diversity,
dis-
I will analyse.
film theory in the 1970's suggested,
ground-breaking,
methodology,
case, it is this indecision
De Lauretis suggests we should 'work through Oedipus'
the most important
she
Alice Doesn't was written the same year
Seduction and equals her sophisticated
cussion
cal psychoanalytic
of Lacanian
as critical method, aiming to change gender
Jane Gallop wrote The Daughter's
that causes the contradictions
whose critique
in the following
theo-
by closely looking at her dis-
- of the Oedipus complex.
I aim to unveil her
ambiguities
and inability to employ her own political suggestions,
ing through'
as her 'work-
does not allow her to step out of an Oedipal world-view.
Ilot be the answer to woman's 01 Michael (Inematic
To do this, I will look at de Lauretis' tion to Hitchcock's up her contradictions turalist reasoning.
progress
in order to show
routes where she returns to struc-
return to structuralist
feminist concepts
to a 'feminist'
film theory and its applica-
.in her Alice Doesn't
and suggest alternative
Her persistent
to the fundamental detrimental
psychoanalytic
Rebecca as developed
'truths'
reveals a loyalty
we have, in the introduction, in a Deleuzean
Lauretis in the light of the critical stance developed
sense.
shown to be
By discussing
in my discussion
de
of Gallop,
I aim to show that de Lauretis
does not venture
far enough
from the binary
dogma she criticises
classical Lacanian
approach,
and finally, I will
in Mulvey's
point towards a post-psychoanalytic chapter three, as an alternative.
approach,
that will be further elaborated
in
Snow's
objectification
non-narrative
'illusion'
in mainstream
film Presents,
the harsh destruction
of pleasurable
viewing,
Lacanian
we have criticised Alice Doesn't.
approach
sexual difference
der in which 'women' woman
once
feminist
'owned'
subject,
structures.
signified
her image,
Parody seemed to leave sexual representation
construction
was the only political
intact, ironically,
of mainstream
solution
vs alternative,
Instead of construing
an alternative
patriarchal
or-
a mythical, notion
pre-patriarchal
of binary desiring-
image was placed by mainstream
film
of the mirror stage. Woman as fetish object, together the perfect
illusion,
as defined by the reading of Lacanian
playing
into
psychoanalysis
in this thesis. The only means for women to regain their status as sub-
ate films that did not play into mainstream
porary mainstream structures,
argues in turn, recalling
film, to cre-
visual pleasure.
'women'
as
in film.
cinematic world that hoped not to play into a
there are important
By detecting
film. Although,
Gallop, that an outside to the sym-
Additionally,
the creation
of 'unpleasure'
could
moments in mainstream
and focusing
as described
film in which the need to
by Oedipalisation
on these moments
become apparent.
that feature woman's
active and
viewing - as there could not exist such a coherent change in perception.
pus as the universal structuring ing Eco's description allocation
standpoint
By detecting these active, 'clitoral'
believes she can question Lotman's
narrative
mechanism
'feminist'
of the narrative
Oedipal myth as structuring
way of
- but a successive
moments, de Lauretis which describes
Oedi-
tool of all narrative, and hence, any analysis. Us-
of a redefinition
as (m)other,
film.
of the notion of woman as object
new arise, which would not be a coherent
of codes, de Lauretis
aims to challenge
movement to men, and the narrative obsta-
is reiterated narrative.
and justifies
By revealing
woman as ab-
the universal
use of the
that women do not merely
identify with the object, but also with the subject of the gaze, de Lauretis detects the subversive
moments
which prove Lotman wrong. By showing that woman
can just as much be associated 39 Laura MUlvey quoted in Teresa de Lauretis (1982): Alice Doesn ·t. Feminism, Semiotics. Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p. 58.
contem-
desire, woman as subject can be described even in mainstream
could something
Lotman's
eventually,
cle - the grave, the cave, the house - to woman. In this allocation,
and there was no notion of woman beyond her own
within patriarchy.
vs unpleasure,
binary
film will arrive at an Oedipal closure, serving male desiring-
seduce woman into femininity
stract measure, bolic could not be theorised
even seemed to
to Mulvey's
as represented
Only then and through this disempowerment
posing
jects rather than as objects was to support the decline of traditional
constitution
in parenough.
of narrative to cre-
available
pleasure
spectators outside the film text and 'woman'
thereby
over time and space, created
Teresa de Lauretis
powerfully
reiterate it. But montage, parody, or any form of disturbance
independent
but it also plays into a Lacanian
male desiring-structures
and even if embedded
is not questioned
male desire. Not only does this imply that
Mulvey believes that woman's
with a control
by de Lauretis in
- a term she does not question - have had their image 'sto-
in a spectacle reminiscent
described
is based in the radical feminist foundations
to Mulvey, we exist within a dominant
len'39 in order to become
with any attempt at
'male' desire which renders women as objects of the gaze, de Lauretis suggests
in the last chapter and that will be criticised
According
by breaking
narrative flow, still relies on iconic representation, ody and deconstruction,
ate 'unpleasure',
the
through montage and parody, de Lauretis aims to show how
looking for the fractures within mainstream Laura Mulvey's
film. In an analysis
that aims to deconstruct
with the sign-vehicle
hopes to rccode woman as abstract measure, foundation
of the Oedipal
'narrative
movement',
she
that measure which serves as the
myth. She hopes that, by becoming
aware of these
moments, of woman's active desire, the reiteration halted, interrupted, redirected.
of the Oedipal
myth can be
Insity, I
),'dipal dilemma. By discussing
hy
De Lauretis
applies this 'double identification'
where she shows that the heroine,
to Alfred Hitchcock's
Mrs de Winter,
actively
Rebecca
desires the femm~
fatale of the film, Rebecca. Thus, she is not just a passive object on screen: she actively desires Rebecca (and therewith,
identifies
with the spectator)
basing her argument
Iyl ic feminist theorist ':"nting
my own
psychoanalytic
identifying
with her as object of desire. Rebecca, then, is image and internalised in one. Hence, Mrs de Winter - or any woman in or as spectator
interpretation
lle Lauretis'
foundational
mainstream dogmatic
of Lotman,
film, and thus, de Lauretis' and pessimistic
analysis
psychoanalytic
a subversive promises
reasoning
feminist
trapped
at the
redefinition
of
an escape from the
we find in Mulvey's
ap-
argument,
agreement
woman's language, a refutation
is recurringly
foundation,
a psychoana-
in her own methodology.
end,
I aim to show
what
By prea non-
reading of a text can 'do' in contrast.
her fundamental promises
this process, I aim to show in this chapter how,
on a psychoanalytic
of
film - is not mere object, but object and subject in one, actively de-
This approach
on a path that draws her back into the
as well as
self-image mainstream siring.
and show where she continued
that will become her own recurring
with Mulvey's
Lacanian
approach:
trap, is
man dictated
and hence, she could not really exist, make herself heard, as
it was his, not her own language
she spoke. Alice Doesn't
Ihe addition ... Exist, recalling Lacan'sfemme
could, then, invoke
n'existe pas; but it could also de-
note a negation of the negation: Alice Doesn't
could mean the resistance
proach. But sadly, I will argue that the path de Lauretis takes in order to arrive at
non-existence,
in order to be heard. It is here de
her analysis involves structuralist
Lauretis sees her own progression
ter's desiring-structures eventually,
reasoning
cannot
lead the film - or any narrative
does not provide the potential
to such an extent that Mrs de Win-
be detached
from an Oedipal - into an Oedipal
to theorise
logic that will,
closure.
Hence, it
Mrs de Winter other than as woman
the beginning
male empowerment woman's
silencing
of an argument
from Mulvey,
by allowing
within the system, the patriarchal with
Alice
in Wonderland's
against
for a possible fe-
symbolic. encounter
She illustrates with
Humpty
Dumpty:
who, in the end, will remain object in relation to man, in a world that will eternally have to objectify
woman and seduce her into femininity,
sents the abstract measure (m)other. choanalytically
described
Mrs de Winter's
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty
if woman repre-
desiring of Rebecca,
psy-
said, in a rather scornful tone, 'it
means just what I choose it to mean - neither more or less.' 'The question
as the desire for the (m)other, locks us into the family
triangle in which the daughter can never fully become a subject and Oedipal closure will eternally be provoked.
is,' said Alice,
'whether
many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty
you can make words
Dumpty,
'which
mean so
is to be master - that's
all. '40 Although
she recurringly
dogmatisms,
embarks
on promising
de Lauretis keeps re-introducing
not allow for alternative will, in the following,
gender identities
and/or different
discuss de Lauretis'
lytic form of viewing which develops
routes away from structuralist
the Oedipal legacy, and thus, does elaboration
essentialism
- to demythologise
I
through her readings of Eco and Lotman,
both of which could be used - the first by application, failure to do so, indicate
desiring-structures.
of her own psychoana-
the Oedipal
the second by revealing its
myth. I will indicate
Instead of ignoring man's language in order to install a truly feminine language as Mulvey would have it - de Lauretis s/he who mastered Dumpty's
where,
it, which
from what
would
because
lead to Humpty
'wall',
should woman ,speak, suggestIOn that Identl-
de Lauretis' 40
sense for the purpose of describing
great fall. From
suggests to 'start an argument',
could recode
though, if she did not exist? De Lauretis repeats Gallop's
where she could have left off, where she could have
used her findings in a productive
language
gender di-
Carroll, Lewis (1963): The Annotated
pany, p. 269.
Alice. Cleveland
and New York: The World Publishing
Com-
~ies must be assumed and immediately formulate
called into question.'
questlOns that [would] redefine
Her strategy was to
the context, displace the metaphors,
and make up new ones'4'. Instead of a feminist revolution, a slow battle for meaning.
sation) as being dependent predicated exclusively
that cinema had an important
stantly shJftmg Identities. ual feels addressed from these positions ~ercelved
It provided
Resembling
arguments
function in shaping our con-
the codes according
as a subject by defining
positions
could be articulated.
woman as theoretical
to which the individ-
of meaning,
and it was
Like Mulvey, de Lauretis
subject to be absent in cinema, as cinema was
Just another form of language,
formed in the patriarchal
symbolic.
who m,ade cinema, who directed, who decided what woman's even It women actively participated
It was men
identity was to be,
in their own making. As historical
though, woman was captive on screen, and it was important thIS historIcal subject was semiotically
produced,
on a male or masculine
subject,
to investigate
how
in order to 'stir up some trou-
ble'. By questioning the codes - the Oedipal legacy - that produce screen, our own subjectification could be altered,
my argumentation
Although
absent as theoretical de Lauretis
woman on
subject, as Humpty Dumpty still was the master
refuses
to see women
as mere spectacle
objects in cinema but argues that they are just as much spectator WhIle bemg in cinema as representation,
of the theory of the phallus, limit is constantly ence, Lacanian
the phallic function,
eluded, held off, for example,
psychoanalysis
bearer of an economic
or fetish-
and subject.
women were simultaneously
outside
conception
in language,
eliciting
her pleasure,
woman-ness.
film made women complicit
in the production
Mulvey would argue, but had a more intricate had to be delicately
interrogated.
But through
analySIS prOVided the means through d~~ference supported effect produced
representation
by representation.
through which subjectivity
relation to its construction, which methodology?
which it could be articulated
opposite
to
of women ever being sub-
not only was no language of language,
conception
a unified field, but in Lacan's
woman only appears as an abstract measure: more universal
measure ever invented by patriarchal
ideology'4'.
than money, the most abstract De Lauretis can only conclude,
then, that Metzian film analysis or any other psychoanalytic to fuse semiotics and psychoanalysis Lacan, like Levi-Strauss,
to remove this
into a unified and coherent law. Ac-
represents
a fundamental
and in spite of his assertion
is a value founded
film analysis aiming contradiction,
to do otherwise,
in nature, that it preexists
as
'implies
or exceeds
and culture'46.
an~
of (their)
Hence, women could not be defined outside of representation
possibility
monolithic
symbolization
_ and therewith
into a
between woman as
of woman as functional
cording to de Lauretis,
were not mere objects, but engaged in their own representation
By framing her identification
castration
account of sexual differ-
Lacan had not managed
trap because he made language
that sexual difference
of meaning - through identification.
by collapsing
structuralist
of that
of culture. In spite of his attempts to prove the mere installa-
tion of sexual difference theoretical
objects to
and the theorisation
did not clarify the confusion
man, excluded the theoretical
jects and producers
de Lauretis
value on the one, and as bearer of a semiotic value on the
other hand"'. The structuralist 'the subject',
chapter,
and quotes Stephen Heath: 'The constant limit
scenario of vision'4'. Heir of Levi-Strauss'
cmema as subjects of practice whose desire was engaged through film. Women position
and are thus
subject'4'.
in the preceding
ocularocentrism
'she is the Mother, an equivalent of language,
of castration,
de Lauretis proposes psychoanalysis'
De Laureti~believes
on 'the crucial instance
as that
Psycho-
Although,
so far, her critique of psychoanalysis
sented in the preceding
corresponds
chapter, we can see de Lauretis'
tion when she argues: ' ... female sexuality is negated, with the phallus representing
autonomy
to the one I pre-
own and first contradicassimilated
of desire (of language)
to the male's, in respect to a
how sexual
while at the same time being a meaningUnfortunately,
was constructed
it articultated
in language
the processes
(drive, desire, symbol i-
42
Ibid, p. 16.
43
Ibid. p. 23.
44
Levi-Strauss
change
had famously
was merely theoretical
45
Teresa de Lauretis
46
Ibid, p. 24.
argued
in his The Elementary
abstraction
quoting Lea Melandri;
Structures
,Old not itself constitutive Alice Doesn't,
p. 30.
(){ Kinship
that economic
of the subordination
of women.
ex-
matter which is the female body'4'. That female sexuality male's in psychoanalytic
discourse
is subsumed
into the
and can only be defined from this position
The Metzian
signifier
has been argued before, but that female sexuality is negated assumes that there
discourse,
has or could be such a thing as an a priori female sexaality.
an ocularocentric
we wIll continue to find in de Lauretis' own contradictions. 'outside'
Arguing
to representation,
It is this ambiguity
work, in which she seems to create her
on the one hand that there can be no ontological she speaks of an original female sexuality
been negated, which repeats the radical feminist assumption analysis aims to refute. We will see in her discussion
her use of psycho-
of Rebecca that this 'out-
side' she invokes reiterates the same phallic psychology Metzian film criticism.
that has
she argues is intrinsic to
In her analysis, woman is just as much an abstract meas-
ure. Hence, the phallus remains and will remain the universal Oedipal rcasoning will reiterate the war of the phallus.
signifier,
as her
'covers but does not bridge'
;lIld reality, like Lacan's
supposed subversive
or the real through the symbolic, base. In contrast,
should be a mapping of 'how the physical
objects
to Metzian
agency other than according
film analysis
to phallocentric
ing logical error, repeating Lacan's:
because
reasoning.
it cannot
he employed
for
Metz makes the follow-
wanting to supersede Saussure's
nition of signifier as linked to signifieds, agency - 'It is I who make the film':
account
nai've defi-
psychonalysis
to define
sumed as signs, as vehicles for social meaning,
perceiving
significant
subject in language.
na"ive a notion of meaning,
imaginary,'
(becomes
as already imaginary,
an imaginary
Metz thus abandons
signifier)
the signified
to a
as too
.. only to include, to subsume meaning in the
and how these signs are cultur-
by codes and subject to historical
modes of sign production'4'.,
This attempted
mapping necessitates
of signification
a redefinition
codes in order to break with that which she criticises the phallus as universal function,
signifier.
she has to demythologise
its constitutive
production
as contingent
on historical
way that enabled
us to articulate
how semantic
to Lacanian
'differential
elements
sign production, on the expression
content plane or with behavioral a fixed entity designating but merely a sign-function:
psycho-
111
such a
were differently
c~n-
codes to be generatmg
they became the framework plane with semantic
that linked
elements
on the
responses'5!'. In this way, a sign, for Eco, is not
a stable relationship a transitory functive,
Codes are the socially established, and are historically
are produced
values
between
correlation
and one semantic element ('cultural
In this
the codmg of
analysis, the subject was where meaning is formed, and yct, meamng constItuted the subject, we had to map the terrain in which meanings
with a different
and Pontalis can say that 'the phallus turns out to be the
namely signifying
de Lauretis is able to redefine sign
('sign-vehicle')
meaning - i.e., what is symbolized
counterpart:
change. If, according
into a relation
as always already given in that fixed order which is the symbolic.
its universal
woman as mother and matter.
sive with the signifier as a subject-effect, sense Laplanche
as well as of
in psychoanalysis,
In order to question
signifier. The problem with this notion of meaning is that, being coextenmeaning can only be envisaged
of semiotics
of bodies are socially as-
ally generated
(instead of organising) and as object, becomes
the project
properties
structed, read and located in history. By understanding
The filmic material as 'really perceived
discourse
is hindered by a rigid signifier and
for de Lauretis,
Through Umberto Eco's Theory of Semiotics, De Lauretis
the gap between
potential by coding reality through
a signifier or sigmfled,
of one expressive
element
unit'), If one functi~e enters
it gives rise to a new sIgn-functIOn.
operational
rules that generate
related to the modes of sign-production.
these signs,
Therefore,
- behind the most diverse ideas'; as the
signifier of desire, the phallus must also be its meaning, meaning."
in fact the only
it follows that the codes change whenever culturally
assigned
to the same
new or different
sign-vehicle
or whenever
contents new
are sign-
vehicles are produced, In this manner a new text, a different interpretation of a text - any new practice of discourse
4' Ibid, 48
p. 23.
Ibid, p. 24/5.
49
Ibid.
50
Ibid, p. 33.
- sets up a different configuration
of content,
introduces
other cultural
meanings
that in turn transform
the
codes and rearrange the semantic universe of the society that produces it.51
manipulation economic
of the public sphere, the exploitation
interest); finally, to displace those discourses
claims of other social instances In other words, the rules of interpretation
changed according
and codes changed through different interpretations of a text could substitute another correlation,
one sign-function
therewith
changing
age a non-linear
(the relation of two functives)
interaction
for
universe of the
of codes allows de Lauretis to 'envis-
semantic space constructed
that obliterate
and erase the agency of practice
not by one system - language
of many heterogenous
sign-vehicles
units, the codes being the networks of their correlation tent and expression'''.
tory.53
_ but
and cultural
across the planes of con-
The problem with this formidable ploy these promising
political
vision is that de Lauretis herself does not emmoves.
She does not allow herself
canian psychoanalysis'
on Eco is promising, restriction
on meaning
change of codes (and therewith the change of a semantic universe), Eco, was generated by artists, creative forces, who provided But, sadly, de Lauretis
returns to her pre-defined
according
as it allows us to challenge through a pre-defined
La-
symbolic
ema, she concludes
psychoanalytic
that woman could not transform
gress them, stir up some trouble,
structure, that dictates a fixed system, with rigid codes, with which to decipher a
first deconstructed
covered what potentially
though they constitute nant cinema,
fetishism,
a convincing
or the imaginary
in the discourse
sexual, making her into the absolute
phallic scenario,
anaytic
argues that, by being unable to question
film criticism
was unable
signifier, even al-
method to analyse the operations
implicated
De Lauretis
are directly
to engage
to
new interpretations. space which
she had aimed to step out of: she asks how woman could change the codes if she
text. Concepts
such as voyeurism,
a different
reading of a text, nor does she change the codes the Oedipal structure dictates. A
had no access to language. Having defined woman as theoretically De Lauretis concentration
the
in his-
of texts. A different reading
the codes, the 'semantic
society that produces it'. This redefinition by the multilevel
to changing codes,
of cinema, by purely
of domi-
language,
start an argument,
the symbolic,
pervert the codes. Having
as a totalising
was and could be a non-linear
tic space, she now reasserts this totalising
discourse
absent in cin-
the codes but only transdiscourse
that merely
and multifaceted
seman-
by defining herself as being
that bind woman in the
denicd access to language, to agency, as she was a woman within the symbolic
into pure representation.
patriarchal
order.
its own premise, psycho-
in social practice
change. But by focusing on the potential for the re-definition possible
and historical
of codes, it became
By not questioning
her own definition
- a definition
she 'names'
_ she cannot recode her own position within the symbolic.
herself, I argue
De Lauretis believes
that only a slow battle for meaning could shake the foundations,
grind away at
the symbolic order, that, we are starting to suspect, will be very hard to eradicate to oppose the simply totalizing nographic,
cinema
closure of final statements
is voyeurist,
cinema
(cinema is por-
is the imaginary,
machine in Plato's cave, and so on); to seek out contradictions,
the dreamheteroge-
neity, ruptures in the fabric of representation
so thinly stretched - if pow-
erful - to contain excess, division, difference,
resistance;
cal spaces in the seamless ema and by dominant discourse
on technology
narrative
discourses
space constructed
(psychoanalysis,
as autonomous
instance,
to open up critiby dominant
certainly,
cin-
but also the
or the notion of a total
if woman is understood
51
Ibid, p. 34, my italics. Ibid, p. 35, my italics.
by man. Only by deconstructing that is embedded
makes up our own story, could we redefine ourselves.
psycho-
in all narrative
and that
By looking for the niches
in the structure, we could argue with the voices that, as de Lauretis believes, fine us and that we recreate by identifying
with them. In de Lauretis'
the Oedipal structure cannot be detached
from the patriarchal
in and that persisently
This structure
repeats
only be teared at, working recoded.
52
to be 'spoken'
analytic truths, the Oedipal structure
Oedipus.
de-
reasoning
symbolic
we live
is our reality, and can
at its erosion, but it could not easily and simply be
Having thus decided instead of recoding,
to find another
way to conquer
Oedipus,
by questioning
she has to rip apart the Oedipal myth, see how it is con-
structed,
how it constructs
element
she can question,
and is inscribed
in all narrative,
in order to find an
loosen, and recode so that the theoretical
discourse
does not hold anymore: a rupture in the myth might lead to its destruction. Strauss'
conclusion
the Oedipal
that the Latin American
myth was no surprise.
Presupposing
Kinship as a structural base, narratives a structuralist:
once suggested,
seemed incontestable. the evolution
'Bororo'
Levi-
myth closely resembled Structures
of
could not be analysed any differently
by
the connection
The Elementary
De Lauretis turns to Jurij Lotman in order to understand
can 'stir up some trouble'.
By questioning
this classifying
narrative,
uus
there are only two functions:
'ly the hero is male "
the closed
space, the obstacle,
mythical space could also be interpreted Ihat
female.
obvi-
This closed, .
as cave, grave, house:. everythmg,
makes up the myth of woman in the structuralist
obviously
entry into a close.d
from it. Lotman allocates these to sexual difference:
the moving force, the narrative
perceptIon.
movement,
Oedipal myth: the sphinx or Jocasta - are stationary,
whereas
then,
Oedipus
was
wom~n m. the
representing
the functiOns
of the space: the mother.
between Oedipus and narrativity
of the Oedipal myth, and finds an element in his work where she
Lauretis hopes to tear at the foundations tual analysis.
III
"pace, and emergence
elements
of Lotman's
analysis, de
of the Oedipal myth as basis of all tex-
Whereas
until here the description
makes sense, it is interesting man's distribution combined
of narrative
how de Lauretis
of meaning.
analysis
adopts Lot-
She rightly states that in Lotman's
analysis the
work of myth and narrative
does not question
in its geneological
at first uncritically
was the production
of Oedipus,
but she
his fixation of the myth of woman at the base, the 'cultural
massif'55 of narrative: Vladimir Propp had theorised of which
social
order
arose (the Oedipal
change from matriarchy events. Similarly,
that mythical narratives
to patriarchy),
Lotman understood
in that distinct phenomena This analysis
allows
myth, for example,
narratives
described
us to understand
the
The business of the mythical subject is the construction
of historical
as the cyclical mechanism
as playing the role of science,
is its reconciliation
ing occurrences
linked. Most impor-
how theoretical
work of myth and narrative
theoretical
and ideological
meta-narrative.
'scientific'
version of narratives,
produce
Lotman characterises
that delimit the diversity
discourses
are
Oedipus
as a
development
and projecting
specifically,
to in-
first and foremost,
hence, by a sort of accumulation, and history, represented
cycle that could be
can be divided into those that are mobile, who enjoy freedom
with regard to plot-space,
who can change their place in the structure of
the artistic world and cross the frontier, this space, and those who are immobile, of this space.54
the basic topological who represent,
feature of
but
- integr~t-
(heroes and vil-
culture ...
into the tempor~l
of plot - narrative itself takes over the functIOn of the mythithen, is a mapping of differences,
and
of sexual difference
into each text; and
into the universe
of meanll1g, fictIOn"
by the literary-artistic
tradition and all the texts ot
5(,
De Lauretis leaves no alternative Characters
those spatial positions
cal subject. The work of narrative,
role. They represent man's experiences
as systemic, not from birth to death, but as a self-repeating told from any point.
to work through narrative
and excess, modeling fictional characters
ject and obstacle,
myths as the
of phenomena
continues
of differences;
lains, mothers and fathers, sons and lovers) on the mythical places of sub-
of the mythical and the his-
formed: how the combined
variant images, thus having a classifying
the conflict out
thus being a morphology
are made to be seen intimately
tant in his analysis of narrative torical.
represent
by assuming
that all fiction will represent
the
Oedipal myth with its mapping of woman as grave, cave, house, and man as action and movement selves are constituted
in fact, a function
55 56
Ibid, p.116. Ibid, p. 120-121.
" Ibid.
(and has done 'since the beginning by narrative,
by representation,
of time''').
As we our-
she makes it impOSSible
for us to assess whether Oedipus is recreated because we are constituted or whether It IS the nature of narrative to 'first and foremost' ference.
She claims that oppositional
pairs such as inside/outside
life/death are nothing else but derivatives
of the fundamental
boundary and passage, and all these terms were predicated penetrated
raw/cooked
oPPos~tion betwee~ on the male hero who
the other space. He was the active creator of difference
women was not susceptible element of plot-space,
to transformation,
a topos, a resistance,
Her uncritical following
to life or death;
whereas the 'she (it) is an
II<"
should have preserved
,bowed the patriarchal '1t)1
II::
these totalising
the Freudian
hegemony,
discourses
to detect multifaceted
(ritically
she had suggested
Freud for
inability to speak in culture. If, in Freud's
language
as this language
ac-
We are reminded penetrates
of...the
add up to Mulvey's
w.ork of Lotman's
versed:
'Story demands
forcing
a change
tnarchal
honed by a centuries-long
culture and still at work with a vengeance
gies and social technologies'''. Oedipus as representative
in contemporary
It was no coincidence
('penetration', created
pa-
epistemolo-
that Freud had chosen
tory/defeat,
phrase,
sadism,
Dante,
Plato,
human social development
Vico
and
Marx,
as most
and diaries or speaking
lives - was not an accidental
in narrative of us
do
terms - as in writing
about our personal
or idiosnycratic
the effect and the demonstration
choice on Freud's
of the 'structuring
capacity'
or public part, but (as Levi-
Strauss might say) of the narrative form, its coding function in the attribution of meaning, its patterning this light, I suggested, tive is trans-cultural itself,'
as Barthes
of experience
must be examined and trans-historical,
so elegantly
as epic or dramatic action. In
the semiotic postulate that narrathat it 'is simply there, like life
put it; which also makes necessary,
course, the examination of the critical knowledge, their Oedipal [oo.J logic.60
in another
person,
then, was mainly a product
dIScussIon of Heath's
discourses
and their quest
of for
through its language,
Ibid, p. 126.
hero who
a story,' something
only rehappen,
a battle of will and strength,
woman-ness
patriarchal
into its own participation
vic-
and an end.''''
women into identifying
had to be enforced with themselves
fear of aphanisis,
of his time, and going back to my
discourse
seduced the girl,
in the mythical
as abstract value. Using psychoanalytic
sises that their consent
construction
of
theory, de Lauretis empha-
through
seduction,
by seducing
as abstract value. But why this critical-
ity, we start to wonder, if de Lauretis says there is nothing we can 'do' against it, if we cannot recode as we cannot speak in language?
Her answer is that we
might not be able to recode in language, but we could question the solidity of the sign- functions in a redefinition
'narrative
movement:
man', and 'narrative
of the gaze in opposition
to Mulvey's
approach that she sees room for contradiction, gument. If she confused other, could not Oedipus
the sign-functions, as structuring
image: woman'.
classical
for the opportunity exchanged
It is
psychoanalytic to start an ar-
one cultural unit for an-
myth be fractured?
And could, then,
mode of sign production,
which has
been the Oedipal myth?
she would have agreed with Gallop that as man and everything
60
demands
on making
If Lotman is right and the mythical mechanism "Ibid, p, [19. " Ibid, p. 25.
of Lotman's
the obstacle ... And all these
all occurring in a linear time with a beginning
there not occur a change in the historical F~eud himself,
had to be world-view
of the child's entry into adult life:
That Freud envisioned did
how Lot-
'castration')
the phallocentric
'sadism
depends
In other words, then, the phallocentric,
(auto)biographies
herself again, drawing
slaying of the Medusa;
images
mechanism,"
we should abolish, in order for
into the other space and overcomes
count, her story turned out to be his story, 'it may be less Freud's doing than the "text-generating
as it clearly
cage, she turns around and emphasises
phallocentric
questioned
instead,
semantic spaces? Contradicting
, ,,-des in her own theoretical 'lian's and Freud's
term 'castration'
the prick. Here, the snake bites its tail. Was it
Ihrough a fusion of the mythical and narrative:
matrix and matter'''.
of Lotman' s analysis leads her to congratulate
having tried to theorise woman's
by him,
inscribe sexual dif-
produces
else as, not even 'woman',
the human being
but non-man,
an abso-
lute abstraction
(and this has been so since the beginning
of time
since
the origin of plot at the origin of culture), the question arises, how ~r with whIch positions do readers, viewers, or listeners identify, given that they are already SOCially constituted women and men 762
rigid analysis.
If woman can be a figure of movement,
:;peak in language. struction
This is a promising
she could, potentially,
critique of Lotman and attempted
of the Oedipal myth: woman, then, is not only inaction
only action. Could such a recoding, by becoming resist repeating,
re-employing
decon-
and man not
aware of this duality, make us
the myth as structuring
tool and meta-narrative?
De Lauretis asks herself how, and with whom, women identify in film. She argues that Identification
with her own objectification
tron tor women to be entertained by means of identification cannot be the soothing own objectified
by film. She recurrently
that personality
feeling
cannnot be enough motiva-
is constituted
of 'wholeness'
image that seduces
emphasises
and specified,
through identification
women into watching
that it is but it
with her
films. Nobody _ not
even a woman, as Virgina Woolf is said to have argued _ can really see oneself as an mert object or a sightless
body. Why then, do women watch films
how? First of all, it is questionable
and
that women identify with the woman a~ im-
age at all, as Freud himself had argued that the necessity to seduce women into femininity
is based on her need (and at times, inability) to suppress
SIde throughout out ot her 'male'
her life. Hence, it could be argued that women's side, and that she alternates
between
her active
pleasure arises
being the bearer of the
look, and being the object of the gaze. The problem with this idea, though, ar-
Her 'double identification'
promises to be opening an escape from stereotypical
perceptions
But de Lauretis
of femininity.
emphasises
that it has to be remem-
bered that the camera is directed by subjects of our time, shaped by a patriarchal structure, and the figures to identify with are thus construed tivity. In our patriarchal can only be subversive
society, then, identification as an interrogation,
by an Oedipal narra-
as the subject of the gaze
an interruption
in a harmonious
nar-
rative leading into perfect Oedipal closure. The trouble was caused, it was a beginning,
an opening for more interruptions
well as filmmakers
to come. But because
are subjects in history, constituted
was not likely they would view 'innocently',
spectators
as
by Oedipal reasoning,
it
or without this narrativity
into them. For de Lauretis it is clear that this narrativity that therefore,
the discovery of the double identification
ing, an interruption,
burned
will be dominant,
and
can only be a question-
not a recoding.
gues de LauretIs, IS that one cannot alternate between image and gaze within one person, as no image can be identified
with without the look that inscribes it as
Image. The image has to be seen and desired as coherent Identify with it. There is no identification
image before I can
without the gaze. The image in which
my narCISSIstic ego finds fulfillment simultaneously represents other, the image that soothes the other's fear of castration.
a fetish for the
I argue that the subversive psychoanalytically ing constituted de Winter's (m)other. secured:
Against Mulvey,. de Lauretis concludes WIth the look ot the camera. women: if identifying
Going back to Lotman,
simUltaneously
larly WIth both the figure of movement sIstIcally)
desiring
that it cannot only be men who identify
other, to he fetish-object,
women's
argues that
with the look and the image, identify simiand the figure of its closure. By (narcis-
the other (her image),
women mto femininity
de Lauretis
and the desire to be desired
enjoyment
by the
potential
of her 'interruption'
defining the female spectator's
is foiled, though, by
active side as a form of desir-
by familial relations. In her reading of Hitchcock's desire for her own image is defined
Therewith,
the reiteration
of the Oedipal
through
Rebecca, Mrs
the desire
for the
myth is not challenged
but
in a world where the union with the mother, for both girls and boys,
remains the foundational objectification
definition
of the object a, a necessary
her reading of Rebecca, the subversive identification,
fetishisation
of women, which will lead to an Oedipal closure, is inevitable. therefore,
potential
can only be empowering
of her discovery
and In
of the double
within this Oedipal
world-
view. Let me explain.
of cinema and its power to seduce
can be found in exactly this scope for double identifica-
tion. Finally, she does achieve a mixing, a gender-confusion,
within Lotman's
To recount the plot in brief: Maxim de Winter, a rich, young widower, the very innocent
'Mrs de Winter',
marries
fifteen years his junior, who follows him to
his large estate, 'Manderley'
in Cornwall.
renowned
had ensured the estate was the most glamorous
socialite, Rebecca,
Until her death, his former wife and in
the county by giving extravagant
parties and enjoying
the Manor. Mrs de Winter, in contrast, inadequate.
Her relationship
vers keeps comparing inadequacies.
her position
is overwhelmed
with the housekeeper,
as Lady of
by the task, and feels
Mrs Danvers, is tense: Dan-
her to her former mistress, and shows up Mrs de Winter's
Danvers cons Mrs de Winter into giving a costume ball, tricking
her into choosing
the same costume Rebecca had worn a year earlier, that of an
ancestor whose portrait hangs in the hall of ManderJey. into a disaster as Maxim receives
The costume ball turns
a shock when seeing Mrs de Winter looking
all-encompassing
meta-narrative
an Oedipal
teleology
(m)other as eternal and inaccessible ing to de Lauretis, is 'tamed'
love-object.
The girl's clitoral drive, accordnon-patriarchal
ity. What she ignores, though, is that the definition
of such a drive, and infatua-
tion with the mother, is exactly theorised girls equally undergo.
The (m)other
as love-object
and 'origin'
reveals to his new wife that he had killed Rebecca out of hate and hurt pride, as
'the feminine'
will have to be denigrated.
she had constantly
(m)other, hence, will always sustain a war of the sexes.
the verbal representations
in the life-size portrait of the ancestor and in made of her, bears the weight of meaning and
serves as the term of the heroine's heroine's
identification
with the Mother. .. The
double relation of desire for the Father and for the Mother (as
image and as image internalized
as self-image)
is inscribed by the looks in
what I have called a double figural identification: (Rebecca), and with the narrative movement ine is the subject, the protagonist."]
with the narrative image
of which the nameless
hero-
will, eternally
in order to exist as a subject and hence, The notion
of a desire
for the
Even if we could separate the desires for the mother as image on the one hand, and as self-image
image, suggested
form of real-
through the mirror stage, that boys and
have to be disavowed
Rebecca's
and, finally, cl~sure,
but would, without this taming, lead to a different,
and inevitably,
'contract', in which Rebecca had held the power. Mr and Mrs de Winter escape from a burning Manderley into a new life.
This teleology,
in the notion of the
through an Oedipal narrative
like his deceased wife. That night, a fire breaks out, and in the upheavel Maxim betrayed him - their marriage had been nothing other than a
dictates.
though, as argued before in chapter one, has its foundation
on the other hand as de Lauretis
suggests,
Winter 'the Father',
and not merely a lover? We repeatedly
first: the inscription
of sexual difference
time', this inscription
following
of Oedipus onto the narrative,
into narrative
an Oedipal structure,
or de Lauretis'
she herself being conditioned
Installing
secondary,
desire, makes him into the 'enemy',
narrative
wonder what comes
'since the beginning
an Oedipal structure. 'outside'
why is Maxim de
him as 'the Father'
in thinking
ignores
(m)other will always reproduce
wlthm
who, as figure, introduc~s
is that the phallic
a
creat1l1g a mythIcal
to the sexual union of mother and daughter, that could 'work',
not exist. What de Lauretis
of all
inscription
power
if he dId
ascribed
to the
a war of the sexes, the need to objectif:.wom.en:
and hence, the union of mother
and daughter
as constitutive
of a temlmst
world would always be seriously thwarted. In other words, the heroine's desire for an enigmatic,
desire for Rebecca (which I too would argue is the
beautiful
woman) is, according
one hand the desire for 'the Mother'
to de Lauretis,
as image: as love-object,
on the
as that with which
Let us return to Lotman: narrative produces Oedipus, because it has incorporated the mythical,
a union is craved, that which the child wants to possess. On the other hand, it is
narrative
the desire for 'the Mother'
boundaries.
the mother as ego-ideal,
as internalised
prepared
pal phase, as through identification obtained.
self-image.
in the mirror stage and generated with her image, the father's
This desire for the father (by becoming
seems to represent a secondary,
It is the identification
with
in the Oedi-
phallus can be
what she thinks he desires)
Oedipal desire, one installed by narrative, by the
which Lotman codes as woman,
movement:
which
Lotman
codes
Grave, cave, house, are nothing
coded through the immovable,
the narrative
grave, cave, house; and added
as man, action,
transgressIon
but codes for woman, obstacle,
of
woman is
the closed space. But be-
cause she is coded as such, she cannot act, cannot move, and cannot speak 111 language,
argues de Lauretis. In her own work, then, the signifier
are fixed: Metz still rules. The political gating the double identification, we could insert the potential
and signified
action left for her is to suggest mterro-
focusing on it and seeking out ruptures in which for change.
By arguing
that both the flgure of
movement
and the figure of closure could both be female (which insinuates,
course, that both could also be male), she aims to demythologise
of
is protracted long enough (as has been said of Rebecca) or in enough films
Oedipus. If the
girl does not have to give up her clitoral drive, her homosexual
( and several have already been made), the viewer may come to suspect
desire for the
that such duplicity, such contradition
mother, in order to shift her focus onto the father and become passive and recep-
resolved.
tive - resembling
the grave, the cave and the house - then she could remain ac-
d'Anna
tive, transgressive,
and she could create codes herself. But, as has been argued,
by remaining
within the Oedipal language,
de Lauretis forfeits the potential
In Rebecca,
of course,
by Chantal Akerman,
cannot and perhaps even need not be
it is; but it is not in Les Rendez-vous
for example,
or in Bette Gordon's
Variety
are art films that found a minoritarian
specta-
( 1983).65
of
this recoding of Lotman. Her interpretation of Rebecca, sadly, strongly reinstalls Oedipus as omnipotent and structuring mythology.
The films she quotes, obviously,
lorship and are not easily available.
If these are the examples
that it was possible to answer Laura Mulvey's Having shown her desire and interest in her husband's of Rebecca
has to kill 'the Mother'
- and therewith,
former wife, the heroine
part of herself _ so that she
sire' without the 'stoic, brutal prescription visual pleasure,
that seemed inevitable
of self-discipline,
change can actually occur, if these changes
which the man will be rewarded:
film. By quoting
has been promised to the little man will be given to him. The heroine has to turn away from the mother and focus on the father:
alternatives
contradictions
those films according If the heroine of Rebecca is made to kill off the mother, it is not only be-
nology - she cannot articulate be subversive
mechanism'
demand
an alternative.
if the 'questioning'
is answered,
the diffi-
And by focusing on those films
closure,
to a strictly psychoanalytic
cause the rules of the drama and Lotman' s 'mythical
of
how much
cannot come about in mainstream
landscape.
into Oedipal
of de-
the destruction
that are hardly known, she emphasises
culty of escaping her own theoretical that dissolve
plea for a 'new language
at the time'66, it is doubtful
can focus on her husband. This way, the film can be drawn to a happy ending in the Oedipal scenario will be fulfilled if what
she takes as proof
as in Rebecca,
and reading
reading - using Oedipal termi-
Her 'double identification'
cannot
yet again, by Oedipus.
narrative closure; it is also because, like them, cinema works for Oedipus. The heroine therefore
has to move on, like Freud's
little girl, and take her
place where Oedipus will find her awaiting him. What if, once he reached this destination,
he found that Alice didn't live there anymore?
He would
promptly set out to find another, to find true woman or at least her truthful image.""
Let us step out of the Oedipal cage and assume, speak in language.
for a moment,
woman could
Let us assume she was not craving a union with the mother,
and that she did not feel castrated been coded as concave,
- this might be because
but as a proud triangle,
her genitals have not
strong armour, less vulnerable
than men's genitals - and she does not aim to be the phallus for her father, in order to obtain his phallus, because he does not interest her. Let us assume she
At the same time as arguing that we do not seem to be able to change man's Oedipal desiring structure, de Lauretis suggests that
desires according to another logic than the Oedipal one; a desiring that yet has to be theorised,
as we do not know her story, and have not yet weaved a myth out
of it. Let us assume, that because she does not want to have his phallus - because if the specatator's
identification
specific cinematic-narrative narrative),
it should be possible
shift or redirect identification define the female's
is engaged
and directed
in each film by
codes (the place of the look, the figures of to work through those codes in order to
toward the two positionalities
Oedipal situation;
and if the alternation
she does not feel lacking - that she does not speak in his language, speak the same language,
but that this language
scribing relations that have not been described
of desire that between them 65
Ibid.
66
Ibid, p. 155.
that they did
could be put to new uses, de-
through it yet.
Let us, then, have a look at Rebecca. Would it, perhaps, then be easier to watch
in such sparkling
the film closely, and to listen to the last part of it attentively,
in Rebecca being presented
gested that Rebecca de Winter secretely
in which it is sug-
called herself 'Rebecca
Danvers'
and
grandeur
(music underlining
excited about her, to gaze at Rebecca's
belongings
did this even before she was married to Maxim de Winter? Would it be pos'sible
luscious identity, tantalising
that Mrs Danvers
becca is sexual, because she is forbidden;
vers' infatuation
was Rebecca's
mother, which would correspond
with Dan-
and love for her? Now, if Rebecca was a daughter, and as such,
very much mothered,
what makes her at thirty-six
into a femme fatalesque
or is still celebrated
the dramatic
moment) culminate
as a rare and delicate luxury. We are invited to be that make up this enigmatic,
in nair style with mirrors, pearls, and shadows. Reshe is a luxury, because she had been,
as, unique, unobtainable
- 'Nobody
owned Rebecca',
says
Danvers in the film.
mother of a young woman in her early twenties? Is it not more plausible that the new Mrs de Winter was sexually attracted
to Rebecca beyond a desiring based
on the mother, and that here, the double identification does work, if we omit Oedipus?
de Lauretis herself defines
But does Mrs de Winter's
yearning for Rebecca pose a threat to the union with
Max? Is it not, rather, that Rebecca as rival poses a threat to Mrs de Winter, and that, by diminishing
Rebecca's
grandeur
in letting his new wife into his dark
secrets, Max allows Mrs de Winter to come closer to him? Rebecca remains, to Mrs de Winter desires herself being desired by being like Rebecca, alter ego throughout
the film: everybody
has to be emphasised to Rebecca,
- encourages
(apart from Maxim de Winter, who _ it
her to be natural and 'herself')
and portrays her as everything
not afraid of anything';
'Everybody
Mrs de Winter is not: 'Rebecca
was
who is pale,
with the task of running a huge estate and
being a socialite, wishes she was as efficient,
glamorous
This is what the new life requires of her. Rebecca her ego-ideal,
compares her
adored her'. Mrs de Winter,
submISSIve and shy, and overwhelmed
who is her
surely, is the submissive,
and strong as Rebecca.
is as such not an ego-ideal:
shy and well-behaved
and which enabled her to work as travelling
companion
girl she became,
for old ladies. Thus, Re-
becca as alter image is not modelled on the mother, if de Lauretis insinuates
that
Mrs de Winter, just as alluring and sexual, her hedonistic in the court case, even after being demystified
by Max. To the viewer (and, I
argue, to Mrs de Winter), Rebecca is not destroyed ter has found affirmation Manderley
in the fire; but Mrs de Win-
by not having to compare herself to Rebecca anymore:
is gone, and so are her tasks. Nevertheless,
identification
continues.
glory follows her even
There are two stories:
one part of the double-
a Hitchcockian
detective
plot,
and a love story; and, I argue, the love story remains. The story is told as a reminiscence: we are told at the beginning of Manderley,
and the passionate
of the film that Mrs de Winter still thinks
flames licking out of the ruins of Manderley
the end of the film suggest that it is Rebecca,
not Manderley,
at
whom she cannot
forget.
Rebecca is the mother Mrs de Winter yearns to be in order to possess the father. Her yearning criticism
to be Rebecca
is generated
by the tasks allocated
she receives for not doing them adequately,
tating her to be 'good',
to her and the
which her ego-ideal,
cannot live with. It is the positive appraisal
dic-
of Rebecca
from the people who surround
her that make her see an ideal in Rebecca:
ideal, it has to be emphasised, scious.
is novel to her, not deeply rooted in the uncon-
this
Rebecca
has to be given up as ideal, but not as love-object.
Oedipal version,
it would be the exact opposite:
given up as love-object
Simutaneous]y,
story promises to be different:
Mrs de Winter herself desires Rebecca, the image of 'black lace room that until then
she had not dared to enter, she nearly faints at the sight of Rebecca's The taboo around entering her chambers,
ing it, and the secrecy around her belongings
in order to be able to possess the father. The Mrs de Winter remains her shy self, and she and
Max live a quieter life from now on, more adequate
and pearls'. When Danvers shows Mrs de Winter Rebecca's underwear.
in order to turn to the father, whereas the mother as ego-
ideal would remain internalised
also the way Susan
the transgression
that, when revealed,
night- and in enter-
are presented
Maurier's
Hill portrays
the couple
to their quiet love, which is
in her sequel
Rebecca, which she called Mrs de Winter. Surely,
could be objectifying.
In de Lauretis'
the mother would have to be
Being nameless,
What are Mrs de Winter's
feelings
de
though, could just as much be enigmatic.
towards
Rebecca?
much is clear, reduces them into fitting an analysable process, reducing their polysemantic
to Daphne
being nameless
potential:
Oedipalising
them, that
- and hence controllable
-
it could be far more complex, her
sexuality
far more ambiguous.
supposed
'Mother'.
And, finally:
Max - apparently
she did not kill off Rebecca,
- killed Rebecca:
Mother in order to possess the daughter? does not seem to fit.
Whatever
her
so did the Father kill the
angle we turn it, the triangle
allocation of men to narrative ceed in being subversive, vengeance.
Only by recoding
the polysemic
landscape
enables us to understand
why women enjoy mainstream
image in one. Had she not remapped setting, her critique of Lotman's
double identification
films: they are gaze and
this double identification
narrative
mechanism
Lauretis envisages.
further,
for identification
theorises
amount
This creation
and woman with image, does not suc-
by blurring
de Lauretis
access to, can a questioning In my version, Oedipus does not rule, and still, de Lauretis'
movement
as the reason
is Oedipal
more boundaries,
through
to the changing
will not change
with a
by creating
Eco but denies herself of mythical
patriarchal
structures
oppression
night, but it is a start.
onto an Oedipal
could have been helpful.
In a beautiful
ending to the chapter
'Desire in Narrative',
de Lauretis concludes
If the mythical, which he had coded as woman, was recoded as being both man
that if Oedipus does not solve the Riddle of the Sphinx, if the contradiction
and woman, the sign-vehicles
desire is left open and is unsoluble,
cultural units. Theoretical
might remain intact, but be exchanged
discourses
coded again; but her commitment narrative, release
in spite of her attempt to deconstruct
the potential
of a fusion
of Lotman's
I argued that the joy of being affirmed lack in search of its gendered
Maxim's
affirmation
important
ones (Max's sister and Mrs Danvers)
deal with the fact that they, men, are born of women. In other words, if we take the mythical out of narrative, or recode the mythical, change could occur. On the
to de
as image does not rest on the
binary opposition
Mrs de Winter yearns, but everybody
of the phallus Mrs de Winter engages
to fill it; it is not else's, of which two
are women. It is, then, not a war
that Rebecca is portrayed
tive. Simultaneously,
we identifiy
other hand, though,
she anxiously
states in the quote above, suggesting
would not be restored to him, that he would 'promptly
Alice
set out to find another, to
find true woman or at least her truthful image'. Lotman and Eco provide the basic tools with which the change
could be described,
macy of the signifier, by not leaving narrative's
Oedipus,
but by not leaving the pri-
de Lauretis
stays trapped in this
teleology.
in, but a negative will to power, a slave-
with the heroine of the film, then, makes us crave the
eral affirmation
of
other ways to
re-
and Eco's tools. Contrary
Lacanian
men would have to imagine
of the Oedipal drama into all
it, does not allow de Lauretis to
Lauretis,
mentality. Identifying
with other
would change, be further questioned,
to the inscription
de
over-
as embodying,
makes us become reac-
with Mrs de Winter
becca: we are invited to desire Rebecca's portrayed to us.
luxurious
sexual desire for Re-
sexuality, that is seductively
But how can I not believe in patriarchal
tion of women? Because I argue that accepting enable us to step out of objectification; abstract measure shown,
cannot
'woman',
through Michel Foucault,
am able to speak in language,
in supporting
do not aim to speak as woman that was enunciated
by patriarchal
society. Patri-
silencing of woman, how can I and the objectifica-
that we are objectified
because the exchange
will not
of the object, the
is linked to an Oedipal vicious circle that, as I have
be escaped.
I have taken the liberty to recode, and it did not hurt. Contrary to de Lauretis, I because I consider myself able to do so, because I
society's
think I could just speak? How can I ignore gender inequality
In the next chapter,
I will theorise
this further
taking another step on the road away from feminism
his attempt to desexualise
femininity,
as only through a recodmg
of the matter, change can come about.
archal society is reiterated through a certain code, a certain theory; and it is up to us to change through ourselves
it. If we bar the last code, if we censor our freedom
theoretical powerless.
elaborations,
we play into patriarchy's
to recode
power - we render
If we are given a tool with which to put change into prac-
tice, but then destroy it by limiting
its use so things do not get out of hand,
where we might not know the rules anymore - beyond the father's law - we have not moved very far. De Lauretis'
attempt at questioning,
at confusing
the fixed
If narrative
is governed
by an Oedipal
within the system of exchange woman functions that exchange.
instituted
logic, it is because
it is situated
by the incest prohibition,
as both a sign (representation)
where
and a value (object) for
And ... the woman as Mother (matter and matrix, body and
womb) is the primary than money'.67
measure
of value,
'an equivalent
more universal The first chapter showed how feminists
If a sign is associated
with its value, and the value is defined as an object of ex-
seemed to escape gyno-Iogical
found psychoanalysis
feminism's
determinism.
change, thIS object being woman as matter, as womb, as mother, then we must
the means through which it could be articulated
recode woman first so that the signs can change. Holding on to our victimised
the one hand, a meaning-effect
position in binary opposition
sexual difference
to man can only reiterate war: it is time to grow up
supported
produced
by representation,
and change the laws instead. And accept that it is a lonely path out there, and whatever
which is not necessarily
return will, by selecting Deleuze-Guattari's
suggestions
how to become-woman. praise her advances. to Deleuze,
an affirmative
will-to-power,
eternal
which is employed
in
of how to make oneself a Body without Organs,
I will first look at Judith Butler's
use of Foucault
territory,
returning
back home, looking for se-
cunty, now and then. This is the territory from which I will keep on deterritorialising, the safety net that will ensure that I will not get lost.
and on the other,
through
is produced
was, on
identification.
in Oedipalised
This was a chicken-and-egg
of which could be halted, broken or redirected
The
society,
logic, the ongoby interrupting
or
by 'stirring up some trouble'.
and
But where her work returns to Freud and Lacan, I wal~ on,
out into unchartered
ing circularity interrogating,
universal.
provided
how sexual difference
its own representation
tendency to identify with sexual stereotypes
you do: Daddy will not approve. What will, then? Nietzsche's
useful because it
Pychoanalysis
I argued that the Lacanian lated the processes
feminist
approaches
discussed
through which subjectivity
in this thesis articu-
was constructed
in language
being dependent
on symbolic castration,
and that this theoretical
not be removed
from the dispossession
of a real penis, as much as Lacan had
attempted
to reformulate
that Lacanian
the phallus as belonging
psychoanalysis
discussed, reiterated
a gender war that seemed impossible
stream film reiterated were questioned
Judith Butler's work, promises Foucault's
I further
aimed to
to describe gendered identification
in main-
this unsolvable
dilemma,
even if psychoanalytic
use of Foucault, new insights,
steps forward
could be extended
feminism will be elaborated into a Deleuzo-Guattarian
methodology
analysis and defends the use of assorted psychoanalytic circle her theoretical
of how to 'make'
Butler holds on to Freudian
It is these assorted concepts,
throughout
and away from the feminist
potential to redefine and de-sexualise
Foucault envisages,
units from an
in a roundabout.
who is critical of psychoanalysis
nism, which provides a more elaborate
Foucault.
By not departing
feminist critical theorists are 'stuck'
But sadly, where Foucault tiplicities
by men's fear of castration, to escape.
or a classic analysis was interrupted.
Oedipal superstructure,
feminists
the phallus, and women as lacking;
focus on the phallus, explained
show how the use of psychoanalysis
a method with which to
This was because, in the Lacanian
men were defined as possessing
and the increased
could
to nobody. Thus, I concluded
did not seem to provide
change social or gender structures.
construct
as
and Lacanian
his trap. on. femi-
the mulpsycho-
concepts fiercely against
though, that lock Butler into the vicious
work had aimed to escape.
womb) is the primary than money'."
measure
of value,
'an equivalent
more universal The first chapter showed how feminists
If a sign is associated
with its value, and the value is defined as an object of ex-
seemed to escape gyno-Iogical
found psychoanalysis
feminism's
determinism.
change, this object being woman as matter, as womb, as mother, then we must
the means through which it could be articulated
recode woman first so that the signs can change. Holding on to our victimised
the one hand, a meaning-effect
position in binary opposition
sexual difference
to man can only reiterate war: it is time to grow up
supported
produced
its own representation
and change the laws instead. And accept that it is a lonely path out there, and
tendency to identify with sexual stereotypes which is not necessarily
you do: Daddy will not approve. What will, then? Nietzsche's
return will, by selecting Deleuze-Guattari's
how to become-woman. praise her advances. to Deleuze,
an affirmative
suggestions
will-to-power,
eternal
which is employed
in
of how to make oneself a Body without Organs,
I will first look at Judith Butler's
use of Foucault,
territory,
returning
provided
through
is produced
was, on
and on the other, identification.
in Oedipalised
This was a chicken-and-egg
of which could be halted, broken or redirected
The
society,
logic, the ongoby interrupting
or
by 'stirring up some trouble'.
and
But where her work returns to Freud and Lacan, I walk on,
out into unchartered
ing circularity interrogating,
universal.
Pychoanalysis
how sexual difference
by representation,
whatever
useful because it
back home, looking for se-
curity, now and then. This is the territory from which I will keep on deterritorialising, the safety net that will ensure that I wi II not get lost.
I argued that the Lacanian lated the processes
feminist
approaches
discussed
through which subjectivity
in this thesis articu-
was constructed
in language
on symbolic castration,
and that this theoretical
not be removed
from the dispossession
of a real penis, as much as Lacan had
attempted
to reformulate
that Lacanian
the phallus as belonging
psychoanalysis
discussed,
and the increased reiterated
focus on the phallus,
a gender war that seemed
show how the use of psychoanalysis stream film reiterated were questioned
explained
impossible
by men's fear of castration, to escape.
I further
aimed to in main-
dilemma,
even if psychoanalytic
use of Foucault, new insights,
who is critical of psychoanalysis steps forward
units from an
could be extended
nism, which provides a more elaborate tiplicities Foucault envisages,
his trap.
feminism will be elaborated into a Deleuzo-Guattarian
methodology
of how to 'make'
Butler holds on to Freudian
analysis and defends the use of assorted psychoanalytic It is these assorted concepts,
throughout
and away from the feminist
potential to redefine and de-sexualise
But sadly, where Foucault
circle her theoretical
By not departing
feminist critical theorists are 'stuck' in a roundabout.
work, promises
Foucault.
feminists
and women as lacking;
to describe gendered identification
this unsolvable
Judith Butler's Foucault's
the phallus,
or a classic analysis was interrupted.
Oedipal superstructure,
a method with which to
This was because, in the Lacanian
men were defined as possessing
could
to nobody. Thus, I concluded
did not seem to provide
change social or gender structures.
construct
as
being dependent
on.
femithe mul-
and Lacanian psycho-
concepts fiercely against
though, that lock Butler into the vicious
work had aimed to escape.
Why is it important
to discuss Butler? First, because her use of Foucault invites
us into a theoretical because
landscape
one could extend into new territories.
her. refusal to do so is especially
Spivak said m an endorsement book in our feminist 'must'.
tragic since, as Gayatri Chakravorty
for Butler's
theory classes.'
In Gender Trouble,
Gender Trouble, 'We will all use this
Seen as progressive,
Butler attacks essentialist
mote the notion that gender is rooted in nature, erosexuality.
not only the contingency
endorsements, of 'woman'.' thoritative
as problematic
reinstalls
after first attacking an inevitable
'parodic performances',
trying to
that Butler makes 'the cate-
of gender.'
I argue, though, that
the 'naturalness
gender binarism
the most au-
of gender'
by her political
through
strategy
which is created out of a fusion of Foucaultian
theory. Although
s.cape, her own methodology
theoretically
fighting
of
and psy-
for a cross-gendered
land-
encloses her within the confines of binary opposi-
tiOns based on an Oedipal logic, and hence, cannot achieve the subversion
she
envisages. Clearly seeing psychoanalysis' subjection Foucault
determinisms
mainly on a notion of reiterative to be describing,
First, she criticises
to the matter of sexuality.' This interiority
'real', if adequately
finds two problems
for lacking a methodology
in his work.
with which to strategi-
second, she accuses him of posing an intrinsic essence She deduces
can avoid a dialectic, that even Foucault's interiority.
and therefore basing her theory of practices of the self which she reads
Butler nevertheless
Foucault
cally theorise subversion;
of Foucault as being a closet Hegelian
to favour Lacan instead, as she accuses Foucault Lacanian psychoanalysis second 'bestseller',
avoids if 'the real' is adequately to the questions
leaves open. Looking at different interpretations voj Zizek's
determinism
tion instead. Nevertheless dialectical
conception
the stepping
Lacanian
that Foucault,
psycho-
in her mind,
of 'the real', she cntlclses
and favours Ernesto Laclau's
that
defined. Hence, in her
Bodies that Matter, Butler turns towards
analysis in order to find solutions
which allows her
of posing an essentialism
poststructuralist
Sla-
adapta-
stone is laid here for a move towards
a
of the subject that is closer to German idealism than Fou-
cault's critique of psychoanalysis.
as recent feminist theory has made the category
Sandra Lee Bartky praises her for having 'provided
Butler unfortunately,
choanalytic
in performance,
het-
of gender and sex, but sex per se. In the
attack to date on the 'naturalness'
Foucault,
'the body', or a necessary
Donna Haraway thus acknowledges
g~ry of 'female'
Butler is a feminist
gender theories that pro-
She argues that gender is materialised
deconstruct
Secondly,
lt is thus her perception
from this that no theory of subjection focus on exteriority
is better theorised
hides an essential
through Lacan: his account of the
read through Ernesto Laclau, de-essentialises
ties. And such a de-essentialised
interiority,
employed to theorise subversion
strategically.
our interiori-
the resistant unconcious,
could be
This conception
is picked up and elaborated
in her third book, The Psychic Life
of Power, where she moves even closer to a Lacanian identity. Believing that all theories of subjection clearly defend a Hegelian conception emphasises
interpretation
of gender
followed a dialectic leads her to
of subjection,
whose dialectic structure re-
the Lacanian lack at the base of the subject. From here, she theonses
a strategy for subversive del' identities
practices,
an open mourning
through parodic performances,
are phantasmatic.
This political
Foucaultian
account of reiterative
unconscious
through psychoanalytic
The defence of Hegel's psychoanalysis
strategy practices
of never-obtamable
in order to show how all Identities is created
out of a fusion
of the self and a descnptiOn
of the of the
theory.
dialectic in order to strengthen
reiterates
g~n-
the deterministic
the validity of Lacanian
pitfalls we have analysed
in c~~pter
one. I argue that this move leads to 'mourning'
which 'slows thmgs down -, es-
pecially
within the public perception
of
gender. This is because the feminist dilemma we have analysed IS reiterated,
the
social change and new developments
Oedipal circle continued
and re-emphasised
in the mourning
process. I suggest
in chapter three that, where Butler finds problems with Foucault, towards a Deleuzean
anti-Hegelianism
rather than a Lacanian
swers. First, though, I here aim to defend Foucault guing that he can be used more extensively
2
she should turn approach
against Butler's
than she thinks.
quote by Adam Philipps in his critique of Butler, to be elaborated
later in the text.
for an-
critique, ar-
:::r:~I:I::'~O ::~s~~ :;~I :;;~:~::o;ate hon Foudcault' s ~ritique of psychoanalysis T ' , or er un erstandmg of gender in Gender rouble, My aim IS to set up Foucault as the desi can and will b I gner of escape routes - which e e aborated through Deleuze - to the Oed' I d'i curringly tra d' b" Ipa I emma we got reppe m e,ore. After criticisina Butler's H I' d " th ' b ege Ian etermllllsm and e ensumg psychoanalytic convictions I will set up a d' I b Butlerian approach, i,e. her problems Wi~h Foucault and t la ogue etween, the lutIOns she finds throughout her work and wh t I . he psychoanalytic so, c a perceive to be Fl' swers. Finally I 'II d', ' . , oucau tIan an, WI ISCUSSthe determlOIstlc traps of parodic perfor ' reference to draa culture d 'I' mances m them 0 fl . bEl' , ' an WI I move mto popular culture in order to find n 1m, m fnede JelInek's use of parody in The P' T' h ' the first ch. t . " lano 1 eac er. As m ap el, an analysIs of a cultural text will sh h . , th .', ow ow not only femIlllst eory texts, but their practical employment in film th ' .. . . or eatre cntIclsm or mak mg, can reiterate gender stereotypes. -
Butler's
ambivalent
position
towards
psychoanalysis
is introduced
in Gender
Trouble, and will confuse us over her next two books, Bodies that Matter and The Psychic Life of Power. In the preface to Gender
Trouble,
she repeats the
question we aimed to answer in chapter one: 'Is psychoanalysis tionalist inquiry that affirms the kind of sexual complexity regulates
rigid and hierarchical
ledged set of assumptions
analysis provides insights that Foucault's Foucault's
production,
If repetition
ties, the politicality sive repetition
understanding
theorisations
it was an open mourning potential.
the regulatory
each gender as mourning
one, defined
phallus, and the deterministic basing subjectivation
subversion
approach
seemingly
lack, which we have, following
processes
from the lack of the
only, is sharply criticised
avoids. In the following,
by Butler
her psychoanalytic
I will first elaborate
her turn towards
Butler
Grosz and
entails. Foucault, though,
in his theory of subjectivation
before discussing
of its
that held this
psychoanalysis,
as being non-detachable
in external
of identity
terms, as lacking,
performance
through
traps that this reasoning
as she detects an essentialism
practice
the non-fulfillment
in psychoanalytic
in the form of a parodic
By theorising
in the subject a Lacanian
use of Foucault
re-
of identi-
we could deduce from Foucault was the search for a subver-
that might call into question
Gallop in chapter
she arpsycho-
lacked, and which could
of the cultural reproduction
Other, or its self, as the subject is conceived,
inscribes
I will anticipate:
'real'. If read adequately,
of the self being shaped by cultural
is the mechanism
itself. And by characterising
subversive
of identity that work in favor of
And the answer she deduces
gues that it depends on the reading of Lacan's complement
de-
sexual codes, or does it maintain an unacknow-
about the foundations
those very hierarchies?'4
an antifounda-
that effectively
on Butler's
psychoanalysis
in the next
section.
3 In this critique, I will refer to both Freudian 'Ind L ' ' , <:, aCdman concepts m' ki d-· . essary, and relating to psychoanalysis as f' ld' , . , d ng IstmctlOns where nec, . , , ' a Ie m Itself where releva t A ' I ' not cntlclsmg psychoanalysis in its el t' t ' , . n, gam emphaslse that I am lIre y, l.e, ,IS a method of treatm t d' , the domination of psychoanalytic disc . 'f ., ' en or ragnosls, I am criticising OllIse m emlmst/queer crit' '1 th h" , and psychological 'truths' about the sub' t tl I lCa eOlY w ICh reiterates bmarisms fined, . jec, lat, argue, are detrimental to the feminist politics I de-
Foucault's Sexuality
4
Butler,
Routledge,
interpretation
of Reich's
repressive
opens up a critique of discourses
Judith p, x,
(1990):
Gender
Trouble,
Feminism
hypothesis
of sexuality
and
in The History
of
and the category of sex.
the Subversion
01' Identity,
New
York:
Whereas
in structuralist
anthropology,
theories
theorisation
such as Freudian
psychoanalysis
or structural
starts with the desire that has to be repressed in order
for the social subject to come into being, Foucault exploring
the mechanisms
Butler argues that his critique of some contemporary
'provides
medical
This insight is the foundation
is interested
through which desires are created.
an insight into the regulatory
fictions
for Butler's
designed
to designate
political suggestions,
practices
univocal
sex'.
Foucault's
and propose
and resignify
a set of parodic practices
gender acts that disrupt the categories ality and occasion their subversive yond the binary frame.'
bodily categories,
[...
J
describe
based in a performative
theory of
of the body, sex, gender, and sexuresignification
and proliferation
be-
and productive,
agent. The paradox
and the supremacy
a-historical
of the concepts
plex. Applying Foucault's
of subjectivation
in producing
counter-discourses
desires
ment) was precisely abled,
that
of castration
gender relations
anxiety and the Oedipal com-
agency as 'a reiterative
become
toricized in ways that resist the formulaic universality might be understood sexuality
of Lacan. The taboo
to create and sustain the desire for the mother/father
as well as the compulsory "original"
can be his-
or rearticulatory
that can constitute
This constitutive
practice, immanent
to power".
is never a predictable
displacement
resistance:
forever repressed
duction of the law which subsequently
it all started'.
multaneously
Lacan for describing
installing
a metahistory
change. It is this metahistory
practice,
to, as it presupposes
a sexuality
sance, and cannot be detached mother, as housewife
and forbidden
thus becomes
a pro-
Foucault's
of repression
while si-
that cannot articulate
Being products
6
Ibid, p. 76.
(inadvertently
generative)
func-
relations.
of a 'formulaic
universality'
and appropriating
refers
oppression',
'before the law' that was w/hole, full of jouisfrom a union with the (m)other. and produced
simultaneously
ings of gender oppression
Although
the
explained
as symptomatic
patriarchy
of
system' per se. She
as it fails to account for the work-
in concrete cultural contexts and so aids in colonising
non-Western
constructing
notion of patriarchy
cultures
to 'support
highly Western
notions of
a 'Third World'
'in which gender oppression
of an essential,
non-Western
not only risks unifying different
tion under the notion of a universal patriarchy,
barbarism'". configurations
but featuring
is subtly
Further, the
patriarchy
of dominaas gener-
within the terms K
Ibid.
of the dis-
in rearticulation,
always is a fusion of the juridicial
of women as well as the idea of a 'patriarchal
social
7
5
of the law.
extends itself through
notion of power is used by Butler to argue against a 'beginning'
the oppression
functions as its prohibition.6
in a nuclear family, often is the original desire in late capi-
talism, this desire was prohibited
it has to
unexpected
of that desire. The notion of an
the taboo as socially contingent
her accusation
located
to power, and not a
or rather, rearticulations
and the productive
criticises the notion of a universal Butler criticises
for
(assujetisse-
the Jaw produces
and 'the law' constantly
Power, for Foucault,
and regulatory)
tions of differential
or produc-
constraint
This rearticulatory
resistance,
we cannot say 'where
starting in the 'now'. (prohibitive
as not
the base
of subjectivation
courses of power we exist within, we can only form resistance it seems that the taboo and the original desire for mother/father
produce
Whereas the repetitive
unpredictably,
The paradox
by such norms.
In so far as power is productive, permutations,
critique to the incest taboo, Butler argues that
discourses
that the subject who would resist such norms is itself en-
if not produced,
permutations
might,
and resistance.
relation of external opposition stasis of structured
is that dominant
as simultanethe subject
we exist in are repressi ve, they are just as much formative
be emphasised, Butler criticises psychoanalysis'
in The History of Sexuality
is used by Butler to redefine
only subjects but also their possible modes of resistance. discourses
which, as
notion of power, described
ously repressive
tive, a strategy to denaturalize
function of the incest taboo".
argues that the discourse
about sexuality creates the desires it aims to repress, and therefore in genealogically
of the cultural context, and it was therefore not possible to 'isolate the repressive from the productive
Ibid. Butler, Judith (1993):
p.15. 9
Gender
Trouble,
p. 3.
Budies That Matter.
On the Discursive
Limits
uf 'Sex'. New York: Routledge,
ally repressive
and regulatory
torical feminisms
reifies a mythical
also come under Butler's
advent of the law' most often culminates
10.
The homogenous,
in a description
in, and thereby justifies,
repressive
as a historical inevitability.
construction
His-
matriarchy
of a 'state of affairs the constitution
of the
of patriarchy therewith
appears
Butler argues that the recourse to an 'authentic
nine' before the advent of the law 'is a nostalgic only serves culturally to formulate
super-power.
critique, as their search for 'what it was like before the
before the law that culminates law'
masculinist
with their quest to find proof of a pre-patriarchal
conservative
and parochial
an account of gender as a complex cultural construction'
I heir
use of Foucault
'd
III
escn 'b' II1g t h'e crea t"IOn
functions
sex/gender,
useful. Yet, her notion of melancholia in the construction of , ' which she derives from Freudian an d L acaman psyc hI's oana ySI, and be
sees as indispensable
for the description of the operatIOn of repressIon, WIll .' ' , on in the next section, and wIll be shown to b e reiteratlllg ra th er than
elaborated eradicating
the gender structures
she aims to deconstruct.
demand
".
These gender structures,
our mainstream
notions
analysed by Foucault in The History of Sexuality biological
and medicolegal
sciences
of sexuality
relations that, again, are not easily reduced". in nineteenth-century of the body, a set of repeated acts within
a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being."
anticipated
with one another,
in advance. Whereas Monique
these categorial
of sexuality
and sex, are - as
- created and recreated which
are formed
The medicolegal
Europe created categories
ways clear or consistent Gender is the repeated stylization
f' organ sand
0
femi-
ideal' that not
aims but 'refuses the contemporary
We will find Butler's
by the
by power
alliance emergIilg
and fictions for reasons not al-
and which are definitely
not eas~ly
Wittig claims that the main reasoO for
fictions is the upkeep of a compulsive
and oppressive
heterO-
sexuality,
Butler argues that even homosexuality (which Wittig discusses as a , , , "S accoun. t F ou'cault is monohthrcally constructe d' III W'Ittig . 'implicitly refutes the postulation of a subversive or emancipatory sexllahty which could be free of the law' b:, sexua I'Ity an d power are coex t enSI.'ve Butler ,
mode of resistance) The complex cultural construction the cause for - the construction
of gender was based on - and the same time
of the materiality
materiality is directly appropriated a psychoanalytic perspective.
of the body: this conception
of
from Foucault, yet adapted by Butler through
follows variably
Foucault
in arguing
and inadvertendly
have access to a sexuality Pleasures
are said to reside in the penis, the vagina, the breasts or to ema-
nate from them, but such descriptions
correspond
ready been constructed
as gender-specific.
or naturalized
some parts of the body become conceivable cause they correspond
to a normative
to a body which has alIn other words,
Yet, the sexuality
ideal of a gender-specific
within a matrix of power relations was not a , ' 'f' 0 a mascu 11ll1st simple replication or copy of the law Itself, a um'f'orm repetItIOn "I economy of identity: 'The productions swerve from t h'err ongll1a purpose sand
body. 13
are in some sense determined
by a melancholic
through
structure
gender whereby some organs are deadened and others brought to life. 10
Ibid, p. 36.
II Ibid. " Ibid, p. 33.
that emerged
foci of pleasure precisely be-
This reasoning corresponds to Foucault's notion of sex as constructed discourse, yet takes a psychoanalytic turn as Butler continues: Pleasures
that the hegemonic prohibitions on sex were m, 'h' IS account, th e ' su b'~ec t' d oe.s not productIVe: III , " 'd'e, 'b e f'ore , or 'f't' which IS OUtSI a er po wer itself. '
13
of
14
Ibid, p. 70, Butler writes: 'In the closing
chapter
of the first volume
, of The H,story
'
0/
, SexualIty
" , brief and 111hI'; ine-
' 'f'lean t In . t r odUCt,'OIl to Hereuline Barbin Journals of a. Nation b ut slgm . , Beinub the Recently D,scovered . teenth-Century Hennaprodite, Foucault suggests that the category of sex, prior to any categonZ' . 'I .. mo d eo f sexuulty. I' Th e t~ctIca ual d,'fference is itself constructed through a histone. ally spccifiC f' sex " . . , ' . , . ,t very ' f the dl'screte '!Od binary categonzatlOn of sex conceals the strategic arms of th~ . pro d lie t 10110 , . . . . deSIre. a paratus of production by postulating "sex" as "cause" of sexual expenence, behaVIOr, and ~a p . ostensl 'bl"e cause " as "'ff Foucault's genealogical inquiry exposes thIS an e ec,t" th e pi 'oductiol1 oj. , nes , . . 'of sexuality that seeks to regulate sexual experience by Instatmg t hC d'Iscreet ca tego gIven regIme. " . ... ., 'Trouof sex as foundational and causal functions within any dIscurSIve account of sexualIty. (Gender
°
hie, p. 23,) 15 Ibid, p, 29,
inadverte~tly mobilize possibilities of "subjects" that do bounds of cultural intelligibility b t ff' , not merely exceed the , , , u e ectlvely expand th b d' IS, III fact, culturally intelligible' 16 I h ', e oun anes of what , , , n ot er words If sub " , It IS so through the 'possib'I't' h ' . versIOn IS pOSSible, then Illes t at emerge when th I and spawns unexpected pel'mLltat' f' e aw turns against itself , Ions 0 Itself' ",
Again: such a genealogical in power relations, Irigaray is criticised on women's
Power, then, has no beginnina and n ," b 0 oliglll' power r If, extended and proliferated b th ' , , e a Ions can be Said to be y ose who are subJe't f d ' h' productive and creates aende I' . C I Ie Wit III them, Power is , b r re atlOns, sexualities a d th ' " whIch We can create subv " , , n e matenahtIes from , elSlve politiCS, but from wl ' h ' hculate the possible 'origi ' f th ' llC we can, III no way, ar, n 0 e power relatIOns w ' " for sexual liberation had reiterated th'd f' " e, eXIst wlthlll, The search e I ea 0 an Illtnns . , I' , choanalytic theorisations defined ' , IC seXUa Ity , and psyth C ' ,our sexualities much rather than Tb f ' , em, oncentratlllg on a certain coding of sexual r " ' I ,era, I~g Ity, penetrating men cre'ltecl, .' p actlces - receptIve femllllll, a pelCeptIOn of bodil to a very limited form of the s If TI' Y organs that was closely tied , . e. lerefore, for Foucault th ., , arbitrary connections th'lt wel' 't bl' I , e es a IS led by s' ff r' e way to undo the by sexual practices was to a l' . , clen I IC C IScourses and recalled , benea oglcally Illvestigate th ' " strategy available to f" 'I' elr consolidatIOn, One aCI Itate such a geneal ' I' " decriminalisation of ral)e B ' oglCa InvestigatIOn would be the , Y prosecutlllg rape as· "1 ff other form of physical attack't Id a CIVI 0 ense akin to any ., ',I wou be rid f' t ' sion',1K Foucault proposes a ge I ' I' 0 I s status of a grand 'transgresnea oglca Illvestlgat l' h to be coded as a place of emptiness and vulnerabilit 10~ 0 ow the vagina comes how sexuality gains such impo t ' h .. , , y, he pellis as a weapon, and r ance III t e deflllltlOn f "d ' such a genealoajcal tracing f' " 0 one s I entity, Through b , ,el11l111sts would be 'I'" ing 'their bodies' _ tl b" , more po Itlcal than in defend, le su ~ectlve expenence of which had b domillant discourses that def d ' ' een created by the me a waumg gender relation,
deconstruction,
Following
the expressions
Ibid, p, 93, 'f ml red Woodhull discusses Foucault's thou ht ..'. , the Questions of Rape' in Diamond I, , d g son Idpe s legal status m her 'Sexuality, Power ' , lene dn Qumby Lee eds (1988) , fl . cellOns on Resistance Boston- N -th . . .' , ". : Femmism & Foucault: , " 01 eastem Umverslty Pres' Sh ' Foucault II1troduced to and was published b the Chon . s', e lefers to the debate on rape tober 1977,) y , ge CollectIve 111 La Folie enclerclee (Paris: 17
W'
IK
refutation
of the 'truth'
features
as resistance
of sex, Luce
female sexuality based
against patriarchal
power struc-
of gender, she concluded
that gender 'can denote a unity of ex-
perience, of sex, gender and desire, only when sex can be understood gender' ", It was exactly this necessary
aims to refute through 'sex' and 'gender'
Foucault,
in showing
were discursively that uncritically
feminine'
ler - following
to phallocentric
the 'exchange repressed,
notion of the 'semiotic',
femi-
Her recourse to an
Foucault - would argue that our system of sexuality requires the
sire, How then, can Kristeva tual' femininity
instead of offering
critique of gyno-Iogical
holds on the the notion of woman as mother, whereas But-
female body to assume maternity 'outside'
of
Further, posing a multiplicity
the opprcssor
a different set of terms, In the same vein, Butler's 'authentic
Butler
experience
'sex which is not one') was nothing but
mimicked
nism is extended to Julia Kristeva's
in some
connection
that the subjective
constructed,
as univocal signifier (such as Irigaray's a reverse-discourse
as the essence of itself and the law of its de-
postulate
discourse?
is not a construction
a 'maternal'
sexuality
as a subversive
How do we know that Kristeva's of discourse
'instinc-
itself? Kristeva understands
of women' as 'the cultural moment in which the maternal body is
rather than as a mechanism
for the compulsory
of the female body as maternal body' and therewith
cultural construction
'fails to consider the way in
which that very law might well be the cause of the very desire it is said to repress'''I,
assumption
semiotic
that the prohibitive
does not seriously
challenge
paternal law is foundational
the
to cul-
ture itself. Her semiotic can only interrupt,
show itself like a glimpse of psycho-
sis (which equals the libidinal, homosexual
attachment
alised practices and
of
Foucault and arguing that there was no gender identity beyond
sense to necessitate
structuralist Ibid, my italics,
by a de-sexualisation
by Butler for posing a distinctively
biological
tures, Following
Foucault's
Butler, then, argues that Kristeva's
16
emphasised
rape, does not suggest a return to an original state 'before the law', but a change
mains unintelligible
Rethat Oc-
to the mother), or in ritu-
such as poetry or giving birth, Lesbianism,
19
Gender Trouble, p, 22,
20
Ibid, p, 90,
and affirms a psychoanalytic
in her account,
truth: its repression
re-
is neces-
sary for individuation, Maternity is desired in d Ius, to fetishistically substitute for th ' hI' or er to possess one's own ph al' few 0 e that was lost th h ' roug the separat IOn rom the mother . Just as I argue d III Gallop' , description of homosexual des' I' k s case, as well as in de Lauretis' , Ire as III ed to the d' f h accuses Kristeva of reiterating ph II " eSlre 0 t e (m)other, Butler a ocentnc dIscourse th hh ca I approach: her 'theor roug er own theoreti. y appears to depend upon th t b T of precisely the paternal law th t h k ' e s a I Ity and reproduction a s e see s to dlsplace"I.
'\I'erience
discursive
influences
Illistake' to an 'unresolved
on her sense of identity.
tension'
And yet, although completely agreeing with Foucau ' ous augmentation of identit' . f' It s account of the continules, 0 power and de ' , lem with this description of' , t " smng structures, Butler's prob, , leSlS ance wlthlll a theory f ' It dId not provide a method I 'f' , , 0 powel seems to be that , , 0 ogy or theonslllg this 's " lllg unexpected' How i tl' r wervlllg other than it be, " n lIS Ille, was one to politic II I verslve practices? Further 'h a y p an and pursue sub, ,s e accuses Foucault of ' r a correct employment of psych l" . essentw Ism, and argues that oana YSls could avoId his pitfalls.
Ilot an 'outside'
that alludes
to sexual identity:
On the one hand, Foucault which is not produced
wants to argue that there is no 'sex' in itself
by complex
interactions
of discourse
Foucault
invokes a trope of prediscursive
tively presupposes for emancipation According
a sexuality
in itself which
exchange.
In other words,
libidinal
multiplicity
that effec-
'before the law,' indeed, a sexuality waiting
from the shackles of 'sex.''',
to Butler, Foucault
seems to assume a materiality
tion and form, a blank page that can be inscribed tiplicity of pleasures'.
and power,
of pleasures'
is not the effect of any specific discourse/power
prior to significa-
and that is able to feel a 'mul-
And it is here that Butler finds Foucault's
her own use, as, if Foucault did assume a prediscursive give the body a prediscursive
essence,
multiple pleasures,
resists the regulating
of cultural
practices
for
this would
was a non-identity
In Butler's
coherence,
limitations
materiality,
even if this essence
with the potential to experience
mind, that which
would, in Foucault's
ac-
count, be that which stems from this essence of non-identity.
In his analysis of
Herculine,
s resistance
for example, Foucault is said to analyse Herculine'
coming culturally
intelligible
as presenting
a 'prediscursive
to be-
multiplicity'"
that
breaks through the surface of his/her body which has been formed by certain discursive
practices
stem from something
within a certain power regime, This resistance, 'before'
construction
then, would
or 'outside of' his/her identity, psychoanalysis,
the other hand, offered the vocabulary Foucault is justly criticised by Butler f'01, h'·IS IlltroductlOn ' , to H I' were he somehow refute h' ercu me Barbin h , s IS own theory by presentin H I'" her belllg 'oendered' as 'th bl' f g ercu Ille s hfe prior to b e ISS ul state of a no 'd t' ' cault himself, there is no such th' , n-I en Ity , According to Fou. mg as a non-IdentIty or 'b f ' SIde of' constructed sexuality' and B tl a sex e ore or 'out' ,u er argues referring t th ' identity prior to b' 'ff" , 0 e text Itself, that H erculIne's , elllg 0 IClally 'gendered' h rodlte living as a girl amo ' I was t at of a hermaphng glr s, yet never feeling adequate, and she thus did
()f Sexuality
(.I the same claim, namely that Foucault was not clear whether there was or was
and yet there does seem to be a 'multiplicity Butler's Foucaultian critique of gynoc t" , inherent critique of Lacanian d t ' , en IIC, psyc~oanalytlc feminism is also an e elmllllsm Even If L . conceiving the division of th ' . " " acan can be Illterpreted as . , e sexes dS an artIfIcIal co t ' Illsllluated that a unity of the b' , , ' ns ruct, It was nevertheless " lllaty sexes - a bisexuality - h d ' repreSSlOn whIch in its If a eXIsted before , e creates a homogenous ' 't F peared as a state of full J'ou', piC ure. urther, 'the real' apLlsance, a place outside f th ' never be obtained althouoh its 'f" 0 e symbolIc that could " b • pel ectlOn was proven H h tI ve deSires be theoretically t' I d . ow, t en, could altern a, ar ICUate other than tl .. h . featured the Lacanian' hI' h' lose t at, as their object a woe, w Ich could not be d t h d f ' , the mother, with its ensuing castratio " e ac e rom a umon with ,. n anXIetIes and penis-envy?
Butler links Foucault's
within The History
to theorise
of the subject, not depending
resistance
on
from within the
on or needing to revert to a prediscur-
sive essence. I agree with Butler's
critique of Herculine
rative writing encourages identity',
nar-
and invites phrases such as 'the blissful state of non-
which can easily be confused
" Ibid, p, 97, 23 Ibid, p, t30.
Barbin: the pathos in Foucault's
with a sexuality outside of the law, I be-
lieve that actually,
he had in mind a diminished
form of troubled
sexuality: I do
young children do not yet focus too closely on sizes, shapes and categories, not believe his 'prediscursive
multiplicity
It is this accusation
essence.
aim to defend Foucault honourable
against,
aim of eradicating
arguing
any trace of essentialism
able to account for the operation melancholia
and ambiguous
of repression
psychoanalytic
second problem with Foucault's
sion and production operated
of power as regulatory,
producing
power
externally,
analysis, scribed
that will produce scious <~5.
power',
can be avoided, of repres-
the ways in which "repression"
but worked
as a regulatory
and normative
his notion of power did not
a "sexed" subject in terms that and foreclosure,
requires
and institutes
ideal, a forcible and differential its outside,
notion
and agrees that this
of psychic and bodily formation'''.
moment
is
a recourse to
Butler supports Foucault's
of both repression
its remainder,
of the
account of the coincidence
norms 'formed
how every formative
in her
in the theorisation
the subjects it controlled,
the indistinguishability with its vocabulary
'''sex'' is a regulatory
essence I
Foucault
to her claim, Foucault
vocabulary
means by which subjects were formed, Nevertheless, answer how certain regulatory established
an accessable
and that, therefore,
is that it did not 'address
as a modality of productive
is not imposed
designates
that Butler misreads
of gender. I further argue that, contrary
construction
Butler's
of pleasures'
of basing his theory on a prediscursive
Psycho-
perfectly
de-
its exclusions:
materialization
of bodies,
what one might call its "uncon-
II
Butler
aims to 'challenge
within the psychoanalytic able in psychoanalytic cate the constitution quasi-permanent regulatory
perspectives'''. structure',
power as reiterated system:
re-description
24
Ibid, p. 22.
25
Ibid, p. 22, my italics.
26
Ibid, my italics.
27
Ibid, my italics.
stasis of the heterosexuaJising Where
perspectives
lo-
moment or as an effect of a
she understood
and reiterable,
norm
with what is clearly valu-
'psychoanalytic
of "sex" at a developmental
symbolic
to a Foucaultian Foucaultian
the structural
account without dispensing
this constituting
effect of
therewith adapting psychoanalysis
'There may be a way to subject psychoanalysis even as Foucault himself refused that possibility'''.
to a
, the sub'ect as constituted by reiteration notion of J th unconscious and offoreclof e rules out the stubborn attachments, the power 0 t f reiteration that Butler de· pposes The concep 0 I sure that psycho ana ySIs presu ' , f ychic attachments, just as I lout the ommpotence 0 ps rives from Foucau trues , I t the resignification or rearrange'II ychoanalysls ru es ou much, as I WI argue, ps . '11 e Butler's redefinition of b d'l f matIOns As we WI se, ment of psychic and 0 I Y or ' I ' f 'ts power of foreclosure, of a I .d ychoana YSls 0 t the 'real' through Lac au n s ps , to account for the indistin. d thereWith of the power , resistant unconscIOUS, an " 11 as the production of Its , d b d'ly formatIOns, as we guishability of psychIC an 0 I d tation of one system to the , d H I will argue that an a ap resistant remall1 er. ence, , , h d I ies Further adaptation of b h' wn defll1l11g met 0 0 og. , other is ruled out Y t elr 0 , t Butler in a reasoning that . h t a Foucaultian system raps psychoanalytic t eory 0 " "'.' affirms the paternal law Butler It can be compare d to Kristeva s senuotlc.
I will show that Foucault's
wants to deconstruct.
very will to power that regularly In Gender Trouble, Butler lays the groundwork fo . as constituted through disavo 1 d1 . r her conceptIOn of the subject wa an oss. Lacaman ps hI' . edged for establishing the divisi f' h ' yc oana YSls IS acknowlon 0 t e sexes as an effect f th I ' not a preexisting condition on wh' h hI' 0 e aw (meamng IC t e awacts) th, 'th . was no place prior to the law wh' h ," eleWI statlllg that there w ther, the process of repression notl:nl :: a~~:~:ble and could be retrieved. Furan effect of the law, but could in itsel~ b p, d the dIVISIOn of the sexes to be cation, e used to theonse resistance to identifi-
agrees that psychoanalysis
S'IIl11'11y, '1 'I she states that in Lacan's wOI'k 'th ' I" , "' e lea Itself was nos t a I'glca IIy relerred to as a state of hIli' '. jOUISsance, and therewith i . essence at the base of subiection th t. nS1l1uates that he poses an . J a negatIvely determ' 'd "f ' ong01l1g failure. Lacan's descrl'ptl' f th . 1I1esI entI IcatIon as an on 0 e symbolIc a . bl entails that failure of identificaf ',' .' ,s unvana y phantasmatic " , , IOn IS 1I1eVltable. There does see tIclsatlOn of failure hUmility' d I' . , m to be a roman'. ' an 1II1ltatIOn before the I b'd' . glOus Idealisation which makes tl L' . aw, 01 enng on rehButler concludes that this 'stru /e ac .al1lannarratIve 'ideologically suspect'''. c ure 0 f tragedy In Lacani-l th '. undermines any strategy of cultur I l" ..' n eory effectIVely a po ItlCS to contI lTure a It . . nary for the play of desires'2Y d h' b n a ernatIve Imagisight in On the Geneology of C;:;or:ll~t~ructure would resemble NietZSChe's in. at God IS rendered 1I1accessible by the
"
- At a talk at the ICA, London, in January 1999 C' lh,' B canian psychoanalysis on th d" B . '. d ClIne elsey and Renata Salecl discussed La, e po lum. ehey praIsed Lac', • h" " ' wondefully melanCholic', Upon which' h" hI ,n - ex ertmg a devoted sigh - for being -h h d Ig Y annoyed comment· f. . s e ad ever read any Dcleuzean th ' . d . came 10m the audIence whether . ' COIY dll could conce - f " ductlOn. Ive 0 any alternattve forms of desiring pro29
Gender Trouble, p, 56.
its own powerlessness. will to power's
She here
slave morality
Ihat I will criticise in chapter three. Nevertheless,
following
ments provides Cross-gender
Lacan in describing
the underlying
identifications
tribute 'feminine'
as phantasmatic
political
the melancholic
strategy
invest-
of parody.
of gender-identities
by
drag queen proved that the at-
does not belong to women alone. The inability to attain stable
lowing Foucault course,
identities
basis for Butler's
could disclose the instability
mocking their forced stability; identities is demonstrated,
But, to repeat her criticislTI' I'f ]JI'oh'b't' '. I lIOn created the d' .,. . , . construct, it meant that an inh t" IVlSlOn as an artifICIal eren umty - bisexual" t ' . sion, Although the notion of th ' '..' I Y - was reslstlllg that divie non-accessabllIty of th ' d' , tualised the law as prohib'( d ' e pIe Iscursive conceplive an generatIve at once B I restrictions still operate in Lac t f" . ,ut er notes that binary , an 0 lame and for II.t ' '. , advance the fOlms of its re "t " " mId e sexualIty, dehnutlng in SIS ance to the real", Butler therefo h .' . the arguments against psychoanalysi ' I lb" re ere alIgns With . sea or dted 111chapter one.
instituted
follows the negative
and a way is opened towards new identifications.
and believing
the discursive
parodic performances,
that no identity can be assumed
realm can bring having 'swerved'
forward
Fol-
outside of dis-
new identifications
through
from their original destination.
How can Butler make such a great leap, ignore her before-mentioned determinism
subversion?
Because she argues that Foucault assumes an authentic and essential
self outside
only to re-employ
criticism
of Lacanian
of and beyond
it as the base of her theorisations
the discursively
proves that there cannot be 'pure' exteriority.
constructed
as non-essential,
self, and therewith
If there existed a stubborn
tance to the negation of matter, it was important
but further, that it was used to theorise where subversion could be interpreted
as accounting
for the inaccessibility
then, having evolved out of the repression
also be seen as contingent underlying represents.
essential
on discourse.
non-identity
that Foucault's
While Butler earlier criticised
full jouissance,
Resistance
did thus not stem from an 'multiplicity
to an essential,
is hinged on the 'right'
in Bodies That Matter, where Butler compares
Laclau's
By re-discussing
accounts.
fulfilled Zizek's
them further on, we will question
reading really does offer a functional
defined as the determinism
of pleasures'
of the real.
alternative
non-
reading of the real,
which is discussed her 'right'
on discourse.
of the real, could
Lacan for posing the real as a state of
which can equally be compared
identity, her use of psychoanalysis
would
matrix as symbolic
of the real, if we read the real to be always deferred and contingent The unconscious,
resis-
that this was not only theorised
evolve from. Lacan, although assuming a fixed heterosexual structure, nevertheless
of
and
whether
to what was earlier
Psychoanalysis t
ak
allows Butler to account for the 'swerving'
mg the repression
of the real - a real contingent
ing factor. She complements a reCOurse to Freud's
the Lacanian
'Mourning
which in 1923 was integrated
of identifications
b
, y
on discourse _ as the motivat-
'real', or her 'right' reading of it, with
and Melancholia',
an essay dating from 1917
into The Ego and the !d. Here, Freud describes
how a person lost or mourned becomes part of the ego _ and thus one's identity _ by bemg mcorporated
and thereby preserved.
applied to gender formation:
desmng
theory can be
through the incest taboo, a loss of a love-object
substItuted through the internalisation of the opposite
This internalisation
sex, this is realised
is
of the tabooed object of desire. In the case by preserving
the modality
of desire (girls
men who are like their father, boys desiring women who are like their
mother), in the case of desiring the same sex, both the modality of desire as well as the object are internalised.
chic source of the materialisation for an unconscious for identifications
ternal law is understood
According
to Butler, Freud is not quite clear whether it is the Oedipal complex to a culturally
Freud calls 'gender consolidation'), fear of 'social' castration m a heterosexual boy or masculine opposite
sanctioned
or a primary bisexuality
(i.e. feminisation
for girls
culture), just as he is not sure what a feminine disposition disposition
gender identity, a possible
(which
with its concurring
for boys and masculinisation
in a
in a girl, that might lead to the acquisition
of the
might consist of. This was obViously because
Freud
did not question the use of his own heterosexual gesting
heterosexuality
underlying
bisexuality,
therefore defined as the' coincidence psyche' 31'.
of two heterosexual
bisexuality
was
desires within a single
subject formation
that leads her to ask: 'What precisely
is an account of
is the topology
psyche in which the ego and its lost loves reside in perpetual habitation?'''
of the It is a
which makes of
affair'''.
definition
Therefore,
Freud
of the real as contmgent
read, such an alternative
could theorise identification
to be more multiple than Freudian
ory allows.
Coexisting
identifications
gences, and innovative
dissonances
the fixity of masculine
and parodic performances
Having analysed the potential
Her employment
within gender configuratIOns placements
determinism
of Freud's
whIch contest
with respect
to the paternal
of Lacan's
account of the real, it is
reading in order to be able to defme It as a
theory
redefinition,
sexual affair that the Freudian
of the interna1isation
detaching
Lacan's
account of identity describes.
by focusing on the differences
Ernesto Laclau (and his co-author,
inherent in concepts
opened these signifiers
In the chapter 'Ar-
in the works of Slavoj Zizek and
agree that psychoanalysis
and therewith
to Butler's
is an important
and impossible
such as 'women',
read-
means to
sites, that are compel-
subject to reconstruction.
to new meanings
is
account of the real can
Chantal Mouffe). According
identity claims as phantasmatic
ling and disappointing,
of loved objects
real from the fixed hetero-
uing with the Real', Butler shows how variably Lacan's
meconnaissance
the-
as a base for her political strategy of parodic performance:
based on a successful
:e interpreted
psychoanalytic
would help to exprcss these ambiguities.
vital for Butler to find the 'right' source of resistance,
on
would then 'produce. conf1lcts, conver-
and feminine
ing of them, both theorists
what Butler deduces from his use of melancholia
determinism
and phantasmatic
discourse has to be invoked. Adequately
theorise Nevertheless,
The develop-
account, comes about 'only if the pa-
as a rigid and universal
a fixed [heterosexual]
could account
perspective
matrix of desire in spite of sug-
and this underlying
On the other hand, it accounts whose resistance
from its original intention.
structural
cannot be used further and the Lacanian
law''',
that leads to the subordination
that might 'swerve'
ment of this psyche, in Freud's "identity"
of the body."
as the source of subversion,
The perpetual
'freedom',
and new possibilities
'democracy'
for political
re-
psyche in which the ego ideal orders the id what to be like and what not to be like, creating, on the one hand, an interior agency of sanction and taboo that is inscribed
on the body in erotogenic
zones of pleasure and therewith
is the psy-
32
Butler explains:
zones is precisely
The localization
loss of the pleasurable 30 Ibid, p. 61: A lesbian be 'feminine'. 31
Ibid, p. 62.
disposition
would be 'masculine',
a male homosexual
disposition
would thus
that
pleasure
differentiating " Ibid, p. 66. 34
Ibid, p. 67.
and/or
prohibition
the kind of gender-differentiating
is both
object is resolved determined
law.' (Ibid, p. 68-7.)
and
through
of pleasures melancholy
the incorporation
prohibited
through
and desires
that suffuses
in given "erotogenic" the body's surface.
of that very pleasure the
compulsory
effects
The
wIth the result of
gender-
signification. It was this open-ended and . that seemed to be crucial fo d' I performatlVe function of the signifier r a ra Ica democratIc notion of futurity. Zizek though , def Jiles t h e constItutIve " outside of 'd " tured through the Oed' I I entIties as universally strucIpa complex and ther 'th f . potential: eWI orfelts exactly this critical
cites Laclau in Zizek's The Sublime Object of Ideology: Illative character
of naming is the precondition
'The essentially
perfor-
for all hegemony
and politics.'39
Basically, then, (re- )naming must not be seen as rigid designation
with its simul-
taneous production
of the prohibtion
of catachresis
stabilizes its signified not by threatening case of catachresis,
('wrong-naming'):
with dissolution
but 'through a set of differential
the name
into psychosis
in the
relations with other signifi-
ers within discourse'41l To claim that there is an 'outside' to th . . 'outside' will always b th . e SOCially Jiltelligible, and that this e at which n ( I d .. think, a point on which w ega Ive y efmes the social is, I . e can concur. To del" 't h· . mvocation of a preideologic I 'I' . Iml t at outSide through the . a aw, a predlscurslve 'law' th . vanantly throughout all h' t' at works m, IS ory, and further to mak hi' . secure a sexual differential th t . .' e t at aw functIOn to cal' move' ,'. a ontologlzes subordination, is an 'ideologim a mOle ancient sense one that I . through a rethinking of id I : ... ' mght only be understood eo ogy as relfJcation' .."
My question is: if the divide between produced
and sustained
psychoanalytic repression,
vocabulary
erate psychosis,
'.
.
c
l;
.
Jp ement, as contmgent . mvanant production of 1"' . IzatlOn of castration as
why do we need psychoanalysis
enough so that a mourning
is always deferred
Bodies That Matter
'
p. 206 .
sion. Without identities?
37
B I
to explain
that naming
this fearful repression, but through
account,
rigidly structured,
it
would we still have to mourn unfulfilled
negotiations
discourse,
with the differential
might potentially
are different to one unspeakable the base for Butler's
strategy
assume them relations
be upsetting,
loss. By redefining
being less rigid, it seems to lose its power to structure hence, to provide
contingent
process would emerge? If the real
in an alternative
define _ name _ us? These negotiations ful negotiations
one is in-
account, its power to produce a fearful repres-
Could we not, if situated
that
but painthe real as
the unconscious,
of mourning.
Perhaps
and this is
why, in The Psychic Life of Power, Butler seems to have a far more Zizekian perception
of the real than the Laclauian
one she champions
in Bodies That Mat-
ter, In The Psychic Life of Power she aims to show that agency is relative to the dialectical workings non-essentialist
.
Ibid, p. 205.
.
., , _ 111 . Hegemony ( d S . l MY' ut er IS refening to his thear as expJessed Duffe, and his Reflections on the Revol ( . fO . 111 oeJa Strategy, 3S Ibid, p. 209. U lOn.\ 0 ur TIme.
If not banned into
- naming others? Repression
and not, as in the Zizekian
loses, as we can see in Laclau's
on
does not threaten to gen-
stituted by a taboo - for example, the incest taboo. How can Laclau's
complications 35 36
is not anymore
why are we dependent
negativity
identity rules out _ even if only momentarily
without mourning 37, Il1 contrast to Zizek defines th Laclau . . forc th d f' . . . ,. e antaaol1lzIl1g tlvlty of the constitutive 0 t 'd .,0 e, e e mmg negau Sl e, as outSide of d ( b social. The rallying force f .., . , I en Ity, ut structured within the . 0 politIcs With ItS consta t d f ' . promise of the 'manageabTt f n re e mltIons holds out the . . " ,I I Y 0 unspeakable loss" th '" bllity of a 'livable and speak bl . '3X :' III at polItiCS IS the possia e psychOSIS ThiS was b I' . ers are performative rather th '.' ecause po ItIcal signifi. an representatIOnal and f . own referent, overcomina th d' 'd b ," per ormatIves are their o e IVI e etween referent d' .. . produced and sustained at th I' an slglllflcatlOn that is , e evel 01 foreclosure Th I . clau s account is not a threat' d' ' e rea, therefore, III La. ' ,elling, Isavowed . . Ject's intelligibility in a pred t . d negativity that threatens the sube erll1lne structure, but is always deferred, Butler
and signification
to theorise strategies of resistance?
if the existence of the disavowed
real be formative If the constitutive outside is theorised ,asm . D ernda's\'uj . on discurSive formatio ' n, we are not committed to 'h' that outside as the trauma of' , t' . t e , cas latlOn (nor the g " the model for all historical trauma)'3o, enela
referent
at the level of foreclosure,
written with Chantal "Ibid,
p. 211.
4llIbid, p. 217.
of power and subjection,
of this dialectical
formation
notion of subjection
and that only by understanding
the
of the subject could we account for a
and the potential
for subversive
practices,
Hegelian
dialectics
continuity
is used to demonstrate
power. By genealogically common
linking Hegel, Nietzsche,
aim of analysing
the dialectics
prove that the non-teleological most adequately
employed
agency) in his Civilization
the Lacanian
'real'
convictions evaded.
his The Phenomenology
anchors
I believe
view, this formulation with
abasement...'
is timely because
Nietzschean,
[...] and
and even' ...the Foucaultian
nificant moves beyond dialectical
tance in a progressive chic attachments
conceptions
formulations
avoids
I counter account of
could have
by Hegel in
to Butler, Hegel's
analysis of
in his Phenomenology
shows
in and by its own suppression.'
In her
it 'prefigures
the possibility
[.. ,] Freudian
of a con-
perspectives
account of subjection,
that it is Foucault's
on
self-
despite its sig-
tethered to the He-
form. By not being dependent
as framed by Lacanian
break with Hegelian
foreclosure,
on the theorisation his theorisation
the fear of transience
supersede
the transience
The Psychic Lite at Power, pp. 33-4.
42
Ibid, p, 47,
:~:e:~~~s:, t:: :~~~h'n ot: ~ts';w:lya~~~::::l~~~ b;e~:~~~~:~::e~~::~~~c:~~o~~: never fmally be ac leve ,I 0 " If f ar. If elf-willed action'44. The subject finds pleasure m ItS se -nega mg n Itse as. ciation of its self is a continuous accomphshmg cissism, as the mcessant renun d' well as the lord contest ' f h If The bon sman as and therefore an assertIOn 0 t e se . d later religious self-righteousness the fear of transience with stubbornness an H I puts it' or as ege . d 'll therefore have to be attn 'b ute d a f·01111of aaency b ". . an WI h d ' vitude'45 This of course, aligns with the Lacaman , a freedom enmes e m ser ., ['. d to c'~~ception of the subject that Butler fuses with Freudian melancho Ja m or er describe the mourning subject:
incessant
he condition that it deny its formation in dependThe T emerges upon t 'I d .. 'bTt ency the conditions ot ItS own POSSI I I y., The T however, IS t1reatene th t a , with ' disruption precisely by t h'IS d em.aJ ... This means'. of course, redicated on what it refuses to know, it is separatedfrom p . , It'~ never quite become or rematn Itse, .
Itself and can
intrinsic to
desire to 'think the unchange-
is born out of the ambivalence
of wanting to
of the body, but by doing so, being reminded of one's
41
, , ks to know itself and represent itself as being part of someAs conSCIOusness see .' R I' , us ' renounces I't se If "as a responsible mortal bemg. e IgIO . h geable It h' t mg unc an , , t., d' .duality' 'The renunciation ot .. f Ie was the extreme 0 111IVI . P
of psy-
To Butler, though, Hegel is vital to understand able'4'. The unhappy consciousness
Butler is the logic of dialectics. Butler arrests Hegel before 0 , consciousness meets a great of the mediator, where the unhappy I' f the Sublime. chain of wills that incorporate t h e t ransce ndental Idea .' 0 reason, ly to . h er IS . H e gel's . mam achievement, name d'Instead, she focuses on what tor . explain how every 'effort to reduce itself to inaction or to nothm g, t.o su~o:l~_ . . I . ates inadvertently m the proc l uctlOn 0 s nate or mortify Its own body, cu mm ., ndisin a ent. Every effort to consciousness as a pleasure-seekmg and self-aggra. ~ g ~. g other than the overcome the body, pleasure, and agency proves to e no 1m b' '43 assertion of precisely those features of the su ~ect .
of resis-
leads to the gender war we have
which leads to one's
t
which enables him to account for resis-
tance avoids a gender binarism that repeatedly described as self-reiterative.
every subject,
. . h' transience. tiS, the introduction
she had
her Hegelian
was established
logic, remains unwittingly
gelian formulation '''. I counter-argue and its ensuing Lacanian
structure
that the use of Foucault
and bondage
preserved
logic, is
Butler in the determinism
that the Freudian
lordship
how the body is 'inadvertedly
its chicken-and-egg
is accused of defining.
of the Spirit. According
between
Butler aims to
of the subject (and hence, of
analysis of the subject as paradox
the relationship
Freud and Foucault in their
of the subject plays into a Zizekian
lead her to pose determinisms
The dialectical
and and
His dialectical
which Foucault
and therewith
aimed to avoid. Further,
definition
and Its Discontents.
that using a Hegelian conception
persistence of conscience
of subject-formation,
nature of dialectics,
in Freud's
posing the essential interiority
vergence
how the formation,
of the subject is based on the entwined phenomena
43
Ibid, p, 53,
44 45
Ibid, p. 49. Hegel, G, W. F, (1977):
ford University 46
'h
S ' 'I Tl"lnshted
The Phenomenology ()f 1 e ptrt,
Press, p. 119.
The Psychic Life atPower, p. 9; my italics,
,
,
by A. Y, Miller.
Oxford:
Ox-
Butle~ grants Hegel critical potential.
She argues that his chapter on the unhappy
CO~ScIo:lsness ~ before the introduction eth:c~l Imp~ratIves
and religious
SCrIptIOnof the development a predestmed desIgnates
ideas. In my opinion, Hegel's
of consciousness
path on which consciousness
the inescabability
ism can be equalIed 'lack-in-being', tiplicity
of the mediator - appears as a critique of is rather deterministic,
determinist
of pleasures',
concepts
wilI unfold itself. The importance of Freud's
'instinct'
determinism
three, Deleuzean
and Lacan's
feminism.
and its offspring,
b~ing, which, as we have seen, has a fixed description mes to know: namely, its origin in the mother.
he
determin-
against which I here pose Foucault's
and, in chapter
de-
describing
of the body and its intrinsic melancholic
with the determinism(s)
cepts oppose the Hegelian
teleological
'mul-
These con-
the Lacanian
communication fictive,
- not for explanation,"7.
Nietzsche
which the grammatical accounted
Freudian
psychoanalysis
mternahsatIOn Freud's
is championed
of psychic
of effects of power through
dialectic
structure,
based on that part of Nietzsche
Hegel, serves as the grounds for our psychic attachments
an internalised
essence. The use of Hegelian dialectics
ing back, the stronger the conscience. the question whether punishment sequentiality
of punishment
process.
ability to account
enabled Freud to theorise the simultaneas Fou-
view of the subject
want, which in Hegel is described wilI' in Nietzsche. the ontological
But in contradiction
truth of subject-formation.
cious, circular spiral of dialectics, an underlying,
transcendental
as aiming to overcome
as 'the unhappy consciousness', to Hegel, Nietzsche
that
the body. This about
but instead of offering us a way out by posing
teleology
as Hegel does, he leaves us to suffer in
IS a umt only as a word .... one should use 'cause' cepts, that is to say, as conventional
complicated, and 'effect'
the temporal
about conscience,
but - according
ambivalent
clear sequence
science, considered tion itself'''.
position.
If a subject only constitutes
pressed,
the constitutive
both as a figure and as the condition
feature
concerned of bad con-
of possibility
argues that the stronger
itself
to account for,
from a logical perspective
becomes
Freud, like Nietzsche,
subject represses,
for figura-
the aggression
i.e. the stronger the strength with which this aggression
the stronger
science correlates
to
of what comes first, as he is able to put a
the conscience.
'In this sense, then, the strength
neither with the strength
of a punishment
of a memory of a punishment
received,
received
the is re-
of connor with
but with the strength
one which is said to have vented itself externalIy,
of but
which now, under the rubric of bad conscience,
is said to vent itself internally''''.
The internal
the internalisation
venting of aggression
fabricates
of effects of
power, and is thus the psychic working of sublimation."
is calIed 'the
is ambivalent
He, too, seems to give up on the vi-
' ...wilIing seems to me to be ... something
thoughts
which might be lamented
with establishing
47
something
that
only as pure con-
fictions for the purpose of designation
and
Nietzsche,
Random
Friedrich
(l966):
ily related to Hegel's unhappy Nietzsche's
come'
Beyond
Good and Evil. Translated
House, p. 25. As we will see in chapter
ject'. We cannot exercise 48
~urgatory:
concerning
to But-
and conscience."'
Freud picks up on Nietzsche's
the strength
will be de-
fended in chapter three) but wilI content myself with roughly summarising he shares Hegel's
about
or not; according
after having turned back on itself, and there is no 'pre-subject'
without posing an intrinsic
here (his anti-Heglianism
remains ambivalent
ler, there are various views to be found in Nietzsche
one's own aggression, I will not dwell in detail on Nietzsche
Yet, Nietzsche
precedes conscience
the 'circularity
ity of subjection and agency without referring to an essential interiority cault IS accused of doing. Let us see if this is so.
hap-
pens through the 'turning back' of the will onto itself, and the stronger this turn-
through the
which is indebted to
for Butler to argue for Freud's
and sources of resistance
Inauguration
how the in-
mourning
are
one without
subject cannot be
has been inaugurated.
Butler _ escapes the logical quandary
is established
fiction,
lack-in-
for what the subject de-
by Butler for theorising
and bodily formations
a necessary
subject cannot exist. A preconscious
for once subject-formation
structure to Nietzsche's distinguish~bility
But although concepts of conscience
argues that they describe
consciousness
ambivalence
regarding
be overcome
through
follow a predestined
undergoing
New York: and not eas-
because
the will on muscles
the ascetic ideal, as for example
Kaufmann.
three, this 'will' is even more ambiguous it is not defined
in relation
or nerves, but only on another
subject-formation
is also expressed
in his Also Sprach Zarathustra.
the eternal
path of subject-formation.
return,
See chapter
to a pre-defined
in his repeated
The Psychic
Life ".fPower,
Ibid, p. 70. Her reading
of Freud seems to be mainly based on his Civilization
call to 'over-
that we are not all doomed
three for futhcr elaborations
50
'sub-
will.
If the 'will to nothingness'
it can be argued
49
S!
by Walter
p. 69; my italics. and Its Discontents.
on this.
can to
Butler, then, basically argues that, accordin to Freu " gression to vent itself internally whl'ch g b d d, sublImatIOn causes ag, causes a consc' Th aggression, the stronger the conscience W h . h h lence, e stronger the . ' e erewlt ave a clrc I' 't (' slOn/conscience') wI'thl'n u an y aggresa sequence ('subl' t' /. . tached d " ' Ima IOn mternaiisation') The de escnptlOn of the ci I"" ,ler above as the 't" rcu anty aggressIon/conscience', described by But, cons ltutlve feature of bad consci . h' . prompts the internalisation of eft" t f' ellce w Ich sImultaneously ec s 0 power that wIll I d " . mourning process is theoreticall d't"f' I ea to an mternaiised , ' y I ICUt. I argue that 't ' dd ' ' Isms to those we have anal sed" ' I a s more determmretical tool to account for t~e nolll prevlOuls chapters instead of providing a theon-essentla body, 0
ment to prohibition ment is eroticised
Even If aggressIve reactions are to be found in most hu d fO~ humalllty, slOn as 'natural' I mans, e mmg aggresamount of a can ead to further generalisations like attributing a certain cr , 'bgresslOn to each gender. For exam Ie t . aggression/conscience' in the d"" P .' 0 employ the detached Ulllt sations' of a' ISCUSSlOnof cnmmality could lead to 'naturalials concerne:~~~::I~:e;::r:et~:tc;
the cause of criminal activity in the individu-
in the discussion
argue agamst the use of psychological
of sUblimatio~,
'units'
because it frustrates
of the (m)other
that has to be controlled,
the libidinal
nihilate the subject: the union with the (m)other.
gratification Butler therefore
believes
exploits this narcissistic
demand that has been created by prohibition
will always pose a pre-determined attachment
exact opposition 'works',
psychic structure
to the Foucaultian
vented aggression,
to mourning
to its own subjection,
Repression
that
outside of the ways in which it
tion _ itself. But, as we have argued, a recourse ject's passionate
Punish-
that would an-
cannot be understood
- subjec-
and melancholia
as the reason for the suband this static account is in
belief that there is not one way that repres-
- including
punishment,
and hence, conscience
which
creates
- creates sensations
internally
and a mapping of
sexuality in a body, But, I argue, if there is only one way that this mapping can work, her use of Foucault to disprove the repressive In Butler's
praise of Freud's
the integration
of 'drives'
hypothesis
negates itself.
dialectic this flirt with structural
as pregiven continues:
determinism
'moral interdictions,
those that are turned against the body, are themselves
sustained
and
especially
by the bodily
activities that they seek to curb,s2, The question as to what these bodily activities consist of and where they originate that they are biologically she elaborates: Not denying
from is hereby ignored,
determined
'the repressive the relationship
Does she suppose
drives? The phrase becomes
between
repression
and libido,
in Foucault's
the question
and it is the origin of psychologies
that Butler's
(or of the indistinguishability
of psychologies
that Foucault proposes,
phrasing
ignores:
her work of psychic
Trying to define the psychic op-
erations of power detached from the social operations to ambiguous
re-
History of Sexuality),
lacks the genealogy and bodily formations)
clearer when
law is not external to the libido that it represses',
mains as to what comes first (as discussed
autonomous Butler's reasoning is based on her belief that th" , volves the subject's passionate attachment to its e formatIOn of the subject inattachment is theorised through th F d' own subJectIOn, ThIS passionate e reu Ian narcIssIstIc e th t h ' part of its own body with I'b'd' I h . go a as lllvested H . d' I I ma cat eXlS as substitution for unreturned love avmg Iscussed Butler's 'deferred real' and found that 't ' passionate attachment to sub' , ' I cannot account for a ~ectlOn, we have to conclude that a libidinal attach-
in the fetishisation
castrator
the force of punishment
sion Posing a circularity as the constitutive feature of bad c "' the definition of essential instincts Bu ' onSClence seems to escape Butler 'lS '1 f . . ' t the Ulllt aggressIOn/conscience, used by , , Igme, IS presented detached from its ' , question as to where aggression originates ii'om is i~~:~:ld e;~li:onment" and the sentmg aggression as a . t' . h" " then, nsks pre,n III nnSlC p ySlOloglcal h such an ontological phenomenon wo Id' I .' p enomenon. To presuppose u p ay mto bIOlogIc '11 (F ' convictions would have to refut I d' " no IOns oucaultIan aggression are genetic and Wh:t ea Illig to questIOns such as whether levels of '. conc USlons had to be drawn from this if ' ;ere ~o, To pose the cIrcularity 'aggression/conscience' as a detached psych It oglca Ut1lt to be employed in theories of sub' " . 0nological base that presupposes aggression as ~::tiI~;i:I:i~s e~:::I:tg ~ phenome-
can only be represented
as the phallic woman, the potential
of power repeatedly
leads
sentences like the former quotation that gives 'bodily activities' and presupposed
Her use of Freud, then, does not seem to escape defining essential that her Foucaultian
an
life,
convictions
would negate,
Her Hegelian
materialities
reasoning
is re-
peated in her arguing that 'if the terms by which we gain social recognition
for
ourselves are those by which affirm one's exist ,we are. regulated and gain social existence, then to ence IS to capItulate to one's subordination bmd. (IbId) Here , the inevitabl e d'Ia I"ectIC connectIon of b' - a sorry , re-affirmed, but also an He er d '" su ~ectIOn and agency is g Lacanian psychoanal'y sis In Ian etermmIsm IS reiterated that is the base of , . one sentence, Butler' f " meaning an existence accordin to s' . !umps. rom SOCIaleXIstence firmed _ to existence /7er se Wgh t ' oCIal nOIms m WhICh the subject feels af. a IS presupposed he 'th . which a subiect feels af'f" . d re, IS at all eXIstence in J Hme can only ev b . regulation, meaning that recognition as er e an ex:stence according to social this 'social existence' that th . a coherent subject cannot eXIst outside of be recognised by soc;ety It erethIs no eXIstence outside the one that fears to not . IS IS supremacy of p' hi' Michel Foucault but also G'll D I syc oana ytIc concepts that , 1 es e euze and FT G . their A t'-O d' '. e IX uattan argue against in n 1 e lpUS, which I WIll refer to in dh . , a reactive concept opposes b ' ept m the thIrd chapter. Identity as a ecommg that IS not-anymore, not- et d . to-be, whose bemg cannot b ff. d Y ,an neveIthe 'empty' If . H e a Hme , and that exists in-between the 'full' and establishe" ,as m egel, the subject always wills to overcome the body he s a very narrow mode of subjectivatio h ' that present very different . ,n t at excludes those becomings •
,..
c
,
Butler's argument for the reintegration of power necessitates
of psychoanalysis
a reading of Foucault
out of context. I argue that Foucault's analytic language
than psychoanalysis,
or an 'unconscious',
as well as possibilities
of resistance
avoiding the determinisms
Butler argues that 'the Foucaultian moves beyond
dialectical
formulation'''.
Whereas
theories
writings on power, without using psycho-
or referring to a 'psyche'
count for subjectivation
in Foucaultian
which, in my mind, pulls concepts
we have encountered.
account of subjection,
logic, remains
unwittingly
Hegel understands
are able to acmore adequately
despite its significant
tethered
to the Hegelian
the subject to be splitting
from the body, and needing the body to 'sustain too, describes the body as being 'marshalled
its splitting
itself off
activity',
Foucault,
in the service of suppression'.54 But
c
described in the next chaPt::r~:~tIOnl~ of the subject. Such becomings will be is this d '. f' . '..' WI oppose a Hegelian/Lacanian dialectic It nary de~~:~ :yr LmtelhgIblhIity and affirmed identities that pose a fixed ima~i, acan In IS mIrror stag th t ' h detached from the de' f ,e, a ,It as been argued, cannot be power and its ensuing ~:~er::n~s:h;llree~tcye that ref~ehmbles the mother's . ranny 0 t e past' .
this body is not composed
before this marshalling
desires, like that for transcendence, stituted through regulation
or for the filling of a lack, The body is con-
as an object to be regulated,
tend itself, the body as an object of regulation continuous sistance,
augmentation
lies Foucault's
and he here simultaneously
and for regulation
is continuously
theoretical
augmented.
potential
to exIn this
to account for re-
marks his break with Hegelian
dian logic, as it is exactly the unpredictability base for opportunities
takes place, nor are drives or
of augmentation
and Freu-
that forms the
of resistance.
phallic But Butler insists:
'But to understand
effects which [ ... ] constitute
resistance,
tion of stubborn attachments, in the subversion unconscious, closed.
If Hegelian
body's
transience,
it seems that we must return to the ques-
According
unobtainable, dialectics,
by defining
structure;
and further, if Freud theorises
Ibid, p, 34, The prohibilive
55
Ibid, pp, 57 -60.
or prohibited an incessant
defines the body as essentially
by Lacan into a coherent
54
to Butler, resistance
tabooed
translated
53
power produces
regime could produce
and, more precisely, to the place of that attachment
of the law'''.
where
how a regulatory
the subject's
is found in the
identities
lacking;
the
and if this lack is
(and, as we have analysed, the internalised
are fore-
will to overcome
mourning
desires which have to be prohibited.
inescapable) process of
that which we lack t b d f . onl 0 e e mmg our psychic attachments, then resistance can y ever be represented by a repressed Other. The internal' d . ess, forming psychic attachments, can onl be et Ise mourmng procforeclosure can only be generat d th hY benerated by foreclosure, and c e roug the threat of h' . the dissolution of the subiect Wh t ", psyc OSIS, threatenmg J' a we lOleclose acco'd' t h . feminists discussed so far is th ' I' h' ' I 109 0 t e LacaOlan " e lea, 10 w Ich there was a plenitude I the lack, the pOssession of the hallus . ' a ack of phallic mother B . d pc, which equalled the possession of the . ' emg scare of the return to dependenc b" , woman 10 order to control h . h y, man 0 ~ectIfIes er, ence women are s I k' have the penis that h'lS the ' een as ac 109 as they do not c power to control. Lack it has bee ' does not seem to be detachable ti'o 0 I' ' , n lepeatedly argued, , m an ec Ipal structure. Hence th generate foreclosure can only b .'b d' ' e power to c e ascn e a real 10 the Zizekia . multaneously affirms the 0 d' I n sense, that Sle Ipa structure Butler would like to escape from. Foucault, on the other hand ' 'd . . . f '" ' PIOVI es us WIth a theory of resistance that d ~e er to an II1tnnslC lack. If attachments were stubborn, how could oes not contlI1UOUSaugmentation that might bi . '. there be a c ena e a swervll1et of d tT . cault's break with Heetel bl h' . b I en I !CatIon? If Foutance, Why does B tl b, ena es IS theoretIcal potential to account for resis, u el want to lead hIm back to the Heet r . stubbornesses? The 'b'l' be Ian and Lacaman '. POSSI 1 Ity for swe . ,I signification that, if taken through D:~IDg d so ahccounts for a possibility of rebased on '" . uze, 111lgt transgress an intelligibility aImlDg to transcend the bod', , . . identities. Byemplo in N' . , ~ 01 needmg SOCIally affIrmed, fixed r I . Y g letzsche s etelOal return, eXIstences could be 'lIt Ive y constItuted. How, then, could we find the link back to He elian . ern aor a Lacaman lack? Foucault's indebtedness to HId F g dIalectICS , h d' . , . ' ege an reud as both fou dmg t e lalectlcal logIC of subjection' in that 'the it, n becomes the structure of aim and desire'51, notw'th t nSdlUment of suppressIOn nonsensical to ask of F I I S an 109, It IS nevertheless c oucau t to elaborate on a h' f actly the conce t of th '. , psyc IC orm of power. It is exto pre-determin~d com;:~~~~~ he rejects, It a psyche can be analysed according
How then can we understand resistance in a Foucaultian late, Foucault understands 'instincts' t h . . o ave ongmated
sense?
. . Let me recapltuthrough repression just
as much as 'perverse'
or 'deviant'
ascetisme, i.e, sadomasochism, hand, choosing
forms of sexuality."
an identity that has been 'created'
and the proliferating,
To choose
repressive
tity that can be 'catalogued';
by medical/social
system themselves,
institutions
and thus obtaining
on the other hand, it demonstrates certain
'instincts'."
Therefore,
system creates areas of resistance
against
'normality'.
For Foucault,
sistance, which would subvert the regulative the subject. Foucault
advocates
the promotion
category of 'woman'.59 He envisages
a 'general
on
counter-cultures
sexualisation, achieved:
Foucault
but thereby
asks
does
tices. Similarly, de-individualisation deconstruction ideological The
that
move
towards
de-sexualisation dictating
cannot be accomplished
of identities and sexualities
question
one
immediately
should be pursued with this utopia as
poses
IS how
de-individualisation
identity. This can only be guessed
through disciplinary 'The emergence
from the 1840's.'
of perversion
" Butler describes
as a medical
Colin,
Foucault's
theory
herself
repressed
continually
as a site of confession
fabricated
normalcy
become
which
Power/Knowledge.
very well: 'The psychoanalytic
of the woman'5
ficity of their sexuality
cultures.'
liberation
are
[.,.] dates
Hemel
to the feminist
inadvertently
control,
Hamp-
that would de-
to desire: impulse
but this fabrication
provide
of the normal; the conditions
is
exceeds
codes which seek to catalogue
and
sexologists for a prolif-
Life (!/"Power, p. 59.)
is not that of having laid claim to the speci-
to it, but that they have actually
of sexuality.'
liberation
discourse
incitement
of the concept
(The Psychic
movement
and the lights pertaining
within the apparatuses
cault refers, for example,
In this sense, criminal
homosexuality
of homosexual
a discursive
and, hence, potential
the site for a contestation
and pathologize
eration and mobilization
conducted
de-constitution
with that of instinct,
Foucault:
desire ends up producing
aims by which it is generated.
59 'The real strength
is linked
Michel
descrip-
constitution
Press Ltd, p. 221.]
scribe and pathologize
who would classify
object
ed. (1980):
or deinto a total-
from Foucault's
discourse the condition for the subject's
[Gordon,
stead: The Harvester
discourse
prac-
or planned, but the
can be aimed at by bodies that have been subjectivated
ised and gendered
the regulatory
can be
discursive
tion of asujettissement itself, which implies that with the subject's
institutionalize
de-
background.
sexualisation
57
of the
of pleasure not based to
sexualities,
by the state.
the de-sexualising
economy
not insinuate
there will always be dominant
further re-
of new subjectiv-
and monitoring
In this vein, he praises certain feminisms for attempting norms'.
of
the regulative
system itself, would be achieved in
ities, meaning those that aim at resisting totalisation
sexual
an iden-
a subversion
the system that aims to suppress
de-sexualising
a deviant
as a practice (or: an identity), is, then, on the one
(Power/Knowledge,
of female homosexuality.
departed
from the
p. 220, my italics.)
Fou-
simultaneously established: the 'performative ' mand'''O leaves th effect of the mterpellating dee congruence of the subject ( therewith remains a site for furth d I con mously unstable and it er eve opment Butl I ' subject as only remaining a 'b' h . er exp ams the Foucaultian . su ~ect t rough a constant" . tIon of itself as a subiect and thO d < reiteratiOn or rearticulaJ , < . IS ependency of the h' coherence may constitute th,t b' , . su 'lect on repetition for . a su ~ect s mcoherence 't . ThIS repetition or better ite b'l' h ' I S Incomplete character. , , ra I Ity t us becomes the I the possibility of are-embody' f h '" non-p ace of subversion, mg 0 t e subJectIvatmg h . normativity'61 In oth d norm t at can redIrect its . er wor s, the need for repetitio th d ticulation for a subject to k 't' . n, e ependence on reareep I s stable' Identity is ex tl h Iieves Foucault sees roo t ' ac y were Butler bem or resIstance as the lack f .. duction to different dis .' " 0 repetition, or the intro,COUIses III the place of' (( 'swerving' of identification a h A . lepe I iOn, could generate a , < c ange. s we wIll see in h t h concentrates on articulating th' I k f ' . c ap er tree, Deleuze IS ac 0 repetItiOn and th . becoming-Other. e ensumg changes, the
formulation,
it appears that there is an 'inside'
'history of bodies' to investigate
cultivated
The Psychic Life of Power, IbId; my italics.
p. 99.
specific imaginary
the body is materialized'''3. findings.
schema that produces
a normative
and normalizing
to which the body is trained, shaped, cultivated,
is a highly historically
The non-specificity
of 'power',
appear pseudo-scientific
Butler's
'investment',
in comparison of subjection.
and ontological
nature
under which
frustration
with these
as well as 'body'
to the psychoanalytic
to ask how one is to understand
determinism
and invested; it
ideal (ideal speculatifJ
One can understand
tance with this loose conception ability,
of power through which the body is
the body. [...]. ..the soul becomes
ideal according
'soul'
after they have been formed by
and formed. In a sense, it acts as a powerladen
and actualizes
in which
the body is malleable
and Punish, Butler reads Foucault to be arguing
that 'the soul is taken to be an instrument
strategically
and
discourse,
and plan resis-
It is, though, exactly the predictof psychoanalytic
discourse
that
Foucault indirectly criticises, Foucault's
aim is to find new ontologies
can only be created through the evolution which originated
that first have to be created, and that of new subjectivities.
Psychoanalysis,
at a certain time in history to describe certain subjects, subjec-
tivated in a certain reality, cannot account for the evolution jects. Foucault
aims to investigate
alised body has been constructed6\
through which principles
of these new subthe sexed and sexu-
how woman as woman and man as man are
Ibid, p, 89.
"3 Ibid, 64
p, 90. 'Thus, in the process
longs in common ing in women; wholly
of hysterization
to men and women;
of women,
'sex'
was defined
as that which belongs,
in three ways: as that which be-
par excellece,
but at the same time, as that which by itself constitutes
in terms of the functions
fects of that very function. it was the 'one'
60 61
by a few paragraphs 'inside'
can only be determined
discourse. Further, in Discipline
62
Butler's , stubborn accusation that Foucault po ses an essentIal . ,. 'd' I d to read mto Foucault's Th H' ,f" mSI e ea s her e lstory OJ Sexuality that 'h not only on the body but I . h e suggests that power acts a so In t e body that power boundaries of a subject but ervad h" " not only produces the p es t e mtenonty of that subject. In the last
is followed
Foucault refutes Butler by arguing that anything and that its functionings
a
'the manner in which what is most material and
most vital in them has been invested',
and it is justified Change, then, comes about by being introduced to d'f . the rearticulations deriving fro th I ferent practices of the self; m ese encounters pres t ' power-structures. In contra t ' B I ' en resIstance to solidified ,s, m ut er s psycho'm I ( , originates from repression a d t I ' a y IC verSiOn, resistance , ' n orec osure, and is released th h mg. As previously said thl's '. roug open mourn, mourmng can If we folIo I' generated by the threat of th d' I" w a oglc of foreclosure . e ISSOutiOn of the subject onI mg of a binary Other If h ' Y ever be the mourn. , as we ave argued the r I' I .. tive of phallic identity, this phall' .d ' " ea ISon y a real If represental y (m)others who hence have to b IC b ,entIft bemg assocIated with the union with e 0 ~ectI led and co t II d h' . the war of the phallus then all' ,n ro e , w Ich wIll lead to , resIstance remams b' , gender divide. In contrast th Fl' mary and reIterative of the , e oucau tIan form f' . and might spawn unforeseen a d 'd " 0 resIstance IS unpredictable ben er I entIties.
to the body which appears before
power's invasion .. .'62 The line she is referring to, in which Foucault envisages
Hysteria
and the 'other',
there was formed (from the standpoint
of reproduction was interpreted
and keeping
the idea of sex that was both present of physiology),
present
it in constant
in this strategy
whole and part, principle
to men, and hence is lackwoman's
hody,
agitation
as the movement
(from the evidence its activity,
it
the ef-
of sex insofar
and lack, In the sexualization
too if one considered
ordering
through
as
of childhood,
of anatomy) and deficient
and absent if one re-
defined.
He is not supposing
a separate
ontology
erased for this distinct sexuality to be imprinted, feelings
and 'economies
not sustainable 'interiority',
of pleasures'
for the body that has been
but presupposes
a multitude
of
that could be in its place, It is therefore
for Butler to hold on to her claim that Foucault
presupposes
an
Rather, it would make more sense to say that the body holds the
possibility for a multitude of 'interiorities' ject comes into its precarious being,
that cannot be defined before the sub-
Foucault is not talking about an essential
non-identity,
identities
mation of the body in consequence concepts
of displacement
on the occasion
argument
as the subli-
and substitution .. , '65, again
onto the Foucaultian
discourse
that the 'body is not a site on which a construction
destruction
of
body makes Butler define the
'against the body; indeed, it might be understood
forcing psychoanalytic
Butler's
but about a multitude
into. But exactly this effort to detect
that form the sexed and sexualised
soul as working
insisting
T
that a body could be subjectified
the disciplines
and therewith
takes place; it is a
of which a subject is formed'66, The core point of
is exactly
, to Foucau It, on Iy be made apparent in its silhouette, by , , ccordmg b conscIOUS can, a , f' rtain subiectivities, and there y , "I' discourses that orm ce J revealma the dlsclp mary , , , h' 'h dows Contrary to " b , ',' d' leasures' that could lie 111t elr sa, , limltmg the bodlcs an p , d' cannot determine what lies 'h t be detenmne - as we psychoanalysIs, t ey canno , 'th t they are not those that we . d' 'e - apart from saymg a outside of our own ISCOurS 'd 't' As such then identities are k d catalogued I entl les. ' , , have analysed as nown an cd' b' encountered in reiterative pracnot mourned in advance, but embrace III emg , , e do not know of them before they are created. tlces. w
this, that she perceives
power's inscription o{ and in the body a 'constitutive the subject appears at the expense of a body,
in Foucault's
notion of
loss', a lack-in-being,
that
, , " Tt l' tl e psychoana Iytlc conc eption of the subNot giving up on the lI1SUpelclbl I y 0 1 " ',' ' g his political , . k Foucault from another angle, cntlclsm . ", J'ect, Butler tnes to attac "ffirmed prohibitIve f th sychlc unconSCIOUS rea potential: Lacan's account 0 e p. ,. F ucault's account of resis, tl m But she argues, 0 powers rather than erasmg le, ', .. Id f' er relations, (She here re, f'f ' ' stnteglC fIe s 0 pow tance was just as me ectlve 111 "b' g oneself in 'prohibited' '" I' t" of resistance as mscn m . fers only to FoucclU t s no Ion 'I't and the resionification they , , 'd "ochlsm homosexua I y, c b , discourses, such clSsa Ol11clS , h h" th risation transgresses the dra, h d acknowledge t at IS eo, c hence obtam,) S e oes c " 't itself and spawns ver, . ' her words, the law turns agclms ' lectlcs of power. In at , 't'ng purposes' in contrast ,, ' e and proliferate Its amma I . sions of Itsclf which oppos h th" maginary thwarts the etfI, f hic resIstance were e I to Lacan's notIOn a psyc k the law demanding or ef, b 1" I w but comnot turn bac upon c, cacy of the sym OIC a ' h 1 F Kault's account of resistance " I,t" '08 But nevert e ess, Ol , .. fect1l1g ItS reformu cllon ' 't. as each new identlfJca, ' h' rtain formative struc lUes, c , ' , stayed Just as much WIt, mce d I" 't" 'structures as the subjectlVltles tion carried the same dlsClplll1ary an Iml mg d (,0 against which the resistance was pose C
C
0
,
,
,
0
It is Butler, though, who poses an essential Foucault.
In a Foucaultian
lack at the base of the subject, not
sense, the subject might appear at the expense
multitude of other existences,
but this cannot be seen as lack, as they are not 'es-
sential' to the body, the body does not 'know' the psychoanalytic the 'essential' formation,
of them in an 'unconscious'
sense, where neurotic pathologies the installation
as in
can be analysed to reveal
drives and instincts that were sacrificed
To circumvent
of a
0
°
in the process of subject-
of essentialisms
(as described
above),
Ibid, p, 99, . 'b't d discourses Foucault was referring to were sexual identities Blltler argues further that the plOhl I eo, .. t' o't' ps'yc'hoanalytic concepts mto . .,. in at the rell1scnp Ion . . only and Butler therefore, sllll stubbolnly ,um g. f" 't' nee W'IS not possible in the pnsoner ' " "0' 'ks why thIS form 0 resls d', , Foucault's theorisatlOl1 of reslstdl1C, e, dS . -h" b lIt the relationship of scxuallty to power " d P "h 'Is there somet 111gd 0 as described in DisClplme an. Wtl.\.. '. "," .,' [The History oj"Sexuality], and a noted ab'b'l' f' 'Ist'mee In the fust text , d [D' ' that conditions the POSSl 1 tty 0 les. (. ',. " f ower and bodies in the secon [SC1, ' t' ., ' lty from the dISCUSSIon 0 P , ' IP 'I sence of a conSIderatIOn 0 seXUd 1 . t'" t·, 11 in so far as DiSCiplIne atu Unl51. . , . " uestion StrategIC Irst 0 <.l . , Pline and Punish]?' IS her strategl<': q ., . F ,It" theorisation of resistance belongs to the , F S" 'lay and oueolU s , ' actu'llly precedes The HIstory 01 exUU" " 'on why the mode of rcinscnptlOn " .' ,"bTf ~' of resistance, there IS no redS . htter But consldenng the POSSI I lies "d' of 'the crimma!' could not be re, . , , ' . 'll1d why the dommant co l11g " ' should not be applied to the pnsonel, , 'd 'th' Foucaultian discourse: I am thmkmg of . ,,' 1 - 'd b"- n achieve WI 111' , . ' , coded as I would argue It hds dIed y ce . " ,I ). which the protagonIst IS Il1Cdrcer, F ,11 (HalluCllIatlllg FOUWLl t 111 Patricia Duncker's homage to OUCdU
6<
the unconscious of the alternatives
in Foucault
is rather a 'cultural
to certain, discursively
unconscious',
produced
which is the sum
subjectivities
known in advance, and that have to be made apparent by grasping limits and exclusions
which we practice
without knowing''',
fen'ed to its reproductive finality; or again, ,.' [Foucault, London: Penguin Books Ltd" pp, 152/3,] 65 Ibid, p, 92, 66
Ibid.
67
Ibid, p, 83,
Michel
,
(1990):
that cannot be 'the system of
This cultural un-
The History
at" Sexuality.
W
Foucault
cannot account for an overthrow
resignification,
a resignification
and contingent
definitions
tor and dominated
based on genealogicalIy
and redefining
become diffused,
tions of power relations anymore but contribute
of power relations,
exploring
and therewith,
a step towards new concep-
productive
as oppressed,
by continuously
of new identifications, and encourages
might transcend those that are 'dangerous'. Any break with a certain
augmenting
swerving
from that
Because, for Foucault, any resignifi-
solidified
has to be assessed according
society
new self-definitions
cation is not about a notion of selfhood that is more authentic, 'swerving'
of domina-
is laid. If women are not victims of patriarchal
them, the system becomes
gerous'.
connections
them: the fixed definitions
to relations of identification
those that are defined
but for constant
rexia.'
71 ,
as anorexia
defines as resistant
is dangerous,
thing is dangerous,
to a 'uniform
in the form of
to do .. .I think the ethico-
political choice we have to make every day is to determine main danger.7<1
which is the
anorexia presents a 'dangerous'
anny of slenderness', Foucault,
that power
female relations
stereotypes. might
selves. Nowhere,
do not sometimes
and the 'tyragainst subjec-
Bordo thus concludes,
involve
the domination
groups, but this did not 'entail that the dominators or that the dominated
Foucaultian
analysis would suggest that anorexia presented
and on the other hand, a mode of resistance
into typically
folIowing
of particular
are in control of the situation,
advance and extend the situation them-
as we shalI see, is this more clear than in the case of ano-
anorexia,
that derived
agency, can generate resistance According
from noticing new practices
against gender stereotypes
a subject's
criminality.
Also, by posing
the prisoner
as established
not only in his 'madness' through
rather than the prison itself opens up space for re-indentification - the argument
that the discursive to be liberated. 70
Rabinow,
discourse through
is merely that it does not suffice to extract the prisoner and practical
Paul ([984):
realm the prisoner
is situated
Reader.
but also in his
and discursive
anorexics female
can only be a rede-
the constant reiteration
Butler cannot 'translate' to Butler's
counter-discursive
on
how, by chang-
with such a counter-discourse As Foucault
suggests
in his The History of Sexuality,
litical programme
can achieve the engagement
and such a politicality
of rape. But coincidences
is not clear, although
a 'promotion'
is represented
of a general
it can be presumed
there 'econ-
that a po-
of a subject in counter-discursive in his calI for the desexualisation
are various and - in a Foucaultian
sense - not necessar-
I will argue in the second part of this thesis how cultural criti-
cism is influential
in providing
and how Deleuze's
counter-discourses
to the dominant
work can be used to construe
status quo,
such counter-discursive
criti-
cism.
by investing
attachment
can account for the resignification
in prohibited
identities,
of coherent
and aims to extend psychoana-
through the notion of reiteration.
to any identity can only be explained
In a psychoanalytic
sense the
through psychic attachment
to
practices
from the prison, but the point is
Books Ltd., p. 343.
answers. If
is dependent
it is conceivable
omy of pleasure'
ily foreseeable.
Foucault's
practices of iteration, its identity could change. How a subject
are many possibilities.
practices,
are, as re-
reading of Foucault,
of its forming discourse,
of vic-
discourses
practices
in has to change in order for the prisoner
New York: Pantheon
about
way.
and Foucaultian
& The Crystallization
Bordo, Susan:
'Anorexia
Nervosa
Lee, eds. (1988):
Feminism
and Foucault:
Reflections
of Sexuality,
pp. 95-96.
71
Press, p. 91; my italics. The Foucault
and ascribing
that might express
in a less dangerous
As the psychoanalytic
identity, according
lytic discourse is demonstrated
this rebellion and discourses
and awareness
to Butler, Foucault would argue that all resistance
peatedly shown, not compatible,
identities but his resistance
through
practice of the self, and it would be desirable for
Butler argues that psychoanalysis
ated in a mental asylum,
of iden-
another practice to evolve in its place. Yet, the discourses
ing the discursive
we could turn to Susan Bordo's
a duality of, on the one hand, being an effect of power structures tification
economy
feeling of empowerment
her ilIness, and the political power she gains from it in her daily life. Obviously,
would be confronted study of anorexia: a Foucaultian
of a masculinist
that Foucault
fintion of relations of power which goes beyond the concrete designation
to its danger:
which is not exactly the same as bad. If every-
To illustrate this with an example,
repetition
of identity
but one 'less dan-
power-structure
we always have something
exactly this 'swerving'
tity'. It is important to highlight the anorexic's
tim and culprit," everything
presents
72
see Foucault's
The History
of Culture'
on Resistance.
in Diamond, Boston:
frene and Quinby,
Northeastern
University
sUbjectio~, without which resignification is also not possible. to Freud for support, who explains how under
She, again, refers
never denied that discursive
power installs certain desires which lead to the ac-
quisition
that the fear of disintegrity,
of fixed identities,
legibility'", the pressure of the ethical law, a subject emerges who is capable of reflexivity,
that
him/herself,
is, who
takes
him/herself
as an object,
and so mistakes
since he/she is, by virtue of that founding
prohibition,
at an
infinite distance from his/her origin. Only on the condition of a separation enforced
through prohibition
attachment
to prohibition
(in obedience
to it, but also eroticising
this prohibition
is all the more savory precisely
the narcissistic psychosis.7J
circuit that wards off the dissolution
If, then, eroticism the attachment slgl1lflcatlon malleable
is intrinsic to the formation
to subjection
is essential
can only be achieved
before the inscription
notion of resistance
trinsic sexual 'instincts' ,:"ithout the description for subjection. tachment
it). And
because it is bound up in of the subject into
of attachment
to the acquisition
through
investment
precedes
that lead to the acquisition of these physical emotions,
a determinism
in prohibited
Therefore,
as a result of 'swerving'
and
of identity, and if re-
the body that Foucault
of discourse.
I counter-argue,
to subjection,
identities,
describes
as
she argues that Fou-
only works because of inof subjectivities
and that
we can~ot proper;y accoun;
though, that with this naming of a physical at-
is installed that makes it difficult to conceive
of resig-
I1IfIcatlOn beyond the confines of gender binarism we would like to escape from. The primal erotic attachment IS
transgressed
erotlclsed
by the current
certain forms of subject-formation. scribe the psychic
workings
peated use and employment ontology,
to the prohibition
in the investment
taboo. The eroticism
traction to and simultaneous continue to be fetishised,
grammatical
are excluded,
that denies access to the (m)other
in a prohibited
identity,
in transgressing
remains, though, and reaffirms
fear of the real, the 'origin':
Butler aims - like Freud or Lacan - to de-
of the subject in our current of our current structure
sense _ unintelligible
and il-
society,
continuously schizophrenic
psyches always stay 'other',
count for them other than as constituted
but the rereaffirms
its
or - in our
as we cannot ac-
outside of the realm of 'normalised'
in-
stincts. I will show in the next chapter how Deleuze and Guattari help us further to integrate alternative
identities
and modes of subjection
by providing
us with a
the
Michel Foucault's
theoretical
language
rendered
non-existent, subjection
the (m)other, that will
as psychoanalytic
language,
but provides
of non-comprehensibility,
have to be foreclosed
I ask, is intrinsic
the opportunity
subjections
as endangering
operation.
for extension,
hence, the potential to account for the possible development gies. Butler's
continued
employment
to let go of a necessary pendencies,
of psychoanalysis
is irritating,
as if fearing affirm our de-
which we can only detach ourselves from by opening up to new dis-
courses. It appears a bit like a mourning
ritual, where letting go of a deceased is
delayed as life without his or her memory might not prove as valuable. without a known and structuring
theory seems immensely
gress is to leave the theory that affirms our dependence founding
and
of other psycholo-
tool that does nothing else but repeatedly
threatening,
To live but pro-
behind, and therewith
its
fathers in whose shadow one grew. This leads us to Adam Phillips'
commentary
on The Psychic Life of Power in which he argues that 'mourning
slows things down'?5. Phillips
argues that, although
Butler's
language
tions on the move (which is where definition
of the psyche, alternative
as a comprehensible
can account for subjection just as much
its origin: the at-
as will women per se.
of a certain functioning
theory that structures
schizophrenia
of our legal society, lead to
leaving us no way out. In this discourse,
use of psychoanalysis With the 'naming'
necessities
theory that opens up to non-comprehensibility.
then Butler argues that sexuality cault's
does a subject emerge, formed through the
constructed
the
How much fear
to such a theorisation?
practice. Butler's
was problematic,
suggestion
come by acknowledging ing the non-performability
of 'performance'
was, and should be, anyway), her
especially
if applied to psychoanalytic
that borders of gender difference
the attachment
see Foucault's
75
Adam Phillips:
and by mourn-
of another gender due to that attachment,
foreword to Deleuze 'Keeping
can only be over-
to one's own subjection,
Foucault 74
kept defini-
It Moving'
and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus. in The Psychic
Life o{Power,
p. 159.
throw up
the fOllowing question . .f' B s. I, as utler suggests, 'masculinit ' , ". are formed and consolidated th h 'd " . y and fenummty' . roug I entlfIcatlOns th t . disavowed grief'76 how d k' a are composed 111 part of , , ,0 we now which or how m tItles are mourned? any repressed gender iden-
huther,
speaking
about two sexes"
analogous to the binary pairs that were such a misleading lytic
language,
such
ity/homosexuality. Butler invented a 'logic in drag' t d' h · 0 ISCUSS er Use of psych I '77 a b Iding to the rules of strict b' , " oan YSls ,as only by malles as formulated' F d' theory of mourning the op 't m reu Ian theory did her , POSI e gender make sense Sh d . h necessary reason for identif t' . e a mlts t at there is no Ica Ion to oppose desire or t d . by repudiation' but Phill' . dd" ,or esue to be fuelled , , ,IpS a s, there IS of c ' certain kind of psychoanaJyt' J . 'B " ourse, a necessary reason by a . , IC oglc. utJer Sown theo 'y' b d . bmanes which refutes her' f ' I IS ase on a logiC of ann 0 overcomll1g the Jatte' If h . ways appears to 'know' the t th f' I. psyc oanalysls alru - or example b t I h sic 'grief' even if the latt ' ," a ou t 1e eterosexual's intrin, , el appears qUite joyful th . about the limits of psycho I" - e questIOn should be asked ana YSlS. First who decides h . Jem, and by what criteria? S d h' . w at constitutes a prob,. econ, ow many lives (or n r d the analyst recognize in or de d f h' , ' on- lve genders) 'can . ,man 0, IS patIent and f h ' on thts recognition that so e '[ b ,w wt are t e constralflts aSt y ecome a demand?', asks Phillips. Any clinician is only too conscious of the const ' . constraints, on possibility that II d ramts, the unconscIOuS , are ca e sympto (d f. . perspective are called th 0 d' ms an 10m a different . 'e e IpUS complex). But f. . Sible in analysis or anywh' I '. ,0 COUlse, what IS pos, ele ese, IS dictated by , th . digms by the la OUi eoretIcal para, nguages we choose to speak ab t . analyst who believes in th ' ' ou our practice. [...] The , e unconscIOus can hardl h' representative of the authent' I'f y set Imself up as a , IC I e even though th I talk about his job is full f th ' , . e anguage he Uses to o e JaIgon of authentl 't (. . truth, self, instinct).7K CI y mtegnty, honesty, lb' Id, p. 155. In her essay 'Melancholy G d' '/R f .. . en el e used Identlf '" t' ' (C ~ e oj Power), Butler follows Freud' d . "b" IC'llOn hapter Five of The Psychic 111 eSCll 1I1ghow the child b . unattackable authority into himself d h ' Y means of Identification takes the . , an ence regulat" 't lf d . ' . both the refusal of grief '\l1d the . . ,es I se to eSlre the 'right' sex. 'Melancholy is _ _ " ' lIlcorporatlOn of loss a '. ' mOulll .... IenUncratlOn requires the vel' h . . .' nummg of the death it cannot , " Y omosexuahty that It conde . as Its Own most treasured source of suste' , (T '.. mns, not as Its external object, but 77 'Th' . , . ndnce. he PsychiC Life ofP , e logIC of repudIatIOn th'll I' h . . OWtr, p. 142/3.) h' ' ve c mtered here is in some W'l' h . w Ich overstates the case, but overstat .·t f ' .. ,ys a yperbolIc theory, as it were 7X Philli sin Th . . " . , es I OJ a reason.' (IbId, p. 149,) , Pe P.lYcluc Life of Power pp 1567, '. '. ,. -, my Itahcs. 76
L 'f'
locks us into a binary logic that is sadly
psychoanalysis
as
active/passive,
Therefore,
Phillips
part of the psychoana-
sadism/masochism,
suggests
heterosexual-
that we avoid the language
as it might be more useful to 'talk about graduations
rather than contours and outlines when we plot our stories about gender', grammar of boundaries
psychoanalysis
uses and on which concepts
cation and mourning are based, 'promote person is and can be'. Psychoanalytic
of what a
does not seem adequate
rewritten in a way that it can focus on that which is in- between,
as the
of identifi-
a specific set of assumptions language
of
and blurring
to be
which is most
often that which is, in our society, ignored, censored,
violated and negated, and
it is therefore
to employ this language.
questionable
Butler herself acknowledges
why we should continue psychoanalysis'
limitations:
I would argue that phenomenologically ing gender and sexuality
that do not reduce to this equation,
presume that gender is stabilized sexuality,
but for the moment
construction
through the installation
that do not
of a firm hetero-
I want to invoke this stark and hyperbolic
of the relation between gender and sexuality in order to think
through the question of ungrieved what we might call the gendered This 'moment'
there are many ways of experienc-
and ungrievable
loss in the formation
character of the ego.
of
KII
becomes the basis for her text, a moment which she freezes into
a theory of gender construction,
an ontology from which she continues
to inter-
pret gender relations, ignoring in her theory the fact that there are many ways of experiencing
gender and sexuality,
as she continues
to speak of, and thereby
freezes, the dominant status quo. 'Part of what sustains and extends the period of mourning bition
against
expressing
aggression
toward
against Phillips, and the debate continues,
7"
Phillips
counters
disagree,
as the acknowledgement
away from the binary ~ after all, hermaphrodites
"" Ibid, p, 136; my italics. " Ibid, p. 163.
Butler
Butler asks whether if, by becoming
insists that there only are two sexes and that we are, sadly, hence forced
two only. I would strongly movement
is precisely the prohi-
what is lost''',
of a multitude do exist.
to talk about the
of sexes would further the
aware , of th e psyc h'IC structures themselves b ' gresslOn evolved due to hav' I ' Y theatncally expressing the ag, , Ing ost one (or more) d tlOn of mourning be broken? C ld' gen er, could not the idealisa, ou It not thr h h ., and mourning, be shown that psychoa ; , oug t e sanctlOmng of aggression effect of melancholia? One could k na YSISItself Idealises melancholia as an , , as Instead that 'f tIomng of mourning are to understa d th ' I we, then, through the sanclimitations and hence ide l' n, at psychoanalysis itself mourns its own a Ises mourmng what Would it make us adapt new gende'd ,', ,would be the consequences? . r I entItIes? How 1 aggressIOn, the open mourning t k ? I' : ong would the venting of , , a e. s It useful? L k' , work In the next chapter I w'll .' , 00 Ing at Elfnede Jelinek's , I aIm to show how th th ' In Butler's as well as in Jeli k' .,' , e eatncal expression, which , ne s case IS achIeved thr ' parody, can easIly reiterate rather tha b' ough the employment of n leak common perceptions of gender. The fear of rer IllqUlS ' h'mg certain gender'd , ' I en t"Itles III . d exp IaIned through the feal' of I' . . ,my mm ,can far better be , OSIll" a POSIt ' I' course than in the psychoanal t" b I~n WIt 1m a known and affirmed dis'. Y IC context of mourni d retIcal language that shifts th f' " , , ng an melancholia. A theo. .. e ocus ft om Identity t th ' self-affirmatio L ' 0 e Ill-between, then, would f aClhtate , n, oss can only real! " , structlons cannot be artiClIlated d h Y eXIst If alternatIve gender con, , an ence do t' . dIscourse that the theory of I .' no eXIst It IS only within such a . . a me anchohc gender hold A . consIsts III letting go of th . . s. s SaId, then progress . e constnctIng thear f . , , theoretIcal language in which d'f:" , Y Irst and substItutIng it with a . I leI ent formatIOns f d . artIculated, and which can 0 gen er and deSIre can be promote these and make th ' . commentary, I argue that D I em VISIble through cultural , e euze and Guattari' s co ' ology: a language with which ' ncepts proVIde this methodwe can rewnte the stories that make up our lives.
parody
n. 1. burlesque,
caricature,
!lpology, caricature,farce, [laving theorised
lampoon,
satire,
send-up ... 2.
wolman's stubborn attachment to one's own subjection within
the Oedipal structure, formances
imitation,
mockery, travesty ... 3.... mimic, poke fun at'
Butler suggests
a de-identification
as an open form of mourning
an unobtainable
through
parodic per-
gender.
'The parodic
repetition of gender exposes [ ... J the illusion of gender identity as an intractable depth and inner substance. As the effects of a subtle and politically formativitiy,
enforced per-
gender is an "act," as it were, that is open to splittings,
self-criticism,
and those hyperbolic
exaggeration,
reveal
exhibitions
its fundamentally
self-parody,
of "the natural" that, in their very
phantasmatic
status'''.
This
political
move would, she argues, lead to the loss of gender norms, and would effect the proliferation
of gender configurations,
tity and depriving
the naturalizing
their central protagonists: In the following in deconstructing compulsory
therewith
narratives
'destabilizing
of compulsory
idenof
"man" and "woman"'.
we want to see whether parodic performances these binary
heterosexuality',
While first concentrating
substantive heterosexuality
components and therewith
actually succeed
of 'the naturalizing the heterosexual
on queer perfarmativity
narratives
narrative
such as suggested
of
per se.
by Butler -
i.e. drag queens, lesbian butch, male butch etc; we will from there trace the link that can be drawn from Butler's tion of gender stereotypes. her parodic
performativity,
theory to Elfriede Jelinek's
Jelinek's
and especially
since
winning film version of The Piano Teacher premiered has been introduced
to an international
spectatorship.
write for a feminist cause - namely, the questioning interesting
how her and Butler's
Collins Concise Dictionary and Thesauras, p. 534, my italics.
"Gender Trouhle, pp. 146-7.
Michael
Haneke's
for
prize-
in Cannes 200 1, her style As a feminist
aiming to
of gender stereotypes
approach overlap, and to investigate
they can be seen to be effective.
K2
parodic representa-
dramatic and literary work is renowned
- it is
in how far
This chapter will argue that both Butler's erate rather than eradicate
as well as Jelinek's
gender stereotypes,
as parodic performances
much flirt with fetishism
and castration
formances.
in parody, which is its expression
The bitterness
reveals an unfulfilled terminism
anxiety as do traditional
just as
gender per-
of intrinsic
grief,
desire for the (m)other. It therewith repeats a Lacanian de-
that accounts for gender conceptions
which we encountered
in the Lacanian
see gender stereotypes
and misogyny
the drag queen, and female hysteria impersonation.
use of parody reit-
Where Jelinek
reiterated affirmed
discussed.
drawing
We will
in the parodic performance
of
of a sado-masochist,
inhibits the 'thinking through'
'swerving'
in
might deconstruct
rotten spectacle
though he is not quite sure how'''. than the exchange
agency her character
and defining a constitutive as phantasmatic obtained,
could present.
of the transgressive caricature, In following
lack at the base of the subject, in describing
identities
cannot be acknowledged.
conclude that parody is counter-productive. the constitution
Jelinek Lacan identity
fun of somebody
from the position
We will thus be able to
If we follow Foucault and believe in
of the subject through reiterative
practices,
parody, by making
of the known, hinders the repetition
new, the different, the transgressive
of the
Whether
gender
performance
gender
is featured
as 'naturally'
states as such a subversive gued, though,
of the unobtainable
phantasmatic
parodic performance
that especially
drag performance
instead.
gender repre-
of its 'naturalness':
One 'example'
that any identity
Butler
is alienated,
between
parody,
mimicry
unreal
incredible
or camp,
when both are fictions?
had to be scripted and authorised ler worries:
'Sometimes,
however,
that one's 'origin'
and imitation,
in-
in.
or playing
it
and the other
Parody seemed to be defined by intention, it in the drama of gender performance.
And Ty-
one is ironic without having intended it, and no one gets the joke.'"
of homophobic
of it, and therefore,
oppression
mas-
does not nec-
what passes among queer
misogyny
and homophobia.
has since Butler and Madonna
at a closer look, drag culCamp, once criticised
been rehabilitated,
as
and even ma-
cho masculinity
is now seen as radical and 'camp'.
is phantasmatic,
and signifiers of identities are free from any anchor in ontology,
But, just because everything
has to be denied in order for the subject to S4
participates
masquerade
and has to be analysed, because,
emphasises
and the mem-
from this,
then the distinction
as gender impersonation (when gender is always already impersona-
woman-hating,
the fetishistic
She deduces
and fictional,
with 'the man in drag' is possible without it subverting
tion) is symptomatic
lack Lacan has been read to describe cannot be removed
from a need to control and denigrate
portray
by the symbolic
What made the one credible
despite one's best intentions,
essarily lead to an understanding theorists
and fictional.
were alienating
straight was no longer self-evident.
is drag culture. It could be ar-
ory of the lost union with the mother. This would support the Hegelian/Lacanian dialectic reasoning
though, is her
does not necessarily
of gender and desire as legislated
though, that if all identities
ture does not eradicate
vestment in the phallus in order to ward off the fear of castration,
exist. The constitutive
other
and that assuming a 'false' identity might uncover the fact
culine phallic identites. The experience
that will lead to the deconstruction
sex could present something
In her essay: 'Boys Will Be Girls: The Politics of Gay Drag', Tyler agrees with
Male identification
sents an open mourning
and who, at that mo-
such an alternative.
sometimes,
as practice.
Butler believes that the parodic performance
Carole-
her parodic draw-
and defining the structure through which gendered identities are
alternative
intact
other than an exchange of the phallus,
of the phallus is left open by Tyler; important
that parodic
should be challenged,
misses the subversive
cold, cold masks'
sex could be something
Butler that the naturalness
as 'sad'
of compul-
argue that 'there is no sexual relation'.
of the world wearing
presupposes
which is then mimicked
narratives
game with the phallus
Anne Tyler presents a short anecdote of a drag queen who felt sad 'for the whole
practice she embarks on. In 'making fun' of her, in using a literary method that a stereotype
the naturalising
but it keeps the flirtatious
which lets Lacan triumphantly
demonstration
by the .Telinekian female-female
could have shown a Foucaultian
practice through the consistent ing of her female protagonist,
approaches
sive heterosexuality,
ment, 'recognizes
through Oedipal subjectivation,
feminist
Gender performativity
women, which, I will argue, drag culture
Tyler, Carole-Anne: 'Boys will be Girls: The Politics of Gay Drag' in Fuss, Diana, ed. (1991): in-
side/out:
Lesbian
" Ibid, p. 54.
Theor;es,
Gay Theories.
New York ,md London: Routledge, p. 63.
there is no reason why they could not sustain fantasies supporting
phallic narcis-
teasingly
exposing
the real phallus underneath,
tains a distance _ and difference
sism.
he is doubly whole, and main-
- from the feminine
(lack) even as he seems to
be too close to it for comfort. Tyler argues that some niches of gay politics align with Freud's inversion theory in order to claim 'normality'. sexuality sexual
through inversion
Freud had only been able to understand (a female homosexual
male, a male homosexual
homo-
had the gender of a hetero-
had the gender
of a heterosexual
woman),
which did not explain why a lesbian fem would desire a female butch, nor why a male homosexual themselves
would desire a drag queen. Similarly,
from camp or drag, seeing it as an 'unnatural'
would want to dissociate
themselves
they were unafraid
Male pin-ups,
stereotyping
gaze. The notion of 'object',
gyneophobia,
spectacle,
gay 'macho'
of homosexuals
then, often posed in macho positions
with a (female)
avoided, its contingent
with patriarchal Hyper-masculine
could be seen as a defence against our culture's 'pussies'.
they
gay men were unafraid of being seen as gay,
of being seen as feminine.
off the identification
gender confusion
from. Such anxiety about 'being normal'
with respect to gender could be seen as consistent as it did not follow that because
some gays distanced
in order to ward
object of the male cinematic
with which female pin-ups are associated,
castration-anxiety
as
has to be
In Tyler's
reading of Lacan, the subject who takes up the position
phallus for the phallic (m)other, castrated,
feminised.
'the hole in her whole''',
ishist, at once knowing
chapters,
analysed
in repeating
against woman, castrating
her symbolically.
tive practice securing the denigration queen as extremely
averted.
with women or the womanly but portray a cynical mockery
of women and imitate the most vulgar sort of female dress and apparel: bitchy, and mindless.
women? Tyler's
What,
then, would
be the attraction
in mimicking
answer is that camp might be a defence against femininity
the lack it signifies. By holding the identification
and
with woman at a parodic dis-
tance, the man who seems to have adopted it protects himself from 'real' castration. His femininity
is a masquerade
in which he signals that, after all, he has
what women lack: the phallus. Tyler suggests that the man in drag represents phallic
woman,
the 'whole':
ism ... he has feminized self, attempting through
is only a special
himself only in order to "masculinize"
to better secure a masculine
cross-dressing.,x6
her appearance,
'transvestism
By attributing
man fetishises
to dissolve his defences
Drag, then, can be seen as a reitera-
theory for drag, as some representations
sad and 'castrated',
trapped
cannot be
of drag show the
in her own world, it could be
argued that in this case, the male spectator fetishises her but can distance himself from identification
by objectifiying
her. This, then, is another form of misogyny
we can associate with drag. And what about butch lesbians - phallicised
Similarly, it could be argued that drag queens, in all mimicry, do not display any
hysterical
heightens
the
case of fetish(phallicize)
him-
or phallic and "whole" identity
phallic significance
to some detail of
woman, and wears the fetish himself. By slowly,
re-
her as the
of women. Even if 'phallophilia'
_ desiring feminine lesbians, sponsoring
love or identification
gaze at that which threatens
this desiring-structure,
The fet-
castration,
of woman as lack by fetishising
phallic (m)other. The joyful masochistic
taken as a generalising
a concept that
as the base of misogyny.
of and refusing his/her lack or potential
vises the world and its representation his subjectivity,
must be afraid of being
The desire for the phallic woman presents
we have, in the preceding
of being the
sation occur here, awarding the threat of dissolution,
women
strip shows? Does not the same fetishi-
women a phallic power,
only to objectify
women
masochistically
again to control
enjoying her? Why
should a daughter not fear the phallic (m)other just as much as a son, especially as object choice and identification
is in her case confused,
risking the collapse
into psychosis? What could be argued, then, is that the irony in mimicry and 'camp' and bitter defence against the (m)other: sation as substitution,
and defence against castration
of the subject. It is not so much important if, at the bottom line, it is the simultaneous nine as (m)other, phallicised
the 'origin'
and reduced
is a harsh
an anger at her non-availability,
fetishi-
anxiety and the dissolution
which sex is objectified control and fetishisation
or denigrated, of the femi-
from which we have to protect ourselves,
at once. The war of the phallus,
and therewith,
that is of the
acerbity that distinguishes sexes, is reiterated,
and sexual relations
canian sense: underlying
structures
continue
of desiring-production
It is here we can draw the link to Elfriede
Jelinek's
Jelinek does not pose an ideal or non-violent relations, her use of parody nevertheless tian description terly presents 'making
of the gendered a 'tyranny
in a La-
work. Foucaultian,
'outside'
in that
to existing social gender
subject. Her parodic writing cynically
of the past': gender stereotypes
and bit-
do not change, as her
a reproduction
of that which she
Parody does not appear as a mourning
ritual as prepara-
tion for 'the new' to enter the scene, but a bitter description
of the status quo
which seems to inevitably
and eternally reproduce
itself.
Elfriede Jelinek portrays sexual violence in a parodied, exaggerated way aiming to reveal its discursive
construction.
tention as the marker of difference;
form, in this
Like Tyler, she emphasises
the production
versus the reception
in-
or per-
ception of sexual violence made it radical and educative and inhibited its confusion with pornography. lift the deceptive
Like her heroine
Ingeborg
veil of peace of post-war
Bachmann,
Jelinek aims to
Austria, but contrary to Bachmann,
she does this by using an explicitly violent writing, not believing in the utopia of non-violence.
In a Foucaultian
of identification:
sense, her characters
in their affirmation
be seen as the logical product and affirmative, tria's repressed
but pathetic. aggression
lence - the bitterness
are an offspring,
discourse.
as caricatures,
they can
But it is exactly in por-
that they do not appear resistant
Even if Jelinek's
parodic
due to its sado-masochistic
detectable
a swerving
of violence and sado-masochism,
of a repressive
traying them as 'sad' parodies,
in her painting
Jelinek's
prose'''.
Jelinek maintains
ised love or marriage is nothing but a 'continuation
that institutional-
of war by other means':
remain the same.
repeats a Lacanian rather than Foucaul-
fun' is too much of a 'mimicking',
wishes to deconstruct.
to be non-existent
violence
unveils Aus-
structure,
her own vio-
of gender structures
- appears
helpless in the face of the gender war she criticises.
[On love's]
battlefield
takes place the bloody, sometimes
hilation of the feminine,
bloodless
anni-
which can never become a subject, but forever
must remain an object, subjugated
to employment
contracts
not recog-
nized by society, called marriage." We can here perceive a truly 'Lacanian' can's 'there is no sexual relation' fundamentally
perception
of the gendered subject. La-
is echoed in The Piano Teacher:
desire that what opposes the other's
'Both sexes
desire."" The parodic mea~s
Jelinek takes to represent this hidden, underlying
structure of 'romantic'
in The Piano Teacher, the creation of a character
that is a caricature of Elektra:
'Erika'
lives in continuous
symbiosis
with her mother, a symbiosis
fully detaches herself from, and thus, never becomes name, 'Kohut' cissism,
is most obviously
a reference
Heinz Kohut. Her mother's
Viennese
society _ is hightened
symbolic
she never
her own subject: Her sur-
to the late Chicago theonst of nar-
dominance
- representative
of repressive
by the absence of a father. Whereas
and girl are induced by the symbolic
love IS,
both boy
to perceive the mother as '~astrated"
does not require the girl's abandonment
of her mother
1ll
.the
the OedIpal
stage to be as complete as that of the boy's - she always remains more attached. But without a symbolic altogether father, as he is 'irrational'
(the father is absent and has never been a real
- in a mental asylum - rather than rational), the mother
becomes even more phallic. The endurance repression
into Erika's
ness. Elektra's parodied
present is caricatured
never fully achieved
in Erika's
of her phallic 'wholeness'
continued
through their exaggerated
detachment
attachment
equation, Jelinek likens Erika's pre-Oedipal
beyond ItS
from pre-OedIpal
clos~-
symbIOsIS IS
to her mother. I believe that, i~ this symbiosis with her mother to mfan-
tile, repressed Viennese society: Bachmann instrumental
and Jelinek both follow the Frankfurt reason (fascism)
argues Beatrice Hanssen,
and the historical
School's
objectification
'no other author has confronted
tween fascism, gender, and sexual violence
correlation
between
of women. But,
the intersections
with the persistence
be-
and polemical
" Hanssen,
Beatrice
(2000):
Critique
()f
Violenee. Between Poststructurulism and Critical Theory.
London: Routledge, p. 210. 89 Ibid, p. 21 I; translating a quote from Jelinek's Der Krieg. 9<' Jelinek. Elfriede (1986): Die Klavi<mpielerin. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch own translation.
In the following,
Verlag. p. [44, my
all quotes from The Piano Teacher, film and book, are my own
translation from the German original/version.
Erika is a fixture of Vienna's genteel salons wh ' sit ramrod straight throu h ' ,ele wealthy connoisseurs g pnvate Schubert rec" t I ' " another life in which h " 1 a s, meanwhIle she has s e wraps up In her Hen' f "" shops to sniff the discard d Kl nes scar and VISitS porn , e eenex, Her other h bb" " Ism, as well as self-mutil t" " "0 Ies ll1clude voyeura lOn, penormed wIth 1 "I ' of-factness, The Piano 7' h ' mnervmg y cnsp matter1 eae er IS very much and on the unfor " , , an essay on Austrian culture gIvmg repressIOn that fuel th '," ' dustry!' s at natIon s l11gh-culture in-
part, but she does not want it to take part without her. In music, she sometimes is practitioner,
That's
how her time
passes. Erika hops on and off, like on an old doppeldecker
then spectator
or listener.
bus, those that
didn't have doors. On the modern ones, you have to stay on until the next stop.n I~rika has control over the social relations she entertains: ,;!oseness, avoiding the emotional
attachment
she does not allow any
that proximity
brings with it. The
only closeness in her life is towards her mother, who, as the texts says, swallows Erika, at nearly forty still living with her moth h whom she shares a bed w"th "d' er w 0 dominates her life and 1 ,IS ommated by her mothe ' " to obtain her mother's aff' t" r s expectatlOns, wants Irma Ion and love Not hav' h" reel' her mother had plan d f h' . . " mg ac leved the pianist cane or el, her frustratlOn"h " exaggerated severity with her st d IS S own In her aggressive, u ents at the conserv t Ih wards attractive and courteo H a ory am er coldness tous men. er self-hate do compliments, and t1irtation m' ht d es not allow her to accept Ig se uce her away fr hi" mother. One such reproached suit 'W I om er ove-obJect, the " or IS a ter Klemmer wh " ' 0 meets Enka at a V Iennese salon he attends with h" IS own mother 'Kle .' b " the German verklemmt meaI1I"ng " hOb' d ." mmel 0 vlOusly plays on , In lIte restra d H" . portrayed in the novel in hl"s t t . ." me" IS own frustration is or unng of ammals h" hI " The Loyal Sub'J'eet's 'b' I '" W IC recal s Hemrich Mann's ICyC e pnnclple" bow d' then, to Jelinek, is the typical Au t . . b" . upwar s, kIck downwards. This, s nan su ~ect. repressed and aggressive.
her w/hole. Her subjectivation
tions, which to her would mean the opposite complete
control,
of intelligence
and agency,
which would lead to a form of sado-masochistic
and
sex that,
through setting boundaries
and giving orders, would make her into a subject.
For her, sado-masochism
would
within a controlled
be a means
of self-abasement
and ecstasy
and agreed setting; it would enable the possibilty of engage-
ment with the Other beyond the threat of symbiosis
she so far has experienced.
She will not abandon her mother in order to enter yet another symbiosis, 'too intelligent' describes
for that. Isabelle
Erika as wanting
Huppert,
to 'invent
Erika does not want to be reduced
she is
who plays Erika in Haneke's
a new kind of woman,
to 'a strictly feminine
slightly
film, male':
model of woman-
hood'"" A strictly feminine model, an Oedipal model, would be one that would suggest a symbiosis
This self-hate, though, on the other hand d of the self that features a FOllca It' , pro uces a sado-masochistic practice ulan swervmg' f' I "f " chism is produced through life "th d " 0 ICentI IcatIOn. Erika's masoWI a ommant cont· II" tended by herself in order t d f' h ,10 mg mother, but is exo e me er own agenc B to her mother Erika I'S bl "y. ecause of her attachment , <, una e to engage 1 1 ' voyeurism or self-mutilation: erotically atta~h:~x~: relatIOns other than that of become sexual and saves h f " her own oppreSSIOn, pam has , < er rom emotIOnal fusio "th 0 the mother. Jelinek draws f h n Wl an ther who is not Somet' h a Igure t at exerts complete control over her life: Imes s e pays a VISIt here, then there She has "t" h where she wants to take part a d h . < I m er own hands n were not. She does not want to take
allows her to only see two extremes: having emo-
with the husband
to take over from that with the mother,
whereby the desire for the mother would remain the structuring
relation. Erika,
though, would only sacrifice her mother in order to become 'a subject', who sets boundaries. practice
But, in Jelinek's
does not work: Walter's
story, sado-masochism
execution
which leaves Erika feeling violated,
an agent
as a controlled
of her orders mount into a drama
and which catapults her back into the sym-
biotic union with her mother.
o
91 Romney, Jonalhan vember 2001, p" IL
(2001):
'I t is all a question
of lechn°
lque"
'Ti
1e Independent
on Sunday,
IIth No-
Foucault had perceived of reconstitution of pleasure within a 'strategy
n Die Klavierspielerin, p. 145. 93 Darke, Chris (2001): 'When the slave becomes vember 2001, p" 8"
of power relations through a redefintion
of "desexualisation",
the master'.
meaning the invention
The Independent
on Sunday,
of a
11th No-
"general economy sado-masochism misanthropic
of pleasure
not based on sexual norms"'.
argue that it replicates
power relations
oppressive,
which are common
sadists and women as masochists),
patriarchal, in patriarchy
in Foucault's
with the issues of power, trust and victimization
lationship
but which are often unrecognized'94. relationships
rules, constitutes
of pleasure
power's
taken for it, surely would be more transgressive historical no-man's-land'95
(posing men as deals
that make up any re-
practised
of power and
according
repressive
of agency. This form of practice,
which such a path is embarked
and
to agreed
away from sexual norms. By legiti-
mating the desire for pain or for aggression, way to the production
misogynist
The eroticisation
as a source of pleasure,
a redefintion
critics of
view, sado-masochism
'explicity strategic
Whereas
function
gave
nightmare
in
on but then left in order to revert to an 'a-
Foucaultian
concert. To his first love-declaration if 1 had any, my intelligence
would besiege them.' Therewith,
reveal the mythical mechanisms
at a
she replies: '1 do not have any feelings, and
of 'romantic'
Jelinek lets Erika
love and define her agency in re-
sistance to it. After having been pursued by Walter she gives into his COurtShlP but not without clearly stating how she wants to be 'loved': tailed instructions
she gives him de-
on how to violate her. Seeing the soft, young man obviously
hurt and confused,
disgusted,
even, she explains:
'B ut 1 am just giving you what Erika, knowing
power, would rather have them play it openly. Sado-masochism controlled
that love is
is the mstltuted,
form of the power relations that Lacanian theory has been read to de-
fine. By revealing them and openly desiring her own oppression,
of Lacanian dogmatism.
language.
Klemmer falls in love with Erika after listening to her virtuous performance
you want! 1 am giving you what we both want!'.
and the responsibility
than a Jelinekian
First though, Jelinek defines Erika in a more promising,
Erika becomes
agent and ceases to be object. But, in Jelinek, sado-masochistic sive practices
are (Foucaultian)
'agreement'
only works in phantasy: transgres-
theory, the reality shows brutality
hilation of woman as subject. This is because, following of the gendered damentally
subject, her proposed
interaction
desire what opposes the other's
agree to play his part according she wants true romance
a Lacanian
conception
cannot work: 'Both sexes fun-
desire'.
When Klemmer finally does
to the rules Erika suggests,
after all: she wants the symbiosis
denied her. Jelinek draws the inevitable,
and the anni-
Erika has decided her intelligence
had
the eternal war of the sexes: women-
Klemmer does, in the course of The Piano Teacher, turn into the sadistic counterpart to the female masochist
that Erika had predicted
Whereas in the book, where we are introduced
ing animals, in the film, it is not clear - Walter being introd~ced Klemmer's
aggression
is venting a hidden frustration
lation at all. For that is what we have to conclude:
the book portrays a man with an intrinsic
nated,
mutilated,
masochism
objectified.
The
'controlled'
should provide is featured as a complete
Erika to revert back into the psychotic
lack
of control
horror-scenario
that
sado-
that incites
union with her mother, who she tries to
have sex with at the end of the film: object choice and identification scenario.
main an intelligent
'There is no sexual relation':
woman,
of
if she wants to re-
subject, cannot engage in a sexual relation with man.
Viennese society
woman-hating
see Elizabeth Wright: 'Eine Aesthetik des Ekels' in text + kritik VIII/99, pp. 83-91.
(1995): Foucault un,/ fhe PoWlea!, London:
ROUlledge, p. 100.
- produced by repressive,
releases. But whether we follow the one or or easily seduced into being a
rapist.
tasy of a sado-masochism
functioning
self, the orders she gives - a practice
should Jon Simons
aggression
in the film, it seems
him into sadism, whereas
When he does hit and rape her at the end, Erika is all but appreciative.
abasement
94
that her behaviour
the other, both texts portray man as potentially,
her masochistic
95
that seduces and introduces
are now
truly confused. Erika is, towards the end of the film, even more of a caricature an Oedipal
and anger, but the him s
Klemmer does not appear verklemmt in the least. Therefore, that it is Erika's behaviour
as domi-
as ~ perfectly
sweet young man _ how this change comes about. Jelinek mIght msmuate. th~t
hating men and women who can only become subject if they have no sexual reErika is presented
or assum~d him to be.
to Walter as a sadlshc chIld, hurt-
according
The fan-
to the rules she lays down her-
she controls - , has gotten out of control;
position, her phantasmatic
and fictive self-abasement
with saftety nets, which institutionalised
be"' _ has given way to real, uncontrollable
sado-masochistic horror.
- a selfpractice
This is because,
meanwhile, romantic
Erika has turned into a 'stereotypical'
feminine
woman" and desires
love after all, begs for mercy and love, and, when Walter rejects her,
craves to return to symbiosis
with her mother. After further mutilating
after the event, she returns into her self-constructed
cage she inhabits
phallic mother: she is, as subject, once again annihilated into symbiosis.
herself with her
and returns _ vanishes _
tion with the non-appreciated
short, fat alcoholic Franz Schubert. ter feminist, hating everybody ambiguities
into pleasantries
generalising
passages
into the unpleasant, Jonathan
Romney
fittingly
remarks:
She is the stereotypical
as an - admittingly
in which everythmg
women
Elizabeth Wright does not see Jelinek's
work as any art at all, but as a 'reaction-
sexes, that a path pointing towards an interesting,
in the book than in the film. Jelinek employing
deconstructive
Faustian
its high culture
strategies
with nasty little send-ups,
idea of the unreachable
should be eternally
moment
of elation
strived for in aiming towards
He is right, it is
''is
has to be credited
which make her unique as a writer. In her satiric description she ridicules
the physical,
the flesh, and its elitism regarding
and
the invention
(as the perfect
the beyond) 'culture'
of
of Viennese society such as inverting
moment
repression
is recurringly
to highlight, though, is the difference
the
in a moment of
sexual arousal: to Erika, this moment is simply perfect. Vienna's tured. What is important
of
carica-
between Jelinek's
cynical portrayal of Austrian society, of which both Erika and Walter are a caricature, and the use of a parodic construction political
strategy. Whereas
in the cynical landscape,
of gendered
I argue that the caricature,
identities
for a feminist
the parodic performance
fails to arrive at a constructive
tions that would enable the conception
critique of gender rela-
of change, Jelinek's
cynicism,
for which
she is famous, cannot but rip down the shutters of even those who have never made a connection
between high Viennese culture and fascism.
masochism
She argues that no alternative
and woman-who-desires-macho land. Foucaultian to existing
to gender, 'Hatred
parodic drawings are generalising
and superficial,
this is - as argued before - inhibiting
glows in every line',
the prestigious
progress
German
heute entitled their article on The Piano Teacher. " Here, Erika is not only parody way's Reading the Romance, throughout the plot. The Independent
of Elektra,
on Sunduy, ll'h November
woman
Erika's
200 I, p.! I.
always
in a feminist
theatre journal
but also, of a genre of romances
in which the resistant
and in relation
turns
sense. theater
anger and identificadescribed 'feminine'
by Janet Rad-
is posed to the war of the transgressive
- is turned back onto the known stereotypes and therewith
practice - sado-
of woman-hatmg
rapist
remains in an a-historical
never-
in that Jelinek does not pose an ideal or non-violent
social and gender relations,
canian rather than Foucaultian
she does nevertheless
viewpoint.
According
remarkable
skill to portray
masochism
shows her desire to be dominated).
'outside'
revert to a La-
to Wright, Jelinek has the
our joy at the excesses
of the symbolic
(Erika's
On the other hand, the whole
book is an angered attack on the symbolic order per se. Lacan argued that in ordel' to reach jouissance, the symbohc. h as to h'd lee th rea I ('There is no sexual relation.')
But, instead of developing
new signifiers
out of existing relations
Foucault would have done, i.e. by using sado-masochistic tion of power, Jelinek's perverse
text stays a-historical
slightest attempt of an imaginary
reconstitution
~s
relations as a redefml-
in that the jouiss~nce
twist, turns towards itself in an orgiastic
self-destructIOn,
of 'society'
found, in a Without the
out of, not beyond,
the status quo. If, then, Jelinek's
Still, Jelinek's
IS Imbedded
genial - negative-kitsch?"
ary deformation'''''.
coming from a male director than a female author. for skilfully
of the bIt-
is called kitsch. Perhaps, we can then sp~ak of the
of The Piano Teacher,
palatable celebrated
caricature
- or at least, every man. 'An art that evens life's
get what they ask for, a message that's surely bound to be less complex and less far more complex
book which
that nobody loved the
'It is hard to know where the film finally
gets us - whether it doesn't look like an awful warning that transgressive
os
is aligned with a sentence in Jelinek's
portrays Erika being eaten up by anger at the injustice
out attempting
piece is an angered attack at the symbolic order per se, with-
to reconsitute
trays her own conviction
new signifiers
quo without posing alternatives, 'outside'
or 'beyond'
seen, a Foucaultian
out of existing relatIOns, Jelmek be-
that there was no non-violence: and therewith
to Austrian redefinition
repressive
insinuates
she criticises .the status that there might be an
society. In contrast,
could articulate
this 'outside'
as we have
on the instde by
and submissive 99
Morsbach,
l{"
Petra (2001):
'Hass gWht durch aile Filter'
text + kritik, p. 88; my own translation.
in theater heute, Nr. 12/2001, p. 27.
redefining
the existent power structures.
out promisingly:
Jelinek's
use of sado-masochism
tempt to discover
more in her own body than simply the territory
men"o,. But can this active practice of masochism nique of demystification? landscape
starts
'of course [Erika] feels pain. But at least she engages in an atplausibly
Not, I argue, if it is embedded
that does not change together
function
of gender stereotypes
practice that she has created out of the 'Lacanian'
(Jend:r relations. Instead of setting an example of difference, back into symbiosis.
and reterritoriway, but lets her
that do not change with
We have, in this chapter, seen that there are various reasons why parodic performances
as a political strategy are difficult
Contrary to Butler, it has to be concluded does not necessarily and inner substance.
in my belief, is that Erika's
der stereotypes
supposed
transgressiveness
hating and erratic, and therefore falling for romantic the voyeuristic,
is overshadowed
sado-masochist,
by her
attached to her mother, self-
unable to consistently
love after all, switching
distanced
dered hysterically
narcissitically
perform her practice. By
between the female stereotype Erika's
part is unstable:
and
she is ren-
female. strategy
of female impersonation
Jelinek
fa-
In the parodic performance
and misogyny
similarly
reiterates
through',
the actual practice
reiterated;
an attempt to displace it.' Similarly, of ironic
mimesis
women, eventually
lrigaray
'called for women to adopt a form
that, by impersonating
the subordinate
lead to their overcoming'
1112.
ances seem to teach us that there is nothing mothers,
woman-hating
men: transgressive
But Jelinek's
beyond
roles
ascribed
to
parodic perform-
mother-daughter,
phallic
women not only get what they ask
for, they always revert back to where they came from, what they wanted transgress.
This is even more emphasised
masochistic
orders (his violation
by Walter's
execution
of her) in front of Erika's
door. Erika and her mother try to communicate
of Erika's
mother's
bedroom
with each other through the door
while Erika is being raped, the oral navel cord stays intact: Erika annihilates self. The seduction
of being protected
victim - instead of, according sponsibility
101
Critique
102
Ibid, p. 220.
for her orders,
oj" Violence,
by mummy,
to her phantasy, is greater
to
to feel violated
recoding
her body and taking re-
than the consequential
p. 223; quoting Jelinek in konkursbuch
her-
- coded as
departure
12, 1983, Pl'. 137-8.
into a
depth ~mp.er-
the 'thmkmg
If we follow Foucault reiteration,
parody
WIll
rather reiterate the known, and hinder the repetition of the new, the different, the as practice.
One last problem with the concrete use of masochism Gilles Deleuze would have criticised
tradition.
female-female
practices.
of the subject through
[ ... ] stereotypes
so to speak, in the medium of analysis in
of gender
of the drag queen, we see gen-
the Jelinekian
of transgressive
and believe in the constitution
be noted. Throughout
about women in order to invert the representational
questionable.
the status quo, and further inhibits
vours in her text and that Butler would support: to 'inflate sexually exploitative The object under analysis is doubled,
and their effectivity
that the parodic repetition
expose the illusion of gender identity as an intractable
sonation
transgressive
Here, we are back at the parodic
crawl
b
her. The result can only be that 'she gets what she asks for'. The strategic error, being painted as a female caricature:
status quo of
JelineklErika
as a tech-
within an a-historical
with this resignification
alisation; Jelinek lets Erika redefine pleasure in a transgressive remain within a cartoon landscape
defined by
trans(Jressive
in Jelinek's
whIch IS a term , . 1 . 1 hi' 103 In Cold to be a semIO oglCa ower. .-
ness and Cruelty, his analysis of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's lights the stark differences unlikeliness
~or~ should
this analysis, I spoke of sadomasochism,
between sadism and masochism,
work, he hIgh-
and .emphasises
of a situation in which a sadist would hurt a masochIst,
would not experience joy in fulfilling a sadist (nor somebody hurt him. Without raises questions
discussing
Coldness
that should be discussed
sadism to masochism
and Cruelty
in too much detail as It
elsewhere,
it is im~ortant to. ~oint out
for suggesting
the pOSSIble tranSItIOn fr~m
(and hence the notion of sadomasochism),
on the shared experience
ure and pain interact very differently ror images, but constitute from one into the other.
would not ask
he would suspect to be capable of sadistic acti~ns) t~
that Deleuze criticises psychoanalysis this possibility
a demand, and a masochist
t~e
as the sadIst
of pleasure-in-pain
in sadism and masochIsm
two very different
perversions
and for basmg
..For Deleuze, ple~sand are not
11111'-
that cannot transform
In Freudian
psychoanalysis,
masochist
sexuality
pleasure and pain, and this simultaneity changed from one perversion description
of the evolution
and masochistic
because
of sadomasochism
originates
in the Freudian
as an alteration
he himself had experienced of punishment.
between sadistic pleasure
pleasure-in-pain
But according
of pleasure and pain work very differently
of
that could be ex-
a sadist could only experience
fancy, in his own infant eroticisation the interaction
is treated as a 'sign'
to another. This 'sign'
stages in infancy:
hurting somebody
is based on a simultaneity
111
in in-
to Deleuze
in the two perversions:
and are not simultaneous
in masochism
pleasure through suffering,
whereas the sadist exalts cruelty as an ideal. Maso-
chist pleasure masochism
but divorced.
The masochist
can in no way be linked to the Freudian
developed
notion of erotogenic
in 'A Child is Being Beaten'"I4. In sadism, pleasure is de-
rived from reiteration,
and therewith,
from reiterative
action, whereas
chism, it is derived through suspense. To extract a psychological universal pleasure-pain-complex discussion
symptomatology
to another,
in maso-
unit such as a
- which is closely linked and reminds us of the
of aggression/conscience
one behaviourism
delays
as discussed
confuses
of these perversions
by Butler - and transfer it from
individual
differences
and distorts the
severely. Again, then, we can see the dan-
ger in applying such 'units'. If, in a Deleuzean
view, masochism
and sadism
do not interact,
why would
cruelty towards Severin at the end of Masoch's
sadism remains
within a masochist
contractual
Venus in Furs, but this
relation
in so far as, although
Wanda loses the kindness that a true masochist counterpart '" Th. eerotlclsatlOn
IIl4
erotIc fantasy
of pain is described is desired
that in masochism, through
not a child,
pain as initiation
sive analysis, concentr.ate.
by Freud in 'A Child is Being Beaten'
as punishment
rite: anything
delays and heightens Deleuze
for their incestuous
but a father
mother as lack and the father as superego, him. Suffering
exerts in dominance,
of a child being beaten stands for the desire to have their clitoris
pmnful1l1tercourse
that is 'father'
the enjoyment
owes us an explanation
on male masochism
is being
beaten:
and the recreation
For women,
beaten
masochism
in the masochist
insists
was the disavowal
of the
asexual
is punished
of female masochism, elsewhere.
as he seems to His analysis
rather than simultaneity,
more the importance
seemingly
persuasive
psychoanalytic
concepts.
(as in painful
intercourse
or childbirth),
but the pleasure
enjoyed
of questioning
that is desired
after the punishment.
is convincing,
out of
In his persua-
the succeSSIOn of pain and pleasure pleasure-in-pain
though,
new man
and beaten
she who is forbidden.
issue to be discussed
the
by their father,
and shows
of
once
It is, then, not the that can be
for her, she loses control, and is
hence not sadistic, as sadism is characterised his abuse of Erika, though, demonstrates fines sadistic behaviour.
disgust and pleasure in domination his underlying
aggression
lease. This dramatic masochism. suddenly
reasoning,
distortion
but not in Deleuze's
analysis of sadism and
as there is no reason why Erika would
love and pleasure
without previously
pleasure. Hers as well as Klemmer's world-view
which, in Deleuze's
complex.
aimed to re-
that can only be conceived
having been
is the initiation rite without which the masochist cannot
ceived of in a psychoanalytic complex
interest in her already, and his
do not convey anger at her but seem to reveal
Erika's turn is not 'logical',
demand romantic
cruelty in
apathy that de-
and cruelty that Erika had paradoxically
punished, as punishment experience
the typical unemotional
turn is a logical
through psychoanalytic
by apathy. Klemmer's
He has lost emotional
The combination
sudden change can only be con-
that freely exchanges
the pleasure-pain
view, does not exist as a neutral, exchangeable of pleasure
and pain only exists in very specific
forms, defining very specific symptoms. We will, in the following
chapter, turn to a Deleuzean
to the psychoanalytic
reasonings
pose diverse problems and ambiguities, ler to legitimise
her advocacy
which, as we have repeatedly
of parodic performances
phallus that repeats the denigration constantly
as subversive
lies in its reiteration
seen,
used by Butpractice.
of a war of the
of women. Further, this war of the sexes is
reiterated by psychoanalytic
theory, which derives from Hegelian dia-
we will be introduced
guage that provides a non-dialectical
feminist approach as an
but which are nevertheless
The failure of this practice to be subversive
lectics. In the following,
Deleuze
of man as anti-Oedipal,
for the motivation
only. This is another
(1919).
desire for the father.
of the mother,
such as
passion. Deeply hurt because Severin will never be a man
she can marry and who will carry responsibility
alternative
Klemmer abuse Erika in the first place? There is a sadism in masochism, Wanda's
she still demonstrates
to an alternative
account of subjection
can account for difference beyond determinism.
theoretical
lan-
and hence, I argue,
lytic reasoning
and that, if applied,
could propel feminism
towards
something
new. Desire does not lack anything;
it does not lack its object. It is, rather, the
subject that is missing in desire, or desire that lacks a fixed subject; there
Deleuzo-Guattarian
is no fixed subject unless there is repression ...The real is not impossible;
cuses psychoanalysis
on the contrary, within the real everything
the Oedipal triangle, beyond coherent notions of 'identity'.
is possible,
becomes
possible:
rialist Judith Butler, in spite of her best intentions course to gender diversity,
remains
that, as shown, reiterate a binary structure of psychoanalytic possible
of the sexes. This is because her use
Oedipal reasoning
relation between two binary oppositions. retains an essential
reiterates
a warring
The mother remains phallic, the subject
cannot be detached
of binaries is predetermined
tion of subjecthood
continuously
lack, and desire cannot be detached
which, eventually,
production
dis-
theory
theory easily affirms a duality within which it seems so im-
to 'win', because
phallus,
to open up feminist theoretical
within the traps of psychoanalytic
from the desire for the
from male supremacy.
in a theory that portrays
The re-
a fixed evolu-
signifying
is antagomstlc
of not allowing
function
which necessitated
is intimately
Lacanian
Deleuzean
feminist
philosophy
Elizabeth
Grosz
explains
because of exactly this frustration
feminism that irresistibly
with the 'heaviness'
links feminists to their own subjectification
Oedipal set-up and predestines - a term
coined
work, with movement,
by Deleuzean
feminist
Rosi
Braidotti
action, and the possibility
different future. This chapter will introduce,
within the
- is exchanged,
in
of an unknown
and
defend and argue for the use of the
terms that allow for a conception
of difference
applied to psychoanalytic
reasoning.
Gilles and Guattari,
Felix (1984): Anti-Oedipus:
Capitalism
a description
see Braidotti,
Feminist
Rosi: 'Teratologies'
to one's very own machinic
coming BwO, this 'programme as a Deleuzean
text beyond psycho-logic
Theory. Edinburgh:
, If I only acknowledge Capitalism the
Edinburgh
Deleuze
and Schizophrenia.
political
Schizophrenia
part
of this
of 'desire'
through
discussions
University
in tbis phrase especially
Deleuze's
programme
Foucault envisages. completion
of Leibniz
especially
in his cooperation
continued
in a similar
it is not to undermine
with very similar and Foucault. with Antonio
issues,
work
Negri,
contribution
was the philosophical prior
most importantly
work, but also concepts Guallari's
Guattari's and
post
although
influential
vein as his work with De1euze. Perhaps
to
and Guattari
Capitalism
the development
of the created
texts
of be-
can be seen as Deleuzean
beyond sex or gender. This becom-
a BwO: to explain a character in a cultural
of experimentation
ship between
can be used to create the multiplicities from or
work as it answers the questions Foucault leaves open.
on their similarities
capitalism
and differences,
and psychoanalysis methodology
I will portray the relation-
as described
that evolved
of how schizoanalysis or described
by Deleuze/Guattari,
from this theorisation. functions,
I will
how Bodies
that are living proof of an 'out-
becoming-woman, against
foundations
subject, and how this making of BwO's is an active
a Deleuzean an attempted
feminism. I will defend this notion of becomingreterritorialisation
onto psychoanalytic
feminist
by those feminists that do not quite want to leave them behind.
and
such as 'the fold',
own work was more politically
a Body without Organs, that
structure. This description
of experimentation',
becoming-woman
to
and provides
His work can hence be seen as a logical progression
of Foucault's
After elaborating
woman
as Deleuze's
as used in Deleuze/Guattari's
Claire, eds. (2000): Deleuze and
Press.
Y ct it could be argued that Deleuze duo,
was concerned
concept
Ian and Colebrook,
looks
analyses.
side' to the psychoanalytic
in Buchanan,
schizoanalysis,
It allows for the new, the alternative
of how to make oneself a machine,
desires according
pro-
which can equally be
London:
The Athlone Press Ltd, p. 26-7, my italics. 2
structure,
in order to assure that
become and to exist. It reveals the machinic behind the ideological
and the schizoanalytic
beyond psychoana-
and Schizophrenia.
its 'truth',
This methodology,
for the different behind the analysable.
without Organs can be produced Deteuze,
beyond
It believes this impe-
to our capitalist
meta-narrative
with which to question
then follow with a description 1
of subjecthood
It ac-
of
their failure to escape. This 'tyranny of the past"
Deleuze's Deleuzean'
her own move towards
connected
psychoanalysis.
we 'lack', that our desires cannot be fulfilled. Their fight against capitalism
ing BwO can be applied to describing Former
towards
for a conception
Oedipus as structuring
duced a methodology
feminism,
and identity.
philosophy
oriented,
like his Chaosmosis
it is unfair that in most academic
his work with Deleuze.
Perhaps
it is unfair that in most academic
mostly perhaps just as an attempt at simplification
contexts
- 'Deleuzo-Guattm'ian'
Deleuze
is highlighted,
is guite a mouthful.
I here
decide to stay with Deleuze as it is his concept of desire that was the base for his other works, for example his film books, but also Difference
and Repetition,
which will be ref cITed to in this chapter.
Schizoanalysis
is anti-dialectic:
an unhappy unconscious,
it refutes Hegel's
or a Lacanian
subject and thus, alternative throughout Guattarian
this section,
practice,
gender-identities.
world-view.
with the application
cism, I will show how a shizoanalytic the new, the different, the 'outside' desiring-forms
I will defend schizoanaly-
that it says nothing new, and emphasise
and hence, its use for feminist political this chapter
I will therefore,
with those voices that aim to draw Deleuzo-
practice,
practice as ethical choice that makes it incomparable following
the
structure can we account for a non-determinable
notions back into a dialectical
sis against the accusation
of
lack at the base
I believe that only by eliminating
and individual
debate
on the existence
belief in a constitutive
of a subject. As argued in the introduction, notion of an intrinsic dialectical
insistence
its focus on
as it is this focus on
to dialectical
of schizoanalysis
reasoning.
to cultural
By criti-
cultural critique can be used to construct
beyond the notions of lack, beyond Oedipal
with its binary oppositions.
Why Deleuze? Because I believe that his schizoanalysis or describe the 'multitude beyond Foucault's
of pleasures'
micropolitical
can be used to proclaim
Foucault envisages.
resistances
Deleuze can take us
and answer the question how the
existence of a multitudc of pleasures can be made visible. Deleuzean desire, detached from sexual pleasure based on binary desiring-forms canian psychoanalysis,
courses. Whereas in Foucault's made visible - through
work, different desiring-forms
a recoding
of power, in Deleuze,
thrOlJO"h'makina' different BwO's b b cially, their approaches repression
as described by La-
can be detected beyond the investment
in prohibited
difference
is created
throubah different forms of desiring. Superfi-
are very similar. For Foucault,
can become a mode of resistance,
that which arises out of
a form of power, a legitimate form
of desire. For Deleuze, desire can be found outside of the desiring-structures know. But in contrast
to Foucault,
he does not need power structures
courses of power in order to legitimise into Butler's
dis-
are theorised - or
we
or dis-
these desires, and therewith does not fall
trap.
If Butler asks how exactly power is mapped in the body, how exactly it creatcs desires, Deleuze would answer he is not talking about how power produces sire, nor that desire is necessarily ent on a theory that elaborates with which to schizoanalyse
created by power. Hence, we are not depend-
the eroticisation
of oppression,
the machinic construction
ing to show how power structures structures
de-
but are given tools
of desire. Deleuze is try-
delimit our perception
of alternative
desiring
that onto logically exist.
Desire is theorised by Deleuze as an ontology through Henri Bergson's
notion of
duration. As such, desire becomes a creative emotion outside of binary desiringforms in psychoanalytic
reasoning,
and can be employed
quality of synthesis that has the power to transform. ontology, pendent
it can be conceived machine,
detached
desire does not, therefore, order to be theorised.
outside
to describe a certain
By describing
desire as an
and beyond psychoanalysis
as an inde-
from one primary
repression.
Deleuze's
rely on foreclosure,
repression,
or a mirror stage in
Similarly,
courses of power, or investment
notion of
it is not defined by power structures in forbidden
to Deleuze, then, leads via Bergson.
discourses.
or dis-
The path from Foucault
In Bergsonism,
duration is the condition
cessive moments - atoms of experience
of real experience,
a contraction
- in time. Duration
is material.
to prove the existence of its matter, we have to be able to represent - motion, and this line of argumentation, ture' of identity. Deleuzean
feminist
simultaneously,
Dorothea
achieve. Her analysis Bergsonism offers.
effectively
illustrates
the
In order
- materialise
is one against the 'na-
Olkowski,
of identity back to Aristotle, shows what a Bergsonian
of suc-
in tracing our notion
redefinition advantages
For Aristotle, semblance
'before'
and 'after'
and thus constitute
were distinguished
a continuity,
through principles
though, had being, and counted in succession,
they amounted to motion. In other
words, that which is carried along and makes up time: 'nows', tion, the not··nows
and no-Ionger-nows,
therewith
a DeJeuzean
being that cannot account for change in themselves cept of difference.
of successive
But without
are real, but mo-
are not. But nows, in Aristotle,
of time could
time, is a multiplicity
representation, therewith
as he inscribed
all difference
performed the ruin of difference
wards, was no more than difference authoritative hierarchical
conceptual
in organic
concept
and had
from Aristotle
as a 'single and
and political stabilization'",
rational-
based on the latter, and which embrace
representation
on-
with regard to a generic
reign of representation
source of visible intelligibilty
ising social and political practices
in a general
itself - difference,
within identity,
concept - and the birth of the hegemonic
and hierarchy
motion, Olkowski
as they do not give us a conargues,
there would be no
successive
ble flow. The difference, Aristotelian
had individual
being, it could not at the same time affirm a being, a genus. Therefore, defined being in reference to substance, to analogy or substance.
and all other categories
Differences
Aristotle
had being only
between species, conceived
terms of analogy, could now make up the identity of a genus. Olkowski that real difference
can only be noticed in the catastrophe
semblance,
'in the impossibility
semblance
[the four components
where reflection
of claiming on which
tion. Olkowski only existed opening,
identity, opposition, organic
demands that they should occur".
strongly related to time, which Aristotle
of breaking
Representation
in
can be taken seriously.
representational
in Aristotle's
theory
of time,
and memory are material, it follows that desire is material, too. Desire, then, is a machine,
an ontological
machine
Olkowski,
California
Dorothea
(1999): Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin o/Representation.
o Ibid, p. 20.
according
to material
dialectical
reasoning. Desire is produced through duration, through its syntheses,
of identity is of mo-
which
a non-
account of time might be able to emerge.
Press, p. 18.
that can be described
with re-
and contingent
not expression,
and hence stands outside of
memories and expectations.
As every life is composed hence, durations,
ritories. Such territories political relations,
of a multiplicity
and, as these durations
scope in focusing
University
of
and
when durations
on desire as ontology
are shared. The
instead of focusing on power
then, is that we can theorise change more easily. By sharing duration,
by sharing territories,
Berkeley:
of differing kinds of experiences
are material, they can be defined as ter-
can be communicated
we can learn to share the passions and affective quality of
others, and gain competence 4
and
hence, for desire, as we can only desire what we know to expect. And if duration
It is a place of production,
there might be an
through
Hence, memory is
also material. The synthesis of past and present is the basis for expectation,
processes.
asks what that motion was that was together with time, as, if time
a crack
as the past has to endure in the present: past
in order for us to 'remember'.
is based]
defined as being the experience
with motion and not as static representation,
account and the
argues
analogy or re-
representation
uncontrolla-
is seen as being, as real, as it endures, and hence,
Memory is also a form of duration,
with was that if difference
nows, time was not made up of
beings, but on a continuous,
then, between a Deleuzean/Bergsonian
is that movement
and present have to coexist
in reference
and not-longer
arrests based on analogous
dura-
If nows,
this
for justification.
The dilemma Aristotle was confronted
Bergsonism
tion is material and can hence account for change and 'real' difference. then, are just as real as not-nows
and
arrests, each arrest an analoguous
nows in the first place. As said before, though, in Deleuze's Since Artistotle there had been a demand for coherence
of re-
but they were not real. 'Nows',
to be confronted a productive
in foreign codes and conventions.
with other territories,
other durations,
We merely have
and engage with them in
relation. Change, then, can occur beyond the investment
in counter-
discourses; and with a notion of time deduced from Bergson, the 'tryranny of the past' loses its power.
same present from which we would like to predict the future. If the future was always
predicted
through
change and spontaneous This foclls on the constantly
changing
and open to an unforeseeable
future, is what makes Deleuze
nism. With this Deleuzean feminists'
perceived
Bergsonism
present,
detached
need to work within the structures while struggling
ters, by negotiating
with the structures
we presently
Oedipal dilemma,
by Butler,
feminism
of global patriarchy,
... unless feminist theory becomes political
to
easily falls into the trap of the
resources
it relies on [...
gies and conceptual
sight of the day-to-day
struggles necessary
which the terms, categories, new can be developed. matics of day-by·-day
hitherto
concepts
Deleuzean
A similar fusion of Foucault essay
'Feminism,
However, struggles,
frame, unable to adequately
theory as a necessary
speaking
subject, as a discursive
different,
something
Grosz emphasises possible/real
able actualisation
some conception
(a virtual
locked
6
Grosz, Elizabeth:
and Feminist
'Delcuze's
Bergson:
Theory, pp. 215-16.
site, was implicated
that allowed the theoretical
under
for having in which the
in the very same power
text to function. This analysis allowed
to be taken seriously
of discourse,
while at the same time,
rendered these effects contingent.
Put simply, without
denying
women, as a foundational
the materiality
of 'women',
the notion of
category which is fixed through time and across
cultures, is called into question.'
within their of something
of a new and fresh
or would not be undertaken
or
Foucault's challenge
Nietzschean
heritage,
which he shares with Deleuze,
out of Bergson's
allows him to
the fixed binaries that - in my opinion and as argued in the preceding
chapters - restrain feminist discourse
in an inhibiting
ample from the last chapter, judging
female practices
rexia nervosa, on the grounds of their oppression developed
Foucault
subjectivation,
lose
only to the prag-
bias. The idea of an unpredict-
unity can be actualised
ways) can serve as a way to think the future not as a realisation but as a surprise, which, nevertheless,
strate-
to the past than to
inertia. Picking up an exof the self, such as ano-
- basically referring to psycho-
analytic feminist arguments
- does not allow these practices
to represent
resis-
tance against this oppressive
structure, and hence, encages woman within it.
as this notion escapes the logics of
with their teleological
of virtualities
and
by Miriam Fraser in her
Fraser praises
theory for understanding
given the changing conditions
to think and to make the
to or pretensions
notion of virtual/actual,
in Dijference and Repetetion,
identity and resemblance
they would
to provide the conditions
they would remain
better. Without
Deleuze's
undeveloped,
rise above or displace them, stuck in the im-
future, struggles in the present cannot would certainly remain ineffective."
of the intellectual
it risks being stuck in political
and Deleuze'.
a neo-materialist
if they were directed
mediacy of a present with no aspirations
J
and Deleuze is presented
Foucault
provided
relationships
necessary
discourse,
7
the future.
the material effects of discourse of virtualities
more self-aware
dilemmas that are more appropriate
that we cannot
Should feminists focus too strongly on the question of the new, the future, the actualisation
in a feminist
exist within and through
even if using a Foucaultian
a binary relation based on a certain reasoning
escape from. Elizabeth Grosz hence describes contribution to Foucaultian pragmatism:
originating
could not be allowed to form:
past,
to femi-
against it. As we have seen in earlier chap-
which we define our own means of identification, as employed
attractive
in mind we can question poststructuralist
accept its conditions
pragmatism
from a constant
set parameters
manifestations
in various
of possibilities,
On the other hand, to define deviant practices tion, only 'works' as 'the Other'.
in a certain community,
One in which self-starvation
as resistance,
as empowenng
ac-
one in which this practice is defined is defined as pathological
and can
will have as its memory of the virtual the
Duration, the Virtual and a Politics
of the Future' in Deleuze
7
Ibid, p. 230.
" Fraser, 2, p. 24.
Miriam
(1997):
'Feminism,
Foucault
and Deleuze'
in Theory,
Culture
& Society,
voL 14, no.
therefore be employed
as a threat, or one in which the idea of a 'healthy',
ductive sexuality dominates of resistance. 'wrong'
and sado-masochism
In order to transcend
in society, subcultures
although
Foucault
choanalytic
those framing
and
to, or 'owned',
But
whom it must depend to distinguish
de-sexualisation
definitions
and de-individualisation practises
as his use of subjectivation
This methodology
as
for example,
require an other upon
itself, nor is it itself an other against
is defined. But to be without an other does not
also signify a return to the sovereign
to psy-
that a body may not
or that identity may not be confined
by the self .. .It does not, therefore,
which another subjectivity
and the identi-
on them. This allows me to use him as an alternative
tion of a subject similar to psychoanalysis 'inside'.
allow for the possibility,
take the form of a human individual,
of 'right'
points towards
discourse,
and Guattari
have to be created and have to proliferate.
limits, his discourse very much depends on self-forming fications contingent
repro-
can thus be defined as a mode
self (as Foucault's
aesthetics of exis-
tence implies): neither an absence, nor present in the form of a 'bisexual
can account for the construc-
self' ... '
but without refering to a pychological
has its limits for feminist
theory, though,
as Fraser
argues in reference to sexuality.
Simone de Beauvoir,
although bisexual, had an intense heterosexual
with Sartre; her bisexuality
relationship
seemed to belong more to her inquisitive,
existential-
ist side. Fraser therefore argues against seeing sexuality as a practice of the self Researching
bisexuality,
desiring-structures.
Fraser is intrigued
She first employed
in order to find analytical ter more adequate
by Simone de Beauvoir's
a Foucaultian,
then Deleuzean
methods to describe her bisexuality,
for a positive understanding
normalising
forms of individuality
tity, a potential
evolves
proved that identity was not easily defined, and least easily by sexual practices.
of sexual identity per se. In his
through an exploration
of limits. By transgressing
if this self was to be seen as a coherent
the boundaries
for new types of subjective
an escape from
of boundaries
and the
that define one's idenexperience.
What Fraser
Through
Deleuzean
theory we cannot only refute the 'truth'
lytic subject, but we can find ways to deconstruct ther than Foucault within changing
power relations.
Fraser's
which restricts the self - individual-
all, not only a question of pleasure,
of the limits of the self. Any form of
nally, 'the privileged
knowledge,
conscience
realise the conditions
and responsibility.
Foucault's
intention
all, Deleuze
her with an altogether
itself,
different
methodology,
approach
and
to the self. First of
defines bodies on the basis of what they can do rather than what
they are; stratification body
seems to be to
to question the notion of selfhood per se. Fraser
to find ways to get out of this selfhood-defining
Deleuze provides
a
have to pay the costs of self-
under which the self would be 'free' to dominate
whereas it would be preferable wants
one, would
can
do,
Deleuze/Guattarian
- identification, and
Fraser,
or territorialization
following
Elizabeth
ethics to be the imperative
- posits limits on what Grosz,
perceives
to 'make things do things'.
a
Deleuze
and Guattari,
[... ] because
of their accent on flows
about identity.
By addressing
rather than only those which have already been territorialized,
positions
and desire is
an identity was, after
but also often one of life or death, and fiNever-
theless, her analysis suggests that there is also a place within feminist theory for analyses that are concerned
with those forces that are not yet territorialised,
order to question the often taken-for-granted tity as well as Foucaultian identity Deleuze's
was made more explicit
Body without Organs,
from contemporary Deleuzean
representation
of forces, 9 ](I
Ibid, pp. 32-3. Ibid, p. 34.
in
and iden-
through
the concept
of
and it 'might well offer a line of flight away
notions of identity and seltbood'1O. I add, that the potential to
articulate forces that are not yet territorialised in
concept of individuality
lines of inquiry that related to these. The violence of
(on self and others)
all forces, Deleuze
identities'
terrain from which politics [could] be articulated'.
versus
psychoanalytic
of the half-full,
refute Hegelian teleologies. open up new ways of thinking
of the psychoana-
aim to divide seltbood
not an attempt to give up on identity per se, as obtaining
asks, though, is whether the very technique even a re-invented
sexuality
identity, which is one step fur-
can take us, who can merely redefine
ity - can be used to describe the exploration individuality,
self. Simone de Beauvoir's
and finds the lat-
later works (as described in chapter two), Foucault had theorised transgression
different approach
is exactly the advantage I perceive
feminism.
the not-yet
It
is the
becoming,
and not-anymore-identity,
the
that can
Foucault's
practices of the self are only concerned
with fixed identities
be created out of the society we live in; even if they are minoritarian, and perhaps also for Grosz, they still do not seem to transcend hence their turn towards
Deleuze.
Foundational
chicken-and-egg
question
defining
as an autonomous
strategy
mined by the power-structures Deleuze in his appraisal
might be the
action, although
this action will be deter-
we live in. What Foucault - and, it can be argued,
of Foucault - saw as a way out of the agency question,
against Fraser's
ways have to refer to sexuality
accusation
enough. Whereas
was not de Beauvoir's
I would
that mode d'assujettissements
(this is a position
he only expresses
volume of The History of Sexuality), her idea, in reference bisexuality
and
solved by posing each self-
to Fraser and Grosz does not seem to be transgressive defend Foucault
for Fraser,
boundaries,
to this dilemma
of agency that Foucault
that can
al-
in the first
to de Beauvoir,
that
sell or identity, but one of a variety of forces
she engaged with or that engaged with her, has a liberating one of the liberating qualities of Deleuzean
feminism.
potential,
and shows
The notion of a self not having to exist as identity, but as a flow of forces that are themselves
in flux, does not only contrast
psychoanalytic
subject. The Deleuzean
with the coherent,
self. There are no units, apart from atoms of experience, tion of a subject,
but also the
self is remote from a psycho-analysable
and these atoms are experiencing
that are at the foundaongoing
and unforeseen
changes. There are no pre-social
instincts or drives, whether towards aggression
or sexual activity, that transcend
society. To Deleuze/Guattari,
drives is the consequence
the desire for repetition of territorial rial representation fixed identities
presents
Goodchild
and the repetition of territo-
This repetition
Antiproduction
and reiteration
of
can be equalled to a Lacanian
a 'need, want, or drive that is encoded and terri-
in past experience'
which affirms
representation,
a fixed identity.
is antiproductive.
form of desiring that expresses torialized
the fixing of such
of the formation of a fixed order of society. Drives are
and therewith
'the immanent
and present
contrasts
relation
explains in his book on the Deleuzean
a Deleuzean
between
terms'.
desiring, As Philip
politics of desire, antiproduc-
tive motivations may appear to be similar to 'desire', nent relations.
Something
imma-
is withheld that remains fixed and unaffected.
All fixed orders of society,
including
pulses, that provide a framework selves remain unaffected
but they are not themselves conventions,
institutions,
for possible relations,
by what happens,
are instances
and im-
but which themof antiproduc-
tion." The repressive structure of society preserves a fixed order of drives by excluding certain desires. Whereas Freud defines drives as being repressed by reality, as in the Oedipus complex, for Deleuze/Guattari, itself. There is, for example, wards incest is produced can transcend
is social repression
society itself. Thereby,
II
Goodchild,
Philip ([996):
Deleuze/Guattari
we have found in Butler. I argued that her La-
clauan rewriting of the real cannot work within her theorisation
Sage, p. 74.
in
no primal instinct towards incest, but the drive to-
by capitalist
the problematic
this 'reality'
of melancholia,
Delcuze & Guattari. An Introduction to the Politics of Desire. London:
and hence, that the constitution union
with the (m)other.
structed by society.
of the lacking subject remains tied to the the lost
In contrast,
Society's
for Deleuze/Guattari,
mode of repression
fecting, thereby, the coincidence
this lack is con-
is structured
by Oedipus,
of social and psychic repression.
notion of a Body
without Organs,
they can account
shifting imaginary
that refutes the tyranny of the past.
ef-
Through their
for subjection
through
a
Deleuze/Guattari
explain the BwO as a 'body without an image'
ferring to Lacan's ingness',
mirror-stage"),
nor 'what remains of a lost totality',
re-
and definitely not 'a projection'
The BwO is merely a matter capable of forming a multitude different
(obviously
yet this was neither 'proof of an original nothof connections
14.
at
points of its body. 'The full body without organs is the unproductive,
the sterile, the un engendered,
the unconsumable
...We shall not inquire how all
this fits together so that the machine will run: the question itself is the result of a To make comparisons complicated
one risks distorting Deleuze/Guattari's ferences
between psychoanalytic
as comparing
Foucault's
and Deleuzean
terms to Lacan's
one side at least. It would therefore 'Body without Organs'
between the concepts
concepts is just as
(see chapter
be false to compare
to 'the Id', especially
will be explained
might find that the BwO is exactly its opposite.
two), and
in the following
- in fact, we
and although this is ex-
actly what we are not supposed to do in a Deleuzo-Guattarian an introduction.
utopia, it helps as
conscience
and its dependence
Deleuze/Guattari
take schizophrenic
primary level of existence, pressed
by Antonin Artaud and described
by Elizabeth
own significance, processes
which regards the body as a developmental
of partial objects,
organs,
their own modalities
of Oedipal reorganization,
drives, orifices, of pleasure
union
each with their
which,
through
the
bring these partial objects and eroto-
genic bodily zones into alignment in the service of a higher goal than their immediate,
local gratification
BwO invokes a conception ages, projections,
(the ultimate goal being reproduction), of the body that is disinvested
representations,
the
of fantasy, im-
a body without a physical or secret inte-
rior, without internal cohesion and latent significance.
12
'real':
a body that is not determined
by its organs, not structured
where predetermined
sis for Freud's as well as Lacan's
instincts,
genitals,
theories of sexualities
experiences
is confronted
In resistance,
as an indirect means of producing
'lack'
for distinct desires,
for example
the BwO continually
Foucault, room'
as the to a re-
multitude of desires, desires that have not yet
with restrictions,
machines.
to 'make
intensities
to the variety of desires that could evolve m
production erased
of unbearable
lacking organs, there is no predetermination
produces
Oedipal
desiring-
one mode of desiring. bac k A·gam, gomg
anti production.
there is not a multitude
for repetitive
of pleasures
desiring-production,
that has to be
and therewith,
no
is created: the lack of organs refer to desires that - again - have not yet
been mapped. It is the potential
for a multitude
of intensities
that is limited; a
spanner in the works causes anti production. Antiproduction
is responsible
for what Freud would call 'drives',
for the Oedipal desiring-forms
that develop from the frustration
as described by Oedipalisation.
Repetitive
active forces, but it is also a resistance
In other words, BwO does not refer to a body that is literally without organs, but psychoanalysis,
do not ask
but this 'primary level' cannot be compared
there is not limit but schizophrenia
to and resembling or aggregate
see, Deleuze/Guattari
on the power of representation.
every BwO. The BwO's potential
Grosz in Volatile Bodies: Unlike psychoanalysis,
As we will repeatedly
what a body is, but what it does. The search for identity belongs to a dialectical
been mapped, The BwO is a concept formulated
15
as the stark dif-
Yet it is the closest one comes to
finding a name for this abstract concept in our language,
process of abstraction.'
fulfillment
production
of these dnves
inhibits real productIOn or
against territorial
of a fixed identity. Thus, an equilibrium
but similarly,
representation,
of antiproduction
or the
is a means
or ruled by them as in sensualities
and drives.
are the ba-
. 1 CritIqUIng .. . h'1m, D e1eu z'/Guattari 13Unlike Luce lrigamy, who never mentions Lacan when obvIOUSy e . frequently refer to Lacan, using and re-employing his insights. Nevel1heless, critique is sometImes to be perceived between the lines, such as here. 'Schizoanalysis' itself can be seen as a parody of psychoanalysis. 14
AnN-Oedipus,
15lbid.
p. 8.
of resistance. production
The psychoanalytic
argument
.- that is created in response
is reversed:
the neurosis
to desiring-machines
SIS, that whIch has to be repressed to assure a 'proper' !he incest drive, then, is created out of resistance It IS not pre-existent.
- repetitive
is, in psychoanaly-
functioning
of the subject.
to Oedipal desiring-machines;
tice, and can only represent it because it lacks a constitutive of change, every moment of becoming, Every confrontation production.
The conjunctive
synthesis that filters one mode of desiring results in an experi-
ence of self-recognition, socialised
individual
siring-production Deleuzean
to Deleuze/Guattari,
that gives rise to this partition.
and the
it is capitalist de-
The working of the psyche, in
thought, ret1ects the working of society: there is a multitude
aim towards
where anything
a shizophrenic
This is not supposed schizophrenic
can meet anything
of rela-
else. Deleuze/Guattari
limit, where a word gains an asignifying to praise schizophrenia,
for the analysis of society contrasting eradicate
It is here that the schizophrenic
part, and, according
tions and encounters substance.
self-identity.
a psychoanalytic
thought and to install 'identity'
Being repeatedly
is halted, a drive is now 'invested'
that aims to
instead.
sponding
ideas. They explain terms on the level of function that identifies
event of production
an object's
itself. This perspective
composition
we come
is that object's
it is the Body without Organs. At the same time, as being an object's production, functions
the BwO is a moment of antiproduction. according
to a principle
of repetition
tion is the BwO's mode of resistance zero degree of intensity, death-drive,
therefore, l6
thereby, to repress
•
is the basis
against Oedipalised for the drive
the BwO
above, antiproduc-
to delimit
the object of repression.
Butler's
Laclauan
in this
manifestation
segregation
signifying
non-productive
sense: it does not
way IS theorised
by
as a symbolic
Laws operate through
Desire can only be subjected to a
structure
that enables representation.
as the prime agent of repression,
structure that is based on the social formation
mation of the family ensures our socialisation
con-
lack: the object
relation.
structure at the base of our desiring-production.
as the main signifier,
of
between
binary oppositions
and the incest-prohibition
law if this law is based on a signifying Oedipus
forces
depends
on a
of the family. The for-
into the Oedipal set-up; psycho-
analytic practice finishes the work if the socialising
force of the family failed.
desire. It aims to keep
with a desire for death - the
the BwO as well as the object of repression
BwO, then, represents
-
event of
intensities
and
The BwO, then, is a machine that can account for r~pres-
sion, but that does not predefine predefined,
This is because
as described
which could be equalled
in the
event of production
to desire
by posing Oedipus
a structure of meaning based on representation.
and composition,
and functioning
for the schizophrenic:
engage with what it desires in a full productive The way
anti-
between social and psychic fields
in a fixed or transcendent
struct our world. From now on, desire is based on the Lacanian
signifying
aim is to look at words and things apart ii'om their corre-
from a perspective
with the same desiring-machine
the social field. From now on, there will be a disjunctive terms that could be transversed
repression:
quality alone, having only one particular con-
tent. Then, the relation of desire and becoming
Deleuze/Guattari Deleuze/Guattari's
confronted
creates contingent
lacks what it desires, because it does not desire in a Deleuzean
material
but to use it as a base perspective
with desiring-machines
it to indentify with one particular
lack. Every moment
is the BwO's moment of production.
And because it is not is open to change. The
notion of a shifting imaginary
in prac-
How is Oedipus
inscribed
into our subjectivities?
through incest itself that the despot's
In a despotic
power is justified;
society
the despot's
based on a myth that escapes coding. Through this overcoding
it is
power is
of incest as the
origin of society, the despot stands outside of the tribal socius. Through incest, he is at the limit of society, at its horizon. Marrying
queen and mother, he cre-
ates a mythical alliance with mother earth, and therefore
makes himself into the
father of the tribe. Incest is beyond the taboo: it becomes the origin of that which necessitates
16
The BwO does follow a death-instinct,
but it is not a Freudian
one: the death desired is that of the
'subject' and its fixed identity. The BwO wishes to tlow, to desire without antiproduction Gilles (1990): The Logic a/Sense. New York: Columbia
University
(see Deleuze,
Press, pp. [51; 153; 199.)
the incest taboo in order to keep existing. This overcoding
of rei a-
tions with his own codes makes the despot into the omnipotent
'allmighty',
ruler
of the Urstaat, the cradle of civilisation17•
coding. Incest becomes perceived
gued with. Incestuous The despot becomes
omnipotent
and maker of the codes, but cannot be over-
coded himself. The modern version of the despot is capitalism: come the new omnipotent it into circulation.
almighty. Capitalism
A dependency
that can bring 'liberation
is the 'money maker' and brings
on money is secured through
through the abolition of small debts'
the despot - the State - interminably care, property
and social security
ment of desire in the despotic
money has be-
1'.
the tax system,
machine,
Hence, taxes ensure the invest-
and when taxes are not enough,
can be ensured through cruelty as in imprisonment and cruelty, creation and destruction
or even execution.
are needed for the despotic
order
Both gift
socius to func-
tion:
relations. capitalism
while negotiating
for all production,
blessings; this is because all the processes terms of the overcoding
are represented
in
in the despot - a desire to share his glory and
radiance, to obey his will, to give back his generously
endowed
gifts; this
incestuous.I9
desire is essentially The threat of punishment
in creating sustainable
I read Deleuze/Guattari' as a Foucaultian
s description
presentation
of how Oedipus is incribed into our society
of how the origin of power is hidden and inte-
grated into all power relations. By legitimising tuous origin, the origin becomes tacked or questioned.
something
depend
cannot procreate, something
upon. Incest, we are told, creates monsters, and cannot
powerful
With such an untouchable
The fear of being executed
into Ernest Jones'
by the omnipotent
power in
origin, coding and overcoding
or laws enforced through punishment.
certain events, but originate
from the transcendent
invested
despotic
in the transcendent
signifier.
signifier with its signifieds
is incestuous,
self, and hence omnipotent
and can overcode
sance,
one's
in
tion, accounting,
not grounded
desire
provide a different
in a castration-anxiety
real (castrating)
mother. Incestuous
cause incest is the constitutive
a
psychoanalytical
sense.
But
17
In Anti-Oedipus,
Deleuzc/Guattari
that cannot be detached from a real penis, a
overcoding.
desire remains constitutional
property',
of anxiety, be-
Their transcendent
speak of the despot marrying
to Hera. The cradle
of Western
maculate
of Mary, again, is spiritual
conception
1" Anti-Oedipus, 19
Ibid, my italics.
p. 197.
civilisation,
including, surely,
voice itself, since desire is
the transcendent everything:
marriage of the
signifier is incest itmetal, paper, legisla-
there are a multitude of despots,
their origins are hidden and not subject to
signifiers
are 'natural
right',
'reason',
but they operate on the same regime of signs. The capitalist
ratic machine works through incestuous as in desiring-production,
overcoding
'private democ-
on the one hand, and anti-
on the other.
mother and sister: I read them to be
for example,
is ancient
on bodies through
Meaning is not produced by
The simulated
In democracy,
but they have all become omnipotent,
limit of society, the origin of which escapes over-
Oedipus,
historiography.
means to account for aphanisis, one that is
production, talking about incest as myth beyond
Only
enter into their own
circular logic. Signs refer to marks or signs already implanted punishment,
can, on another plane, be translated
of
system.
offspring that functions, is pure and untouchable.
one of the fear of losing one's jouis-
origin
feed the economic
can cross the taboo of incest, have an
desire reminds
the
it cannot be debated with, at-
Incest is an offence against the law of exogamy, the eco-
societies
religious,
power through a mythical, inces-
omnipresent:
which one invests one's Deleuze/Guattari
change as will those who
argue with Oedipus from within psychoanalysis.
given by the State [... ] The desire of each member
of society is now invested
'fear of aphanisis'.
the source of all
of production
focus on incest shows is that to argue with
within it, as in union activity within a democratic
system, will be as unsuccessful
and monsters as a quasi-cause
that cannot be
and can hence not be ar-
desire, we will see, can be removed from actual familial
What Deleuze/Guattari's
nomic exchange The despot functions
for a blurring of boundaries
The people owe
and strive to receive gifts such as health-
in response.
a metaphor
anymore, an origin that has been foreclosed
Greece
marriage
of Zeus
The filiative quality of capital - money begetting
as well as Christianity:
the im-
overcodings.
the Olympian
incest with God the Father,
as Jesus is God's
son.
There is no limit to overcoding
of money, etc.). Capitalism of anti production
is therefore
money - is subject to constant
(inflation,
autoproductive,
to secure the non-accumulation
investment, but dependent
production on a state
of surplus value of code that
could not be converted. formation
It is dependent
of antiproduction.
duction everywhere, capitalist
Capitalism
constantly
autoproductive
the exact relationship
on a consumer
society
with a similar
needs to find ways of injecting
creating
antipro-
needs and wants. The only limit to this
antiproduction-mode
between capitalism
is schizophrenia.
What then, is
danger the system as such". Similarly, what we lack, as 'having'
and 'not having'
by discovering
tative labor as the principle of every representable by discovering
quantitative
quanti-
value, Freud founds de-
libido
as the principle
of
of the objects and aims of desire.")
coded in contingency
of flows in capitalism:
with inflationary
selves are fuelled by, and again fuel desiring-production. means
Being defined by Freud and Lacan as the activity o/production theorisations
of desiring-production
tations rather than being subordinated tion of capitalism, ity of production
dominate
in general, psy-
all possible represen-
to them. This is comparable
to the defini-
through David Ricardo and Adam Smith, as, again, the activin general, which leads to the same dilemma
one: 'So that capitalism
is without doubt the universal
as the Oedipal
of every society, but only
flows are decoded and re-
streams, fashions
and demands. Yet, all
these flows never leave the power of capital as such; just as the flows themof representation
and coding,
women have long hair. Feminists choanalytic
and lack
has to be constantly created. The cat chases its tail. There is a constant decoding
siring-economy
are the basis of capitalism,
and schizophrenia?
Just as Ricardo founds political or social economy
every representation
desires that would lead to re-definitions
of labour have to be kept in check to the same extent: we have to keep desiring
their hair off were termed tionary:
that rebelled
'butch',
from being restricted
Hair, for example, as a
has many forms.
unattractive,
to the minority,
Feminine,
'male'.
Until it became infla-
it was overcoded
grated into popular culture, taking the force out of its resistance. O'Connor
shaved her head, and combined
attractive
against such a coding and cut by and inte-
So when Sinead
her look with a buddhist image, she
started a fashion trend that made women desire what she had. Sex, glamour and beauty were now associated
with an elegant, shaven head.
insofar as it is capable of carrying to a certain point its own critique - that is, the critique of the processes
by which it re-enslaves
self or to appear freely.'
Unions, created by capitalism,
resistance
to their founding
structure.
Similarly,
sire onto the family, Freud encages the monsters 'In place of the great decoded
what within it tends to free itcannot really constitute
by recoding
- the pathologies
flows, little streams recoded
Interiority in place of a new relationship
every form of de-
with the outside.
- he created:
in mommy's
bed.
'21
These decoded flows, then, are never an overcoding that can stretch out to overcode any threatening ture, based on creating needs by presenting
are discovered appearing
as an abstract
and content
in general, and both
of private
within capitalism.
define labour as the 'property'
entitity unaffected property.
Capital
by State regulations and labour
and the
of the worker, on substance
are 'objective'
concepts
Forms of property and labour that would exceed these defini-
tions - decoded quantities
of production
the deviant
money out of it. In capitalism,
you redirect flows by adding an axiom, not by
20
Ibid, p. 299. Ibid, p. 270.
representation,
that are not reterritorialised
- would en-
is infinite reproduction:
and we end with money. A first example the origin of the proletariat:
and make
we begin with money
of schizoanalysis
When, in the nineteenth
would be to detect
century, a flow of workers
were heading towards a direction that seemed non-definable
and frightening,
the
French historical school came up with a term for these workers: the proletariat, class. They hence establish classes as an essential fragment, ism, founding
its legitimacy:
bourgeoisie
vs aristocracy.
ready to invent one more axiom to restore its functioning; axiom: proletariat,
21
through
popular cul-
as idols, molar notions we
recoding. No code, though, can re-code money. Within the capitalist framework,
only to be put in chains all over again. 'Private property'
form of its means of production
identities
strive for, can easily integrate
M[oney]-C[ommodity]-M[oney] Desire and labour both appear as the activity of production
but remain within a system
deterritorialisation:
22
see Antonio
of production
the axiom: union power. Capitalism
Negri and Felix Guattari's
Cornmunists
and labour to be acknowledged
Capitalism
is always
hence it creates the
is an axiomatic machine,
Like Us, where they argue for alternative
and accredited.
a
an axiom of capital-
forms
constructing
the capitalist
machine
flows of labour and property, oms.
at the same time as incorporating
namely, by turning these decoded
decoded
flows into axi-
lesbian will never be an actual man, but always a 'converted' described
in the Oedipal complex, never the father's;
If there is a triangle mother-father-Oedipus, reasoning,
the same is applicable
that was created by psychoanalytic
for capital-labour-resources.
Capitalism
the capitalist worker, like money creates money, like language and rational
sounds, or, in our case, gender binarism
hermaphrodites.
Deleuze/Guattari
side of economic
production
social form of the family anymore, psychic formation.
the mother for resources
capitalism
is not dependent
is dependent
and the child for labour
re-emphasised
the family remains
as capitalism
Its structure is mere simulation:
creates irrational out-
on the
on the family as a
by the 'naturalness'
of gender
binarism.
relations. This is achieved through the
'Daddy-mommy-me
since everything
postponed,
repeating
Deleuze/Guattari's
dependence
chine is metaphorical. an economic
on 'incest'
- one is sure to re-encounter
has been applied to them. .. 'D
millenium perspective, culture,
dependence
on the family as a psychic structure from a
becoming
Europe, is starting to fit into capitalism ism is not dependent production,
in
from an economic
perspective
of
on an Oedipal struc-
in the nuclear family. Now, if we criticise De1euze/Guattari's
marxism from a 'queer'
be accounted
Gay club
marketing
very well. This proves that yes, capital-
on the family anymore
but it might refute the idea that it is dependent
ture as represented reversed
a target of mainstream
angle, how can the acceptance
of gay culture
and subjectivities
of a certain society are based. If De1em;e/Guattari
despot as incestuous,
as an incestuous
it is prohibited
that have transcended
on which the
of desire into the
a fusion that transcends
these limits -
in order for a certain society to exist.
a tabooisation
into our society as an established
of homosexuality
and are already
culture, have other limits they can-
as they are still embedded
ciety with its laws built on our own structural linguistics
within our so-
which is based on and
supports gender binarism. Examples
of these limits are a fear of feminisation
butch gays and their consequential
fetishisation
perfectly described
by Deleuze/Guattari,
ties (he-she, right-wrong identities,
ma-
describe the over-
act, and the investment
they are describing
incest is desired because Relations
of the capitalist
base, is the limit to society. It stands for an event of fusion and
coding of signifiers
integrated
there seem to be problems in their presentation.
which is increasingly
at the foundation
Incest, in a society deriving from a history of exogamy as
not - or are not allowed to - transgress, Looking at their theory's
within
of desire has
Oedipal desiring-structures.
workings
of
in order to keep up this social form, the family has to be controlled of Oedipus:
to be constantly
force. The 'naturalness'
Therefore,
them everywhere,
The same holds for desiring-structures
which depend on the creation of needs: the fulfillment
melting that would confuse identity formations
is hence
representation
lacking.
lover, the daughter
desire cannot be fulfilled unless in fantasy,
the father stands for capital,
capitalism
by other means than economic productive
the subject is eternally capitalism,
the son will never be his mother's
lack is essential,
creates male, female and
argue that although
in capitalism,
breeds
woman. And, as
in chapter two, drag keeps the game with the phallus intact. Similarly,
etc) opposing
of femininity.
in
Our society, as
is made up of binaries as fixed identia shizophrenic
transvestive
like those that are to be acquired through the successful
Oedipus complex, can never be completely
and satisfactorily
nature. Fixed solution of the
attained, and leave
the subject eternally lacking.
to fit into their overall system? Hence, it is not only those identities
Even in a 'glam gay' culture,
the desiring-structure
of Oedipus
sense that one never obtains what one desires - this Lacanian as shown in chapter two, describes
lack is what Butler,
as a state of melancholia'".
drag queen will never actually be as 'woman'
holds in the
In this sense, a
as Gloria Gaynor or Bette Davis, a
tainable, cestously'
Capitalism
of identites
set-up that are unat-
as despotic
idols we 'in-
- with a desire to unite - invest our desires in. 'Tank Girl' is certainly
not an 'identity' 'heroine',
posed in the Oedipal
poses a multitude
found in the traditional
created through representation,
Oedipal set-up, and yet, she is a fixed whose features
and characteristics
are
hard to equal - strong, slim, tough, brave, and still sexy, A lot of heavy weight 23
Anti-Oedipus,
24see
also Butler's
p. 265. discussion
of Paris Is Burning in her Bodies That Matter.
training and dieting would lead to the desired result, but doing both simultane. herOIC 'd" ISCIPI'me (or eating disously is a regime that can only be stuck to WIth
orders), and it is therefore world of animation
no wonder that Tank Girl is a cartoon character.
and cyberspace,
capitalism
breeds more identities
from than those inherent in the nuclear, traditional
In a
to choose
family, but these new identi-
A critique of capitalism,
power, it is n-l identities versus a feminism based on 'woman'
ties are no less difficult to attain. It could also be argued that a teenage girl want-
organs or her enunciation.
ing to be Lara Croft or Tank Girl, or a drag queen wanting
genealogical
thus stays within the Oedipal set-up as both 'identities' by 'real'
men. Women
wanting
to be Bette Davis,
are stereotypes
desired
to 'be' young and androgynous-yet-sexy
like
look for the machine schizophrenic
underlying
capitalism
process. The unconscious
the
is not seen as a theatre anymore,
but
working
like a factory. Desire is an assemblage
scendent
terms. There is a 'real' for Deleuze
of her. Homosexual
machine. A machine stuck in antiproductive
ing to be Bette Davis or any other 'real' Clark Gable, are dreaming
woman,
of a glamourous
asking to be 'courted'
by a
world in which 'real' men will take
responsibility. A world in which, after all, the phallus is a penis and will be lacking to any woman. Capitalist
desiring-production
supports
main the (m)other:'quantitative production
labour'
based on reproduction
Similarly,
desires
would endanger the 'outside':
machine can undergo change and become-active,
For Deleuze, there are no 'atoms'
derives
Oedipal desiring-mode
from and reiterates
a mode of
of women to generate
la-
as natural. A deterritorialisation
with the (m)other
and criticism,
ferent structures.
this system.
obtaining
the limits that constitute
the despots
ing."
flows are decoded, the schizo
like it produces
capitalist project [... ] consists in reinventing HLM [Habitation
to vaguely
a Loyer Moyen,
if it is true
constantly,
money,
i.e.
the whole
artificial territorialities
in or-
record them: they invent anything: i.e.: government-controlled
home, and there is familial reterritorialization, social cell ... 26
computer
game Tomb Raider I-IV.
www.imaginet.fr/deleuzerrXTIENG/161l71.html.
p.7.
to desire according
to dif-
To return to the mourning drag queen of chapter two: there are
a fixed identity.
We can make them visible by representing
becom-
is machine-analysis:
housing],
the family, it is after all the
we create or liberate
new identities
- or
- by creating them. We create them by skimming the molecu-
lar from the molar, by seeing what subjects can do beyond their representation within a reactive system. We have to actively reveal their very own machine underneath the already coded. By revealing dertakes,
its own active self-production,
tion according
to a predetermined
the on-going
molar representations
A question
classified
lack that it aims to fill. If this can be shown,
Deleuze
and the Ruin
will be robbed of its driving force:
we want to follow.
that will not be discussed
as representation,
change this machine un-
we can prove that desire does not func-
Oedipus will cease to reign, and capitalism
27
" see Eidos' animated
to invest in new becomings,
in cultural
that are stuck on
the schizo as
and capitalism:
are deterritorialized
their existence
desires that are not based on the exchange of the phallus, that are not focused on
would threaten produces
again.
with active forces and persuaded
can entice BwO's
... we clearly see the relation of psychoanalysis
people,
become-Other
matter but only forces. Hence,
production
and the exchange
as
every BwO is made up of forces that are either reactive or active, and reactive
Schizoanalysis
der to reinscribe
that constitute
forces can always become active if confronted
rather, becomings
produces
the unconscious
a view of gender in which women re-
their power to order society. Capitalism
that capitalism
and Guattari:
by tran-
mode is called reactive, but even a
exist and are represented
that would disrespect
that in capitalism,
that is not organised
to engage with them. If active becomings
bour force, and hence, defines gender binarism of women from the identification
reactive
will
as much as that underlying
Lara Croft squeeks every time men want-
as defined by her
Again, we here find a link to Foucault who proposes a
Lara Croft or Tank Girl are still asking to be loved - even if they have guns. One 'ouch!'
rather
versus union
inquiry rather than a 'fighting for one's rights'. Schizoanalysis
just has to listen to the cute and helpless
she bumps into a wall or dies" to feel protective
26
then, has to follow the route of schizoanalysis
than through resisting from within: basically, it is machine-analysis
here is whether
the presentation
of becoming
whieh is related to being. See, among others, Dorothea
(~lRepresentation.
shOUld, still be
Olkowski
s Gilles
What can be drawn from Anti-Oedipus,
then, is a theorisation
does not negate feminist insights on patriarchal from a contingent
theorisation
of a psychological
count for change. Deleuze/Guattari
of capitalism
domination,
but releases
unconscious
agree with Lacan's
that these
that cannot ac-
psychoanalytic
explana-
Deleuze's
notion of desire serves as foundation
as the basis of desire, duration, can be described
tions of culture, even praise his insight. Lacan writes on how Oedipus is struc-
processes
turally inscribed
past',
with analysing structure's
into our culture
through
language,
the psyche within this structure
dominance.
only, therewith
wanting to destroy a pylon, balanced '2X
the plastic charges
formations.
ceive the Oedipal structuring
who,
the liberation
of de-
other forms of desire outside
They transcend
psychoanalysis
of our society as a cancerous
the basis of something that has to be rescued, liberated, re-installs
therefore,
supports a cancerous
as they per-
growth, developed
on
and can only be liberated
talked about and lived. Psychoanalysis,
the patient from his problems, to Deleuze/Guattari,
this
fighters
so well that the pylon
For Deleuze/Guattari,
sire can only happen by writing about it, practising
by being explained,
reiterating
This is like 'the story of the resistance
blew up and fell back into its hole. of these anti productive
but his work is occupied
aiming at 'freeing'
a healthy subject within capitalism
and
structure.
- forces affecting
the 'stubborn
of psychoanalysis
attachments'
sire, of the production
of the unconscious.
of de-
But once Oedipus entered the
to one's
own subjectivation.
values which are given to us by our own conditioning, oppose
other senses and values from elsewhere
change: we are constantly
material
by our own duration, will
and will effect unpredictable
In contrast to a psychoanalytic
dogma that allows for a
becoming
becoming.
The senses and
binds us to the tyranny of the past, an active and acting philosophy that is open to ongoing
This Deleuzean
conception
re-activation
of 'making levelled
things do things',
against
feminism
the psychoanalytic
feminism
it is a philosophy
that cannot be articulated
of difference
guage that can articulate becoming
but a political motivation of determinism
under discussion. of 'doing'
I
A Deleuzean
in order to perceive
and becoming
a philosophy
vs identity and being
of the molecular.
will itself have to constantly
classical
theatre was substituted
as a factory; repre-
one's
sentation
was substituted
of the unconscious;
how different durations affect each other, this section aims to argue that becom-
and an unconscious
that was capable of nothing but expressing
myth, tragedy, dreams - was substituted
for the productive
itself - in
own affirmation
ing-Other
constantly
by undergoing happens,
practice
be re-activat~d,
deterritorialised.
for the unconscious
a schizoanalytic
A lan-
picture, this discovery was soon buried beneath a new brand of idealism: a for the units of production
describes
affirmations. but has to be
in a language based on identity and con-
if we want to articulate Deleuze
dialectic,
and thus escapes the accusation
has to be practiced,
is fundamental
and unforeseen
of change does not follow a teleology,
made visible. It does not follow a Hegelian
the becoming
was that of the production
according to changing
each other - and hence escapes the 'tyranny of the
science. To create a language The great discovery
from which to theorise change,
the eternal return. By looking
but has be articulated
and repeatedly
in order become visible for us, and that it is a political
unconscious.'·
based on testmg at exactly re-affirmed
choice to show 'what
things can do' instead of what they are according to molar concepts they fit into. This productive
unconscious
could be the base of our own culture, and hence,
has to be freed in order to refute lack, in order to 'free' alternative
becomings.
alternative
genders,
or
Deleuze does not say we are: we are not; we are constantly forces interact within us, make up our body, and determine production
and affirmation
the amount of anti-
conscience,
on and description
'" Anti-Oedipus, p. 268. ,. Ibid, p. 24.
identity, conscience,
of becoming-Other
in order to end hoping that - ~y
being - we find n-l ways to articulate
ference, which is the reverse side of the Symbolic. dialectic and affirmative
can-
but action can. He can hence call
the reign of Oedipus, and suggest we 'make things do things', shizoanalysing
Different
within us at any given moment. This becoming
not be spoken in our grammatical for an active concentration
becoming.
dIf-
In this reverse side, an anti-
will to power creates constant change.
have to actively oppose Oedipal or any other forms of anti production programme
of experimentation
This programme A BwO is a practice; the moment you desire according tion of desire, you create your own BwO. Deleuzean ess of production
passion dissolves the binary opposition by concentrating
structure,
it is an ontol-
notion of lack. This ontology
of
anny of the past, can focus on an in-between
must focus on the machinic they detect behind that which has
been coded by psychoanalysis: from breathing,
the eye has to be released from vision, the lungs
in order to see what else they could do. Doubtless,
sis demonstrated
that desire was not subordinated
and this was its modernism.
psychoanalytic
This focus on becom-
subjectification
to procreation
psychoanalyor genitality,
But
desiring-machines,
subjects
it retained the essentials;
through a tyr-
beyond gender binarism.
serves as the basis from which to schizoanalyse
that mainstream
the negative law of lack, the external
Hence, it
BwO's,
it even found new ways of inscribing
that
diculous death-instinct
representa-
else, is after pleasure
phantasied
humiliations
come BwO, or, for our purpose
is inaccurate;
BwO's
in order to
visible, perceivable?
in desire
and the transcen-
of masochism:
when the ri-
is not invoked, it is claimed that the masochist, like
everybody
here, how can we describe
rule of pleasure,
dent ideal of phantasy. Take the interpretation
tion aims to portray to us, or aims to make us see in a text. But how can we bemake becomings
through a
unconscious.
between mental and material, subjective
on an on-going becoming.
ing beyond the notion of a lack that predetermines
exist behind the gendered
defini-
desire is defined as a proc-
that does not follow a predetermined
ogy of passion remote from the psychoanalytic and objective,
to the Deleuzean
in order to liberate the productive
but can only get it through
pain and
whose function is to ward off deep anxiety. This
the masochist's
suffering
is the price he must pay, not to
achieve pleasure, but to untie the pseudobond
between desire and pleasure
as an extrinsic measure ... The masochist uses suffering as a way of constiA BwO's
is a mass of yet unstructured
merely a mechanical the accumulation
For example,
visual impressions
then, in Anti-Oedipus,
with your mouth ...
,3{I,
reality. But how is this recoding
ductive unconscious becoming?
This programme description
be released? Similarly,
How do we see the molecular
a programme,
which Deleuze/Guattari
achieved?
desire. That there arc other ways, other procedures
'real-
certainly
recoding
as
of life,
How can the pro-
it can be asked: how do we perceive
call the 'program
procedure
of experimentation'. as it does to the
in cultural texts: we have to make things do things.
Deleuze and Guattari clearly suggest a co-existence
of the acting subject and the
On the one hand they argue that we are constantly
ing, which 'just happens':
and
better ones, is beside the point; it is enough that some find this suitable for them.31
The masochist
desires because s/he affirms his own desiring-machine32•
of using sexuality for reproductive negative,
instead of defining
responsibility. situation
purposes,
violence
A slave defining his situation as desirable,
as desired: both present
forms of desire. Again, criticising
a self-responsible
that to 'trace back from images to the structure
only schizoanalysis
decision
as and
a master defining his
investigation
literary interpretation,
and would not rescue us from representation,
Instead
instead of defining submission
as injust, s/he emphasises
verse side that is like the real production BwO who becomes.
than masochism,
of
with your lungs,
beyond the molar? Through following
applies equally to one's own active becoming
of characters
becomes
they are not talking about self-destruction
in literally blinding oneself, they are talking about are-naming, vision, perception,
tuting a body without organs and bringing forth a plane of consistency
cry: 'Is it really so sad and
to be fed up with seeing with your eyes, breathing
swallowing
an eye is
onto a membrane,
of which, later, through cultural interpretation,
ity'. When Deleuze/Guattari, dangerous
potentialities.
object that projects
of limits and
Deleuze/Guattari
argue
would have little significance
if the
structure
did not have a re-
of desire.' This reverse side, of course,
can access, and is the
becom-
forces endure and affect each other. On the other, we
31
Ibid, p. 155.
32
Instead of describing
chist undergoes punished,
masochism
punishment
as the eroticisation
as a rite of passage
of oppression,
to find liberation
he kills off the man he does not want to be.
Deleuze
argues that the maso-
from Oedipalised
desire:
in being
western thought and on the social and political level women have been situated 'real inorganization' into indirect
of the molecular
syntheses
where everything
elements:
of interactions,
partial objects that enter
( ... ) pure positive
is possible, without exclusiveness
operating
without a plan, where the connections
junctions
included,
the conjunctions
polyvocal,
or negation, syntheses are transverse,
indifferent
lying support, since this matter that serves them precisely ceives no specificity
from any structural
multiplicities the dis-
to their underas a support re-
or personal unity, but appears as
as the personification
of (male) lack and have been imprisoned
ment in the role of the" other". Desire, 'in reality', proliferation
and expansion,
install the BwO as that which is 'disinvested representations, cohesion
a body without a psychical
and latent significance.
tian genealogy
signs of desire that compose a signifying
to apply schizoanalysis
signifying ... "
a given type of BwO and what happens
which something
will necessarily
be produced
and analysis
on it: an apriori synthesis
BwO is already part of the body's production
by
in a given mode (but what that
will be is not known) and an infinite analysis by which what is produced '34.
It is a pre-existent
on the
factory of the
working
of desire, dependent
although
this factory is apriori, we have to make it work and we have to con-
stantly reactivate
'3(,
of fantasy,
The cul-
then, to re-
images, projections,
or secret interior,
without internal
This we can actually do through a Foucaul-
of ethics to understand
cultural codings, but would then proceed
to reveal the machinic,
revealing
lines of flight that can
take us into new realms of being, or rather, becoming.
The real of the BwO is exactly this: a special relation of synthesis 'between
and was aiming at nothing in particular.
tural coding that makes us desire what we lack, has to be reversed,
the body without organs that fills the space each time an intensity fills it; chain but that are not themselves
by this place-
though, sought only its own
on a certain relation of forces. As shown above,
it. Or, in the case of cultural criticism:
ble by schizoanalysing
it. While this reverse
we have to make it visi-
side, then, exists, we have to ac-
tively describe it in order to promote its existence.
A 'promotion'
of Deleuzean
desire might not only be able to reveal the molecu-
lar within the molar, but it might affect our own desiring-production:
affirmation
might substitute
longing. What would a world look like in which we merely af-
firm connection
and engagement,
and do not have to be told to do so? Can we
enter the reverse side? Deleuze/Guattari ism create
'schizophrenia'
(meaning
claim that psychoanalysis the psychiatric
symptom)
and capitalby naming the
outside. But this does not imply that the process of making oneself a BwO has the attainment
of the uncoded,
psychotic
Making oneself a BwO means constantly
mass, the mad(wo)man, deterritorialising,
as its goal.
constantly
the already coded. The 'BwO is a limit, it can't be reached'''.
recoding
'Where psycho-
analysis says: "Stop, find yourself again" we should instead say: 'Let's go furWhat the factory produces itself,
not to transcendent
Olkowski
can only be referred back to the working of the body values
or external
points out that, if Deleuzean
seeks its own proliferation
rules
of pleasure.
'desire aims at nothing in particular
and expansion,
by assembling
visional entities and breaking down so-called objectivities desire is productive
of the real'''.
singularities
in their adaptation
of desire not as longing, but as enjoying
the creation
tions. This is used by Grosz to remind feminist theorists
33
Anti-Oedipus,
34
Thousand
35
Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation,
then
in her book
of Nietzsche, of connections
and
into pro-
into singularities,
She refers to Grosz, highlighting
Volatile Bodies that Deleuze/Guattari,
Dorothea
ther still, we haven't ourselves.'
found our BwO's
masochist
body'
affirms".
p. 151, my italics. p. 56.
the 'paranoid,
If
asked
whether
they
had
to an experimental
ever
seen
a
would - in spite of Guattari working in a psychiatric
and rela-
years - certainly
answer they had not, as their envisaging
and limit is not the kind of 'schizophrenia'
36
Volatile Bodies, p. 169.
37
Thousand
38
Ibid.
Plateaus,
p. 150.
as
program
schizophrenic,
Deleuze/Guattari programme
of that
schizo, drugged,
conceive
that 'in the history of
dismantled
would not be sad, but 'full of gaiety, ecstasy and dance',
long as these modes of being are chosen according that
sufficiently
but instead, for affirmation
which cannot remain coded. In this affirmation,
p. 309.
Plateaus,
yet, we haven't
This is not calling for suffering,
clinic for
of 'schizophrenia' (as pathological
as
symp-
tom) the BwO builds in resistance tity, but is an ongoing becoming,
to desiring-machines.
A BwO is not an iden-
every moment of change is its moment of pro-
duction and hence, its limit is a multiplicity
that resembles
a Buddhist
nirvana.
That a BwO cannot be reached means it cannot be but must naturally continue to deterritorialise
and can only be described
alisation: its moment of production The accusation
is its BwO.
interpretation
of glorifying
suffering
and madness
aims to decon-
stands against antipsychiatric
tion. The BwO is the field of immanence
experimenta-
of desire, the plane of consistency
cific to desire, with desire defined as a process of production
yond the molar, and finding it, 'making
spe-
without any exte-
about that zero, there are no negative or
Every BwO is unique and can only be 'judged'
to its own mode of production.
Just as Nietzsche
according
argues that there is no 'do-er'
- is not about glorifying
' ... overdose is a danger. You don't do it with a sledgehammer,
use a very fine file. You invent self-destructions death-drive.
'12
suffering,
one-
destruction:
or even selfyou
that have nothing to do with
The idea is to know where to stop, to know what is good for one,
so that one does not risk emptying seen as keeping
the BwO: the plane of consistency
exactly this limit between
with the cancerous
inten-
to point out that making oneself a BwO - describing
molar notions
obtained,
intense matter, the matrix of intensity,
sity = 0; but there is nothing negative
draws roots into rhi-
self beyond
rior agency, whether it be a lack that hollows it out or a pleasure that fills it. The
opposite intensities.'"
things do things',
zomes, creates lines of flights out of fascist structures.
BwO is 'nonstratified,
unformed,
my own, or to
draw one out of a text. This is because a BwO can account for the molecular be-
Again, it is important
from within the codes that schizoanalysis
struct: psychoanalytic
to create a BwO - whether
through every moment of deterritori-
levelled at Deleuze/Guattari
is an interpretation
that I have an ethical responsibility
BwO as motivating
force in the middle. It can never be fully
though, as there is always another surface of stratification
the BwO, in which it becomes
can be
full and empty, fascist and empty, that blocks
fascist, and that has to be battled through: roots
and radicles have to be woven into rhizomes again. Throwing
stratifications
into
suicidal collapse, though, would be the worst that could happen, as it would just
behind the deed, he is solely invented:' ... there is no "being" behind doing, ef-
bring these structures back down on us, heavier than ever. And there is no BwO
fecting, becoming;
as an 'original'
everything.
'41)
"the doer" is merely a fiction added to the deed - the deed is
In a similar
vein, Deleuze/Guattari
would
argue:
'the BwO is
before the organism,
ess of constructing
it is adjacent to it and in the continual proc-
itself. In fleeing, in becoming BwO, one has to make oneself
never yours or mine. It is always a body."! This means that you cannot judge a
BwO, then, and not destroy the root in order to find a hidden rhizome. The focus
BwO according
must always be on an ongoing becoming-Other
to a reactive morality,
every BwO is its own active becoming,
and we must attempt to portray it. Schizophrenia
destination.
as limit, meaning that anything
presents a fictional grid of co-ordinates: ures'. Anything character,
can mean anything
n-l possibilities,
text in contrast
to a psychoanalytical
of pleas-
reading
I have, in addition or beyond the two binary co-ordinates
analysis, an unknown my description.
else, merely
a 'multitude
that exists on this grid has to be created, or drawn. When I de-
scribe a BwO in a cultural
multitude
of possibilities.
a psychoanalytic
reading.
of a
of psycho-
BwO's can be perceived, perception
concept of affect has some bio-aesthetic and that have to be discussed
But Deleuze
argue
42
Ibid, p. 160. I am here thinking,
Ibid, p. 153.
the
The Basic Writings of Nietzsche, p. 481. Thousand Plateaus, p. 164.
Deleuze/Guattari's
painter
Frankfurt
for example,
generally
Deleuze/Guattari
4!
text, What Is Philosophy?
characteristics
elsewhere.
or
a notion described
by The
I find extremely difficult
But regardless
of these
43
aspects
,
for example the
and Guattari
necessarily
40
can change us. The description
Deleuze and Guattari in their last collaborative
43
39
and their perception
of a BwO in a cultural text creates an affect,
A BwO I describe is created in
I would have the choice of other co-ordinates,
ones that constitute
that cannot be halted, and has no
of the description
of the colour blue signifying
with
realm
argue that blue creates
above
School.
associated all
with
stipulations
nothing
an endless
(as in the deep
'a pure affect that topples the universe to
do.'
risk a classification
the universe.
ocean
to high/low
space)?
into the void and leaves
(What is Philosophy, p. 181.) Further, according
Is blue
or outer
some
art that is reminiscent
of
of the
Deleuze/Guattari's
description
to their directions
of the creation of an affect has many similarities
on how to make oneself a Body without Organs; the main dif-
ference being that a BwO, in Capitalism
and Schizophrenia,
lived',
are 'beings
whose
validity
dure44:
'Art
whereas
preserves,
perserved ... What is preserved tions, that is to say, a compound
it
is
of his characters''':
affects,
and exceeds
What matters is not, as in bad novels, the opinions held by characters
any
accordance
in instants before further destratifica-
affects, created through
and
although
lies in themselves
a BwO can only ever be obtained
tion has to proceed,
the
only
in
the
world
that
with their social type and characteristics
tions of counterpoint
and in a work of art, en-
thing
affects and brings them to light as the becoming
is related to human
beings, whereas an affect is created by a piece of art. Further, like BwO's,
vents unknown or unrecognized
into which they enter and the compounds
tions that these characters
is
their becomings
either themselves
experience
of sensa-
or make felt in
or their visions:'
- the thing or the work of art - is a bloc of sensaof percepts
and affects.'45
This becomes clearer when we see how Deleuze/Guattari
describe a work of art
that creates an affect: Emily Bronte draws the relation between Catherine In creating affects, we can, as artists, portray BwOs. As cultural critics, we can
Heathcliff
create affects by describing
brotherhood
the molecular
these BwOs: we can let other readers of our texts see
within the molar if we draw their attention
to the affects we have
wolves;
Proust
not its unhappy
invents
an affect by posing jealousy
consequence.
Affects,
of affections,
by finding
Affects or a bloc of sensations
a BwO by freezing it in order to make it visible. Although
sometimes
reterritorialising
confusing,
there is a direct link between a bloc or being of sensations
and affect:
be made, the artist provides the world with new 'varieties'"
defined
deduced
'human passions
stands in direct opposition
from affections: and their eternity'.
the so-called
they can
between
destiny,
articulate
affects are being sensed. Sensation
capture an ongoing becoming;
love's
to opinion, which
'knowledge'
of so-
reversing
variety
the existing
hierarchy
affections.
should be a 'monument
of [ ... ] nondistinction'
By that I do not mean that affects endure eternally, but that the sensation it creates can be accessed
45
Deleuze,
by reading/viewing
the piece of art that creates it.
Gilles and Guattari,
Felix (1994):
What Is Philosophy?
Press, pp. 163-4. Why, if using Deleuze/Guattarian cept? Resembling relate to Melville's
affects, percepts
have to he made according
If affects are the nonhuman
scapes of nature. Obviously,
Deleuze/Guattari
about certain ways of perceiving varieties
elaborations
ocean or Thomas Hardy's heath as percepts:
viewer, in themselves.
to our repertoire
to the same critieria.
from territorialised
percept
on per-
Deleuze/Guattari of the
of man, percepts are the nonhuman
has a very different
(Ibid, p. 169). Melville's
University
existing beyond the perceptions
perceptions:
In Moby Dick's case, for example,
through Ahab's eyes, who, in becoming-whale, longer needs anyone'
becoming
New York: Columbia
on art, do I not concentrate
are not talking about one essential
that are detached
of perceiving.
land-
'truth' of nature but percepts
we perceive
add new the ocean
relation to the ocean, one that 'no
'ocean', then, creates
an affect that gives an
emotion to 'ocean' that has its very own codes. In that respect, affect and percept are closely related: an affect can be transmitted argue, is closely
through
a percept,
linked to vision and object,
but both can also stand on their own. Percept, whereas
though they very often overlap. To me personally,
new definitions:
by
(ibid: 175). Such a between
human
and
animal forms that appear 'like a flash'''. as a self-sufficient
affect is more directly
related to emotion,
memory, without skills. One does not perceive coming-Other,
by becoming
ing-molecular,
becoming-woman.
This I will abstain from as it
an affect but is affected in be-
what one perceives, Endurance
by becoming-animal,
affects us if we engage,
engage if we sense an affect. An affect does not reproduce has himself got to be involved in a becoming-Other
becomand we
memory: the a:t!st
and portray thIS becommg-
Other as a stark light that has no other object or subject than itself. But how is one affected?
How can a BwO as text or as character
scribed or developed,
46
Ibid, p. 174.
47
Ibid, p. 188.
48
Ibid, p. 175.
49
Ibid, p. 174.
be sensed? In being de-
and hence, in enduring. It is their duration that presents an
active force, and hence, will confront reactive forces.
alat
entitity: it
memory - a memory of
'how it is done' - to show itself: it exists and can be accessed in itself, without
I would
affect is more direct and more usable, although
different stages of this chapter its relation to percept could be elaborated. would divert from my main argument.
by
An artist, though, is slhe 'who in-
does not owe anyone, it does not rely on somebody's recurringly
as
then, are created
If affects are created the way BwO are supposed to
Like a BwO, an affect can only be experienced 44
and
as a violent affect that should not be mistaken for love, but is rather a
detected.
is a knowledge
in
but rather the rela-
Forces are atoms of experiences. how we can skim the molecular have to understand periences,
how reactive
in Deleuze,
forces can become
instead of atoms because a struggle of forces5l'.
up of atoms of experiences,
power, which is not to be confused
atomism Duration,
This incipient
Nietzsche
pre-
masks an incipient
will. A will wills obedience,
There are wills who are dominant to power that is affirmative,
then, which is made
of force: the power to
dynamism
with our common
the will is not something to be exercised
against a dialectic functioning,
which is exactly what Judith Butler accuses him
of in her Subjects of Desire.
active: how atoms of ex-
is nothing but the duration
affect, and the power to be affected.
another
we
what appears as a neutral atom has already been, and is still undergo-
ing, an ongoing becoming,
Nietzsche,
how we can be affected,
interact and affect each other. Deleuze's
fers to talk about forces dynamism:
In order to understand
from the molar, how we can become-Other,
is the will to
notion of 'willing'.
For
on muscles or nerves, but on
but only another
will can will to obey.
On the other hand, Deleuze's
Nietzsche
argues that a 'thing has as many senses
as there are forces capable of taking possession that Nietzsche's
definition
a political one: Nietzsche
of 'superior'
of it'''. It could be argued, then,
forces is not an essentialist
of forces as affirming difference.
DelellZe argues that there is an essential hierar-
chy: active over reactive forces; but it has to be emphasised his own preference.
concept, but
(and hence, Deleuze) conceive of the ideal functioning
This evaluation
that this hierarchy is
of active forces over reactive forces, the po-
litical choice of the one over the other, provides a basis from which alterity can be articulated.
But forces expressing
a will to nothingness,
that are antiproduc-
and those who are dominated:
there is a will
tive and hence, need to fill a lack, can still be conceptualised
and a will to power that is negating:
a will to noth-
theory.
within Deleuzean
ingness. Further and in the same vein, by defining the preferred or 'superior'
functioning
In the ideal state, after 'ethical and selective thought'
and tested against the eter-
of forces as affirming difference,
nal return, all wills would be affirmative,
active forces:
tive forces have to be selected by applying the eternal return, by freeing the af-
determining
finnative
like Hegel's
deny the other or that which it is not, it affirms its own difference
plementation,
joys this difference.
The negative is not present in the essence as that from
which force draws its activity: on the contrary,
it is a result of activity, of
the existence of an active force and the affirmation In other words, we are presented firming
will to power. Again, this will to power is not waiting to be released,
In its relation with the other the force which makes itself obeyed does not
difference.
translated
and en-
with an essential
Atoms, in Nietzsche,
into a BwO in Deleuze.
of its difference.51
functioning
are translated
acknowledged, statement,
conception
of forces as af-
into forces, the subject is
If a subject is made up of atoms, a BwO is
to a Hegelian
subject that wants to be recognised
that aims to fill the lack of not being recognised.
that Deleuze
is posing one 'truth'
Sublime;
'There is no object (phenomenon)
ance but the apparition 51
which is not already
and
It seems, in this
about the subject against another,
possessed
since in itself it is not
'ill
will to power, and its im-
return will bring about a new theatre critic, the aesthetic listener, who will not be able to criticise anymore according
To Nietzsche,
Hegel's
ity, is dialectical. could
to a reactive morality but will skim the mo-
master is really a slave, as slave-morality,
It negates instead of confirming;
see positive
healthy aggression
difference; of knowing
it holds ressentiment
need for domination
in representation: coming
reactive moral-
it sees contradiction where
oneself different. Hegel's
sent power and have this power recognised. need for a coherence Hence, Hegel's
50
the freeing of the affirmative
is a political and ethical utopia. If applied and selected, the eternal
lecular from the molar."
made up of forces: active and reactive forces that interact and engage. This is a very different
it does not follow that all forces are active: ac-
where it
there could be a
master wants to repre-
This concept is based on a stated
a need for identity, and consequently,
from lacking
master needs to represent
acknowledgement
or recognition.
power, and cannot affirm himself as
appear-
of a force.' (The Logic of Sense, p. 6.) 52
Deleuze,
53
see Introduction.
The Logic o.f Sense, pp. 8-9, my italics.
Gilles (1983): Nietzsche
& Philosophy.
a
New York: Columbia
University
Press, p. 6.
different. It follows that, for Deleuze's
Nietzsche,
psychoanalytic
resent a reactive morality: basing their theorisations
feminists rep-
on lack and the war of the
phallus, they are unable to step outside of the binarism they themselves
created:
furthermore
questionable
how obesity-related
The affirmation of oneself as different,
infertility fits into Paglia's picture.
then, is only true affirmation
related to any molar notion, but a molecular
if it is not
notion of oneself.
they want to be heard and affirmed as women, as molar identity. I have argued that this is one way to stand up against oppression. wanting to be affirmed as 'women'
I have also shown that it is in
that they fail. If they split up into a thousand
tiny sexes, become active instead of reactive, feminism
would have more poten-
tial to create sustainable change.
Deleuze interprets Nietzsche: preting it. .. '''. To Nietzsche, from within conscience,
'Everything conscience
it is impossible
is related to a force capable of interis essentially
reactive, and this is why,
to conceive
of what a body can do, or
what activity it is capable of, what other forces could be related to a body. Butler's conception of desire as an eternal search for identity, ie recognition,
Reactive morality is represented
by the psychoanalytic
her ambition to do otherwise, reiterates sation of woman's thority',
oppression
the Oedipal legacy by basing the theori-
in a 'science'.
Psychoanalysis
locks them into their own slave-morality. describing
gender they never accomplished
or never obtained,
difference.
tims' of 'identity'
The res sentiment
as constructed
should be exchanged
of
subjects that mourn the loss of the
of a 'victim'
by a certain
for the Dionysian
as method, as 'au-
Butler could be accused
writing a theory of ressentiment, individual
feminist who, in spite of
instead
of affirming
- I am speaking
world-view,
is contrasted
beyond the need for recognition selves in a quandary.
theory -
This affirmation
This complication
that opposition
entails; thinking of the Other in certain terms, linking oneself to the to that term, leads to stagnation.
If, as described
one's own identity is defined through this opposition, tion is theorised vicious circle.
in order to act,
is again presented in the question of the eternal return and the
will to power. The will to power is defined as 'a principle that serves as an exis] the characteristic
one opposed
conscience
for the molecular?
planation for diversity and its reproduction,
inevitably
to a
in order to make things do things, in order to conceive of a politics that searches
should not be in binary opposition to the Other, but affirm its own unique being, leads to the binarism-traps
Nietzsche
of a fixed identity. But it is here we find our-
Do we not have to presuppose
or rather, becoming.
Ressentiment
in Deleuze's
search for what the body can do, what other forms of existence can be described
of the 'vic-
a certain
laughter of affirmation.
their
ing the lack of not having identity,
or: fill-
in chapter one,
and further, this opposi-
through a 'tyranny of the past', we remain stuck in an Oedipal
of difference
and its repetition ... [It
that cannot be thought out of the mechanistic
thinking away this order itself''".
It complements
order WIthout
forces and is internal to them,
but it is not a force, but that which wills: it affirms or denies, and has as its instruments action and reaction. The affirmative
will to power is anti-dialectic:
it
does not fill a lack, it aims to affirm itself. The aesthetic listener will have to undergo the eternal return in order to skim the active from the reactive, but only an active mind can operate this eternal return. How then, can reactive become ac-
Positive
affirmation,
the opposite of the fundamental
are so easily linked to the psychoanalytic Paglia-lite,
post-feminist
affirmation
feminist
foundations
dogma, must not be confused
of female difference
so perfectly
that
tive?
with a demon-
Deleuze/Guattari
criticise the concept of the subject as identity, at the same time,
strated by Elizabeth Wurtzel, sitting in a vampish pose and showing us the mid-
though, they presuppose
dle finger on the cover of her bestselling
firms is Foucaultian:
nistic
description
of woman
as powerful,
goddess who should not be celebrated as its positive counterpart.
Bitch'4. Camille Paglia gives a determiquivering,
in opposition
fertile,
spongy
earth-
to rational man, but see man
our ability to act. Obviously,
we carefully
deterritorialise
the 'agency'
Deleuze af-
from the territories
we are
situated in. We become affected by that which differs from this territory, and, if we decide to engage and hence, to deterritorialise
This not only plays into the radical feminist ruse, it is " Nietzsche
'6 Ibid,
& Philosophy,
p. 49.
p. 22.
- having tested our action in
the eternal return - we will become-Other.
Our engagement
different, the Other, might give us information eternal return. Testing is an active decision,
with a text, with the
that will entice us to test it in the reactive has already become active
think the eternal return of nihilism, it negates everything therewith And
also negates
reactive
as this self-destruction
forces:
nihilism
that comes with it, and
destroys
its own foundation.
is active, this is the only event in which reactive
before it can undergo the test: Hence, active and reactive forces have to coexist
forc~s can become active and not vice versa. This is the heart of Dionysian
within a body, and we have to be able to emphasise
losophy,
return
will affirm
our engagement,
and every
the active ones. The eternal moment
of engagement,
our
BwO's will change, as every moment of change, of being affected, is our BwO's moment of production.
the eternal joy of becoming,
stroying:
'Active
negation
that joy which includes
or active destruction
which destroy the reactive in themselves, return and submitting decline.'
themselves
phi-
even joy in de-
is the state of strong spirits
submitting
it to the test of the eternal
to this test even if it entails willing their own
57
Again: can we enter the reverse side? And if we could, how would we voice a politicality,
the call to affirm the molecular,
There would not be the language
nor the necessity
anymore if we were merely determined established
a language
such as presented
in this thesis?
to do so. We would not act
by forces and the will to power and had
to portray this becoming.
(Do we still have to talk in a
world where we merely affirm and do not have to engage in arguments?). their issuing of imperatives - Deleuze/Guattari
In
- 'Make things do things! The tonal has to be kept!'
keep us in our own grammatical
world and deterritorialise
carefully. We cannot think a world beyond identity yet, and hence, a Foucaultian pragmatics
cannot
Deleuze/Guattari of identities:
be abolished.
It is in their
aim to draw the silhouette
It is in the promotion
an Other to fixed and gendered lines of t1ights towards
of becomings
of concepts identities
'the reverse
attempts
at description
yet? - think, but which we should at least attempt testing our ability to do so: what becomings
do I perceive
for in order to describe
a political
ceptance
and popularity,
mensch, his aesthetic in becoming-reactive,
a philosophy
listener, is not a 'truth',
ef-
perceive becomings described.
invest:
he is a political
active forces are turned against
reactive,
in self-destruction
thought,
reactive
through
choice.
denied
system of
Further,
has
is always first, and this affirmation
is
as Claire
to
Colebrook
in reference
would argue, to pose yes after no would
relation:
In the beginning, becoming.
thought confronts chaos ... Thought is a hetero-genesis
In its confrontation
that concepts
with chaos thought creates concepts
are the effect of active thought,
thought ought to proceed.
A reactive philosophy
or - so
and not laws by which misrecognises
this rela-
tionship.'" Active thought has to remain becoming,
by the eter-
active, but one has to consistently
reactivate
thought's
concepts
and view con-
cepts in terms of its effects. 'One can't simply identify or find active philosophy;
finds greater acNietzsche's
Uber-
active must be a continual
own decision and the arguments Deleuzean
affirmation
and become
and led to nothingness.
If we
57
challenge.'
of my decision,
Therefore,
Ibid. p. 70.
'" Deleuze und Feminist Theory, p. 8.
I cannot rest on my
but must consistently
in order to see what it can do.
utopia. Whereas,
themselves
has to be tested repeatedly
nal return. One cannot merely oppose reactive thought with the concept of the
the eternal return as ethical and selective
forces are themselves
affirmation
What is Philosophy?
mistake the cause-effect
by recurringly
that I need to find a
of difference,
we will have to actively
and ethical
Deleuze/Guattari's
becoming of the molecular,
to the selection
in a text? Is it a reac-
fort: we are not in the reverse side, we do not automatically
Until a language
for a
that
its very own BwO? This testing demands
unless an affect reaches us: if a BwO has been effectively
there exists the possibility
become active unless they are submitted
to precede a becoming-active:
aim to reveal
to describe,
clear that although
of active forces, reactive forces can never and under no cir-
the eternal return which only an active mind can operate. Hence, affirmation
in which we cannot -
tive, molar concept I have adapted, or an Other, a molecule, language
cumstances
that can describe
that Deleuze/Guattari
makes absolutely
becoming-reactive
that lie in the shadows
and a language
side', the machinic
Deleuze
practice
It is here we see once more the link between challenge
of fixed concepts,
ing-woman,
of wolman's
Deleuzeanism
'identity',
activating
tion of the concept
of wolman.
called into question'
writes Gallop, but we have, through Deleuzean
lysis, erased the notion of identity, must be protected
at any cost!',
must be assumed
and inserted
becomings
but we can venture
schizoana-
instead.
'The tonal
further than the Oedipal
describe: if we get lost, we know where to return to.
Regarding
the question of the 'truth' of Deleuzean
philosophy,
in itself is anti-Deleuzean,
the reactiva-
and immediately
boundaries
out that the question
The
can be effected by becom-
which means nothing else than consistently 'Identity
and feminism.
Colebrook
points
as it looks for a true meaning
instead of creating or reading the effect. Further, it would 'suggest that the value and force of concepts themselves
could be determined
in advance
were good or evil, safe or risk-laden''".
question Colebrook
in
Quite the opposite
is the
wants us to ask. Instead of asking how a philosophy
of be-
coming can be communicated
to dialectical
thinkers,
put into practice. If it can, the concept of theoretical vated, too, and this has already begun in feminist example).
- as though concepts
As, if thought was not directed
she ask whether it can be work will have to be reacti-
writing (this thesis being one
towards
an image of 'good'
thinking
but aimed to think differently, then feminism
might less be a task of emancipation,
lenge of differentiation. modes of becoming ing towards
This might provide
- not as the becoming
others,
a becoming
and more the chal-
the way of thinking
new
of some subject, but a becom-
towards
difference,
and a becoming
through new questions:" Deleuzean
feminism
by skimming
is a philosophy
of becoming
the active from the reactive.
Having tested psychoanalytic
nism in the eternal return and having negated feminism. This actively reactivates
by making things do things,
it, I turn towards
the concept of woman by showing what texts
can do beyond the reactive law that maps the seen, the read, the perceived mediately
'" Ibid, p. 12. fill Ibid.
onto Oedipal
territory.
femi-
a Deleuzean
This practice
is an ethical choice,
im-
taken ac-
cording to a certain political action and conviction becomings.
that believes in n-l gendered
her conclusion
that any theory of women's
liberation beyond equality, then, 'had
to abandon the belief that nature was immutable Deleuze/Guattari's
'schizoanalysis'
ics or nomadology
- is a way to challenge
that restrain feminists
- alternatively
called rhizomatics,
pragmat-
exactly those psychoanalytic
concepts
within a discourse
that inevitably
can serve a feminist
Deleuzean
feminists
between,
and will introduce
and their applications
pose. The three examples been described
politics,
of an on-going be-
of Deleuzean
themes
present
or anti-feminist
within the Symbolic itself. These Deleuzean
for this pur-
texts that have
can be recoded as something
agency and a re-coding
of the Symbolic
readings represent
nism in practice by aiming at making becoming
Deleuzean
Olkowski senting
some contemporary
I will focus on all show that cultural
as 'masculinist'
and therefore,
tion for their oppression;
they are seen as its root, even its cause'62.
infrom
femi-
argues that a ruin of representation individual's
Deleuze's change:
demands
conception
To Olkowski,
orientation
becomes
metaphysics
is that, with a conception problematic.
common critique posed from a feminist one of the few feminists feminist
project.
Dorothea
Olkowski
of the subject as
acknowledge Gallop's
If drives, instincts,
sexualities
groups be defined?
This is a
of a BwO as beneficial
shares her viewpoint
incestuous
the stuttering
call that identity
seemed problematic
origin
anymore-identity,
angle. Liz Grosz, on the other hand, is
who defend the concept
can create an ontology
of
that sweeps away the
of being and identity and their representation,
and conceptually
if we follow
so as to practically
practice of an ontology of becom-
ing"3, Identity, we explained in chapter two, follows a dialectic based on the fear
visible.
how should oppressed
'rights',
of a shift from a logic of identity to a logic of difference.
lytic terms that installed a constitutive
lose their predetermination,
for their
'the task will be to create an image of difference
called into question
BwO, political
can be enacted while still repre-
and fighting
only a change of logic and ontology
of catachresis.
A point of critique of schizoanalysis
women's
and rationaliza-
ties them to the past.
This section will show how the focus on and the description coming
and fixed, otherwise,
(and some men's) bodies are taken to be not just the justification
for a
and sums up this
that cannot
Becoming,
as a reactive force that can become
and not-
Defining anti production
active, as forces undergo
we can account for shifting imaginaries. of being contained
a not-yet
as every BwO is its own machine and can
only be analysed according to its very own functioning.
body instead
and immediately
lack, or as Deleuze and Guattari say, the
be overcoded.
is real difference,
against an Aristotelian
feminist attitude in Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation:
should be assumed
if identity was defined on psychoana-
Constantly
by one: Deleuze
interacting
constant change, forces make up a
poses the nomadic
unity of being as the ontological
nomos
base for difference.
This
nomos defines as real that which is without property, enclosure or measure . ...the BwO is an attempt to render more complex the character of the kinds of oppression opportunities groupings
these groups endure while simultaneously for construction
offering
greater
of an escape route. Race, sex, class - these
are too fixed, too stable to give way to reform and rethinking.
is only by first breaking
It
up each of these molar unities into a thousand
tiny races, sexes, or classes that we can begin to undermine and regroup ourselves on a pragmatic
their authority
With a notion of the nomadic nomos, focusing on a becoming-Other ing molar identities, fectively
why Deleuze
and feminism
Returning
to our argument that feminism
social position
defined women so narrowly
that change appeared
impossible,
as an op-
I follow Olkowski
and oppos-
logic can be challenged
Claire Colebrook
are so well matched.
more ef-
makes it quite clear
In the introduction
to her
Deleuze and Feminist Theory, she remarks that feminism has always had an odd to its Other: combating
'been obliged to use the master's
pressed
patriarchal
than through ecriture feminine.
relationship
level.'!
the monolithic
the male canon on the one hand, they had
tool to destroy his house' and therefore,
nism 'never has been the pure and innocent
in 62
Ibid, p. 7.
63
Ibid, p. 14, my italics.
femi-
other of a guilty and evil patriar-
chy'64. So while women on the one hand need to address the Other, this cannot
The feminist response"' came up with the following
be done solely in the same (philosophical)
ing, that obviously
language
but should open up new
forms of being in order to find an adequate way to theorise difference cease to pose one monolithic
'truth'
has had exactly this aim, but, I argued, they used a language patriarchy.
By becoming
scend binary oppositions
so that we
against the other. Psychoanalytic
feminism
'given'
to them by
moves through
woman
questions:
why does becom-
into an atomic non-genderedness,
have to move through woman at all? And did not feminists have to be suspicious of women dissappearing has dissappeared
altogether?
Deleuze/Guattari
acknowledge
that woman
already under the Oedipal regime, which their work condemns:
molecular beyond the molar notion of woman, we tranaltogether.
The girl's becoming
is stolen first, in order to impose a history, or prehis-
tory upon her. The boy's turn comes next, but it is by using the girl as an We have to articulate resent the molecular language,
beyond the genus of identity, we have to rep-
beyond the molar. Deleuze suggests
being, living could be achieved
becoming-woman, pass through. women's
singularities
by a general becoming-woman,
though, being a becoming
The female subject
movement,
should
example, by pointing to the girl as the object of his desire, that an opposed
that this new form of
every gender should attempt and
not act as a ground
organism,
a dominant history is fabricated
or limit to the
as the latter should move through molar politics to the mo-
This is why 'woman as a molar entity must become-woman, becomes-
or can become-woman',
lecular''', beyond the binary. The molar entitiy was woman with her 'sexual and
ject. Becoming-woman into if7l'.
whereas a molecular
becoming-
exactly
lysis being the attempt to locate oneself within a body in order to dis-organise
Virginia Woolf. Woolf's
that body, it made sense how Deleuzean
changing
thought and methodology
could be ap-
plied to feminism: Because
this entity or even transforming
is becoming-multiple
would this look like? Deleuze/Guattari
becoming
becomings,
ground of reason and good
must begin with his opposite,
coming must then go beyond binary opposition
'woman'.
The only way to get outside
But this be-
tween, the intermezzo
and pass through to other
technique
the dualisms
events, atoms and particles"'.
and Feminist whole
Theory, summarises
organisms,
molecular
register
intensities,
in a radically
considers
(De leuze and Feminist Ibid, p. 41.
p. 4. the difference
subjects,
forms
non-subjective
material
being
'micropolitics',
Theory, p. 41.)
between
molar and molecular:
and their interaction,
including
on the level of chemical
The molar is transcendent,
' ... the molar register
social
action;
and physical the molecular
while
defined
reactions, immanent.'
OK
The girl is like the term,
a woman; it is
that produces the universal girl." do not assume that there
was stolen, but that the 'invention'
her, and that hence, the universal
see 'Can a Feminist
Read Deleuze
resentatioN. "" Thousund 70
Ibid, p. 2.
to pass be-
girl is not necessarily
of woman female.
'A
the
(,6 67
an ever-
to each opposable
man, woman, child, adult. It is not the girl who becomes
was a girl before her becoming '" Jerry Aline Flieger
to
- that is what Virginia Woolf lived with all her en-
And, as argued earlier, I believe that Deleuze/Guattari
concerns
produced
is to be-between,
block of becoming that remains contemporaneous becoming-woman
De/euze
what
which is scen as the effect of a now of
ergies, in all of her work, never ceasing to become.
so that man and woman can be seen as events within a field of
singularities,
M
oneself
and molecular,
make this clear by refering
stream-of-consciousness
notion of female identity,
as
and assigned as a sub-
speech:
man has been taken as the universal
thinking,
is not imitating
If, then, becoming-woman
woman did not resemble the woman as clearly distinct molar entity. Schizoana-
so that the man also
and by molar entity they mean 'woman
defined by her form, endowed with organs and functions
reproductive
roles marked out by patriarchy''''',
for him, too.""
this
Plateaus,
Ibid, p. 275.
" Ibid, p. 277.
p. 276.
and GuattariO'
in Olkowski's
Gilles De/cuze
and the Ruin o/Rep-
Deleuzean
reading looks at what a philosophical
molar woman to molecular
becoming-woman
text creates''';
corresponds
the move from
to the search for what
a text can do, rather than what it is or means: what gender identity it represents. Feminists
might especially
feel threatened
texts as non-ideological 'masculinist'
by this approach
matter leads Deleuze
traditionally
of
defined
tcxts such as written by Henry Miller and draw multiplicitics
of his texts that do not address his 'sexism'. methodology
in a discussion
Dorothea
'phallic'
A Deleuzean
method-
'masculine',
'monolithic'
can, if schizoanalysed,
that feature opposing
elements.
Irigaray's
anger against her phallic forefathers
ceptions of women as fluid and men as reasoning, to deconstruct,
allowing
and
be seen to rep-
As discussed
tion, although this takes the power out of feminist discourse, helplessness.
retelling of
by taking the power out of the bi-
nary. That which has been termed to represent identities by feminist discourse,
this
by Michel
- to deconstruct
reason and linearity instead of aiding in its construction.
resent becomings
defends
eyes, Tournier's
Crusoe can be used - schizoanalysed
ology, then, allows us to reverse domination
out
use of this text that is concerned
with men and male bodies only. Yet, in Deleuze's Defoe's Robinson
Olkowski
of Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique
Tournier. Alice Jardine had criticised Deleuze's
'phallic'
as this perception
to discuss
Tournier's
and the multiplicities
Robinson
of narratives
except as pathologies'74.
was not such a unified self; the narrative
did not even pose questions
that tried to assess Robinson's
surrounding 'being',
him
but rather,
his becoming. Deleuze read Tournier in order to understand
his notion of 'Otherness'
the loss of others entails. The problem of isolation Defoe's
Robinson
Crusoe. Moreover,
ual, but reproducing
an economic
Defoe's
and what
was poorly posed in Daniel
Robinson
was presented
as asex-
world similar to our own, whereas it would
have been more likely that an asexual being might create one deviant to ours if we follow Deleuze/Guattari's are linked. In Tournier
argument
not Robinson's
isolation is re-posed as a question take Robinson?
that capitalism
and Oedipal
sexuality
origins - his being - are questioned,
of ends and becoming:
but
'where does isolation
what are the effects of the absence of Others? what is an Other?
and what does it mean for the Other to be absent?'"
in the introduc-
it also erases their in chapter one, con-
are binaries Deleuze helps us
us to find a path towards difference
tation of personality
beyond binary and
Deleuze argues that philosophy reducing
had misconstrued
the problem of the Other by
it to an object or subject. Before the encounter
no subject, and with the disappearance Deleuze's
Bergsonism
is important),
of an Other, there was
of the Other, after time (and it is here
there is no subject but an entity expressing
the collapse of the Other: the collapse of the subject and of time. Deleuze elabo-
molar categories.
rates in his Logic of Sense that if one perceived the reality of what the Other was Olkowski's
defence
Deleuzean
of Deleuze's
interrogation
ages." According
discussion
of representation's
to Olkowski,
of Tournier
is embedded
power to establish
Alice Jardine's
phenomenological
supposition
'meaningful'
reading of Tournier's
as well as her treatment of Deleuze and Guattari' s philosophy,
in a im-
narrative,
participates
that 'the subject of the narrative constructs
in the a self,
which then carries out various actions and projects ... such an assumption not question the' 'ideal" 71
does
of the unified self, nor can it account for the fragmen-
Deleuze and Feminist Theory, p. 3.
" Olkowski analytic
looks towards
cliches,
other citations
components
drawn
from an apparently
ries or forms of expression only ruins the hierarchical represented
Mary Kelly as an artist, who transforms
though
from the world 'coherent'
as opposed
context)
of a woman-theorist-artist, 'by resituating
naturalist
schemas.'
p. 7.)
images,
shows the 'creative
possible
the Other as one developed
world. The expressed
possible
while expressing
it. And that which expresses
and realised the
world certainly
by the collapse possibility,
of the structure
of "Otherness,"
it, Robinson,
emphasises
perceptual
field is that the structure-Other
Ibid, p. 36.
" Ibid, p. 37. 76
Ibid.
the
is not a
determined
and thus the collapse
of any
including his own. '7(,
Olkowski
74
existed,
it, actualising
character in Tournier, not a unified self as subject, but 'is completely
or
that will not be
possible
but it did not actually exist outside of that which expressed
se-
force of difference'.
one merely explicated
corresponding
This way she not
but creates 'a memory of something
in images' and therefore,
(Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin o('Representation,
(be they psycho-
them in non-representational
to fixed social and psychological
order of representation,
it is produced
forms of content
expressing,
that the 'impact of Deleuze's
structuralist
reading of the
and not the ego is what organizes the
could not be converted. formation
duction everywhere, capitalist
It is dependent
of antiproduction.
constantly
autoproductive
the exact relationship
on a consumer
Capitalism
society with a similar
needs to find ways of injecting
antipro-
creating needs and wants. The only limit to this
antiproduction-mode
between capitalism
is schizophrenia.
What then, is
danger the system as such". Similarly,
of labour have to be kept in check to the same extent: we have to keep desiring what we lack, as 'having' has to be constantly
and 'not having'
There is a constant decoding by discovering
tative labor as the principle of every representable siring-economy
by discovering
quantitative
quanti-
value, Freud founds de-
libido
as the principle
of
of the objects and aims of desire.2I1
coded in contingency
of flows in capitalism:
with inflationary
of desiring-production
tations rather than being subordinated tion of capitalism, ity of production
dominate
in general, psy-
all possible represen-
to them. This is comparable
to the defini-
through David Ricardo and Adam Smith, as, again, the activin general, which leads to the same dilemma
one: 'So that capitalism
is without doubt the universal
as the Oedipal
of every society, but only
flows are decoded and re-
streams, fashions and demands. Yet, all
selves are fuelled by, and again fuel desiring-production. means
Being defined by Freud and Lacan as the activity of production theorisations
and lack
these flows never leave the power of capital as such; just as the flows themof representation
and coding,
women have long hair. Feminists choanalytic
are the basis of capitalism,
created. The cat chases its tail.
and schizophrenia?
Just as Ricardo founds political or social economy
every representation
desires that would lead to re-definitions
their hair off were termed tionary:
that rebelled
'butch',
from being restricted
Hair, for example, as a
has many forms.
unattractive,
to the minority,
Feminine,
'male'.
Until it became infla-
it was overcoded
grated into popular culture, taking the force out of its resistance. O'Connor
shaved her head, and combined
attractive
against such a coding and cut by and inte-
So when Sinead
her look with a buddhist image, she
started a fashion trend that made women desire what she had. Sex, glamour and beauty were now associated with an elegant, shaven head.
insofar as it is capable of carrying to a certain point its own critique - that is, the critique of the processes
by which it re-enslaves
self or to appear freely.'
Unions, created by capitalism,
resistance
to their founding
structure.
Similarly,
sire onto the family, Freud encages the monsters 'In place of the great decoded Interiority
what within it tends to free itcannot really constitute
by recoding
t1ows, little streams recoded
in place of a new relationship
every form of de-
- the pathologies
with the outside.
- he created:
in mommy's
bed.
These decoded flows, then, are never an overcoding that can stretch out to overcode any threatening ture, based on creating needs by presenting
in general, and both
only to be put in chains all over again. 'Private property'
form of its means of production
define labour as the 'property'
appearing
unaffected
as an abstract
and content
of private
within capitalism.
entitity property.
Capital
by State regulations and labour
and the
of the worker, on substance
are 'objective'
concepts
Forms of property and labour that would exceed these defini-
tions - decoded quantities
of production
the deviant
money out of it. In capitalism,
you redirect f10ws by adding an axiom, not by
2" Ibid,
p. 299.
Ibid, p. 270.
representation,
that are not reterritorialiscd
- would en-
is infinite reproduction:
and we end with money. A first example the origin of the proletariat:
and make
we begin with money
of schizoanalysis
When, in the nineteenth
would be to detect
century, a flow of workers
were heading towards a direction that seemed non-definable
and frightening,
the
French historical school came up with a term for these workers: the proletariat, class. They hence establish classes as an essential fragment, ism, founding
its legitimacy:
bourgeoisie
vs aristocracy.
ready to invent one more axiom to restore its functioning; axiom: proletariat,
21
through
as idols, molar notions we
strive for, can easily integrate
M[oney]-C[ommodity]-M[oney] are discovered
identities
popular cul-
recoding. No code, though, can re-code money. Within the capitalist framework,
'21
Desire and labour both appear as the activity of production
but remain within a system
deterritorialisation:
22
see Antonio
of production
the axiom: union power. Capitalism
Negri and Felix Guattari's
an axiom of capitalCapitalism
is always
hence it creates the
is an axiomatic machine,
Communists Like Us, where they argue for alternative
and labour to be acknowledged
and accredited.
a
forms
constructing
the capitalist
machine
flows of labour and property, oms.
at the same time as incorporating
namely, by turning these decoded
decoded
flows into axi-
lesbian will never be an actual man, but always a 'converted'
described in chapter two, drag keeps the game with the phallus intact. Similarly, in the Oedipal complex, never the father's;
If there is a triangle mother-father-Oedipus, reasoning,
the same is applicable
the capitalist
that was created by psychoanalytic
for capital-labour-resources.
and rational sounds, or, in our case, gender binarism hermaphrodites.
Deleuze/Guattari
side of economic
production
in capitalism,
psychic formation. is hence
Therefore,
is not dependent
is dependent
Its structure is mere simulation:
the mother for resources
the family remains
as capitalism
capitalism
breeds
creates irrational out-
on the
on the family as a
the father stands for capital,
and the child for labour force. The 'naturalness'
re-emphasised
by the 'naturalness'
of gender
of
binarism.
in order to keep up this social form, the family has to be controlled
by other means than economic productive representation
of Oedipus:
them everywhere,
relations.
'Daddy-mommy-me
since everything
the subject is eternally capitalism,
the son will never be his mother's
lack is essential, lacking.
The same holds for desiring-structures
which depend on the creation of needs: the fulfillment
to be constantly
postponed,
repeating
millenium perspective,
This is achieved through the
- one is sure to re-encounter
Deleuze/Guattari's
dependence
chine is metaphorical. an economic
on 'incest'
culture,
on the family as a psychic structure from a
there seem to be problems in their presentation.
which is increasingly
becoming
Europe, is starting to fit into capitalism ism is not dependent production,
in
from an economic
perspective
of
on an Oedipal struc-
in the nuclear family. Now, if we criticise Deleuze/Guattari's
marxism from a 'queer'
be accounted
marketing
very well. This proves that yes, capital-
on the family anymore
but it might refute the idea that it is dependent
ture as represented reversed
a target of mainstream
Gay club
angle, how can the acceptance
of gay culture
at the foundation
workings
of the capitalist ma-
Incest, in a society deriving from a history of exogamy as
base, is the limit to society. It stands for an event of fusion and
melting that would confuse identity formations
and subjectivities
of a certain society are based. If Deleuze/Guattari
coding of signifiers despot as incestuous,
as an incestuous
Relations that have transcended
on which the
describe the over-
act, and the investment
they are describing
of desire into the
a fusion that transcends
incest is desired because it is prohibited integrated
has been applied to them .. .'"'
dependence
within
of desire has
Oedipal desiring-structures.
these limits -
in order for a certain society to exist.
a tabooisation
into our society as an established
not - or are not allowed to - transgress, Looking at their theory's
lover, the daughter
desire cannot be fulfilled unless in fantasy,
creates male, female and
argue that although
social form of the family anymore,
capitalism
Capitalism
worker, like money creates money, like language
woman. And, as
of homosexuality
and are already
culture, have other limits they can-
as they are still embedded
ciety with its laws built on our own structural linguistics
within our so-
which is based on and
supports gender binarism. Examples
of these limits are a fear of feminisation
butch gays and their consequential
fetishisation
perfectly described
by Deleuze/Guattari,
ties (he-she, right-wrong
etc) opposing
of femininity.
in
Our society, as
is made up of binaries as fixed identia shizophrenic
transvestive
identities, like those that are to be acquired through the successful Oedipus complex, can never be completely
and satisfactorily
nature. Fixed solution of the
attained, and leave
the subject eternally lacking.
to fit into their overall system? Hence, it is not only those identities
Even in a 'glam gay' culture,
the desiring-structure
of Oedipus
sense that one never obtains what one desires - this Lacanian as shown in chapter two, describes
lack is what Butler,
as a state of melancholia'4.
drag queen will never actually be as 'woman'
holds in the
In this sense, a
as Gloria Gaynor or Bette Davis, a
tainable. cestously'
Capitalism
of identites
as despotic
idols we 'in-
- with a desire to unite - invest our desires in. 'Tank Girl' is certainly
not an 'identity' 'heroine',
posed in the Oedipal set-up that are unat-
poses a multitude
found in the traditional
created through representation,
Oedipal set-up, and yet, she is a fixed whose features and characteristics
are
hard to equal - strong, slim, tough, brave, and still sexy. A lot of heavy weight 23
Anti-Oedipus,
24see
also Butler's
training and dieting would lead to the desired result, but doing both simultane-
p. 265. discussion
of Paris Is Burning
in her Bodies
That Matter.
ously is a regime that can only be stuck to with heroic discipline
(or eating dis-
orders), and it is therefore world of animation
no wonder that Tank Girl is a cartoon character.
and cyberspace,
capitalism
breeds more identities
from than those inherent in the nuclear, traditional
In a
to choose
family, but these new identi-
A critique of capitalism,
then, has to follow the route of schizoanalysis
than through resisting from within: basically, it is machine-analysis power, it is n-l identities versus a feminism based on 'woman'
ties are no less difficult to attain. It could also be argued that a teenage girl want-
organs or her enunciation.
ing to be Lara Croft or Tank Girl, or a drag queen wanting to be Bette Davis,
genealogical
thus stays within the Oedipal set-up as both 'identities'
look for the machine
by 'real'
men. Women
wanting
are stereotypes
desired
to 'be' young and androgynous-yet-sexy
like
Again, we here find a link to Foucault who proposes a
schizophrenic
underlying
capitalism
process. The unconscious
the
is not seen as a theatre anymore,
but
working
like a factory. Desire is an assemblage
scendent
terms. There is a 'real' for Deleuze
she bumps into a wall or dies" to feel protective ing to be Bette Davis or any other 'real' Clark Gable, are dreaming
Lara Croft squeeks every time of her. Homosexual
woman,
of a glamourous
men want-
asking to be 'courted'
by a
world in which 'real' men will take
responsibility. A world in which, after all, the phallus is a penis and will be lacking to any woman. Capitalist
desiring-production
supports
main the (m)other:'quantitative production
labour'
based on reproduction
Similarly,
desires
reactive machine can undergo change and become-active,
a mode of
of women to generate
la-
as natural. A deterritorialisation
with the (m)other
would threaten this system.
the limits that constitute produces
the despots
and criticism,
the schizo to vaguely
a Loyer Moyen,
if it is true
constantly,
i.e.
money, the whole
artificial territorialities
in or-
record them: they invent anything: i.e.: government-controlled
home, and there is familial reterritorialization, social cell ... 26
26
computer
game Tomb Raider I-IV.
www.imaginet.fr/deleuzerrXTIENG/16117l.html.
p.?
to desire according
to dif-
desires that are not based on the exchange of the phallus, that are not focused on obtaining
a fixed identity.
We can make them visible by representing
becom-
ing." is machine-analysis:
housing],
the family, it is after all the
we create or liberate
new identities
- or
- by creating them. We create them by skimming the molecu-
lar from the molar, by seeing what subjects can do beyond their representation within a reactive system. We have to actively reveal their very own machine underneath the already coded. By revealing dertakes,
its own active self-production,
tion according
to a predetermined
the on-going change this machine unwe can prove that desire does not func-
lack that it aims to fill. If this can be shown,
Oedipus will cease to reign, and capitalism molar representations
" A question " see Eidos' animated
to invest in new becomings,
in cultural
that are stuck on
the schizo as
and capitalism:
like it produces
their existence
ferent structures. To return to the mourning drag queen of chapter two: there are
Schizoanalysis
are deterritorialized
capitalist project [... ] consists in reinventing HLM [Habitation
with active forces and persuaded
Oedipal desiring-mode
from and reiterates
again.
every BwO is made up of forces that are either reactive or active, and reactive
derives
flows are decoded,
people,
become-Other
can entice BwO's
and the exchange
as
matter but only forces. Hence,
production
... we clearly see the relation of psychoanalysis
der to reinscribe
that constitute
forces can always become active if confronted
rather, becomings
produces
the unconscious
a view of gender in which women re-
would endanger their power to order society. Capitalism the 'outside':
that capitalism
and Guattari:
by tran-
mode is called reactive, but even a
exist and are represented
that would disrespect
that in capitalism,
that is not organised
to engage with them. If active becomings
bour force, and hence, defines gender binarism of women from the identification
machine. A machine stuck in antiproductive For Deleuze, there are no 'atoms'
will
as much as that underlying
Lara Croft or Tank Girl are still asking to be loved - even if they have guns. One I'
as defined by her
inquiry rather than a 'fighting for one's rights'. Schizoanalysis
just has to listen to the cute and helpless
'ouch
rather
versus union
classified
we want to follow.
that will not be discussed
as representation,
will be robbed of its driving force:
here is whether
the presentation
of becoming
which is related to being. See, among others, Dorothea
Delcuze and the Ruin (~rRepresentati(}n.
should
still be
Olkowski's
Gilles
What can be drawn from Anti-Oedipus,
then, is a theorisation
does not negate feminist insights on patriarchal from a contingent
theorisation
of a psychological
count for change. Deleuze/Guattari
of capitalism
domination,
but releases
unconscious
agree with Lacan's
that these
that cannot ac-
psychoanalytic
explana-
Deleuze's
notion of desire serves as foundation
as the basis of desire, duration, can be described
tions of culture, even praise his insight. Lacan writes on how Oedipus is struc-
processes
turally inscribed
past', the 'stubborn
with analysing structure's
into our culture
through
language,
the psyche within this structure
dominance.
but his work is occupied
only, therewith
This is like 'the story of the resistance
wanting to destroy a pylon, balanced
sire can only happen by writing about it, practising formations.
ceive the Oedipal structuring
who,
the liberation
of de-
other forms of desire outside
They transcend
psychoanalysis
of our society as a cancerous
the basis of something that has to be rescued, liberated, by being explained,
fighters
this
the plastic charges so well that the pylon
blew up and fell back into its hole.'}g For Deleuze/Guattari, of these antiproductive
reiterating
growth, developed
the patient from his problems,
re-installs
supports a cancerous
on
and can only be liberated
talked about and lived. Psychoanalysis,
therefore, to Deleuze/Guattari,
as they per-
aiming at 'freeing'
a healthy subject within capitalism
and
structure.
- forces affecting
of psychoanalysis
attachments'
oppose
other senses and values from elsewhere
change: we are constantly
sire, of the production picture, this discovery
of the unconscious.
But once Oedipus entered the
was soon buried beneath a new brand of idealism: a
classical
theatre was substituted
sentation
was substituted
and an unconscious
of de-
for the unconscious
for the units of production
and will effect unpredictable
In contrast to a psychoanalytic
dogma that
binds us to the tyranny of the past, an active and acting philosophy
allows for a
becoming
becoming.
The senses and
by our own duration, will
that is open to ongoing
This Deleuzean
conception
re-activation
made visible. It does not follow a Hegelian of 'making things do things', levelled
against
feminism
the psychoanalytic
feminism
affirmations.
Deleuze
of determinism
of 'doing'
of difference
in order to perceive
and becoming
a philosophy
vs identity and being
of the molecular.
will itself have to constantly
describes
I
A Deleuzean
in a language based on identity and con-
if we want to articulate
guage that can articulate becoming
but has to be
but a political motivation
under discussion.
it is a philosophy
that cannot be articulated
deterritorialised.
dialectic,
and thus escapes the accusation
has to be practiced,
is fundamental
and unforeseen
of change does not follow a teleology,
a schizoanalytic
practice
A lan-
be re-activated, based on testing
as a factory; repre-
one's own affirmation
of the unconscious;
how different durations affect each other, this section aims to argue that becom-
that was capable of nothing but expressing
myth, tragedy, dreams - was substituted
to changing material
to one's own subjectivation.
values which are given to us by our own conditioning,
the becoming
was that of the production
according
each other - and hence escapes the 'tyranny of the
science. To create a language The great discovery
from which to theorise change,
for the productive
itself - in
unconscious.29
ing-Other
constantly
by undergoing happens,
the eternal return. By looking at exactly
but has be articulated
and repeatedly
in order become visible for us, and that it is a political
re-affirmed
choice to show 'what
things can do' instead of what they are according to molar concepts they fit into. This productive
unconscious
could be the base of our own culture, and hence,
has to be freed in order to refute lack, in order to 'free' alternative alternative
becomings.
genders,
or
Deleuze does not say we are: we are not; we are constantly forces interact within us, make up our body, and determine production
and affirmation
conscience,
on and description
'" Anti-Oedipus, p. 268. 29
Ibid, p. 24.
identity, conscience,
in order to end hoping that - by
being - we find n-l ways to articulate
ference, which is the reverse side of the Symbolic. dialectic and affirmative
can-
but action can. He can hence call of becoming-Other
the reign of Oedipus, and suggest we 'make things do things', shizoanalysing
Different
the amount of anti-
within us at any given moment. This becoming
not be spoken in our grammatical for an active concentration
becoming.
dif-
In this reverse side, an anti-
will to power creates constant change.
have to actively oppose Oedipal or any other forms of antiproduction programme
of experimentation
This programme A BwO is a practice; the moment you desire according tion of desire, you create your own BwO. Deleuzean ess of production
ogy of passion remote from the psychoanalytic by concentrating
defini-
desire is defined as a proc-
that does not follow a predetermined
passion dissolves the binary opposition and objective,
to the Deleuzean structure,
it is an ontol-
notion of lack. This ontology of
in order to liberate the productive
must focus on the machinic they detect behind that which has
been coded by psychoanalysis: from breathing,
the eye has to be released from vision, the lungs
in order to see what else they could do. Doubtless,
sis demonstrated
that desire was not subordinated
and this was its modernism.
on an on-going becoming.
anny of the past, can focus on an in-between
or genitality,
But
it retained the essentials;
This focus on becom-
subjectification desiring-machines,
diculous death-instinct
that
else, is after pleasure
tion aims to portray to us, or aims to make us see in a text. But how can we be-
phantasied
humiliations
come BwO, or, for our purpose
is inaccurate;
subjects
that mainstream
here, how can we describe
BwO's
representain order to
of masochism:
when the ri-
but can only get it through
pain and
whose function is to ward off deep anxiety. This
the masochist's
suffering
is the price he must pay, not to
achieve pleasure, but to untie the pseudobond
visible, perceivable?
in desire
and the transcen-
is not invoked, it is claimed that the masochist, like
everybody
psychoanalytic
rule of pleasure,
dent ideal of phantasy. Take the interpretation
Hence, it
BwO's,
it even found new ways of inscribing
the negative law of lack, the external
through a tyr-
beyond gender binarism.
serves as the basis from which to schizoanalyse
make becomings
psychoanaly-
to procreation
between mental and material, subjective
ing beyond the notion of a lack that predetermines
exist behind the gendered
through a
unconscious.
between desire and pleasure
as an extrinsic measure ... The masochist uses suffering as a way of constiA BwO's
is a mass of yet unstructured
merely a mechanical the accumulation
For example,
visual impressions
then, in Anti-Oedipus,
with your mouth ...
'311,
vision, perception, becoming?
reality. But how is this recoding
This programme description
be released? Similarly,
How do we see the molecular
a programme,
which Deleuze/Guattari
achieved?
procedure
suitable for them."
recoding
as
of life,
How can the pro-
of experimentation'. as it does to the
in cultural texts: we have to make things do things.
The masochist
32
desires because s/he affirms his own desiring-machine
of using sexuality for reproductive negative,
instead of defining
responsibility. situation
purposes,
violence
as desired: both present
forms of desire. Again, criticising
as injust, s/he emphasises
a self-responsible
Deleuze and Guattari clearly suggest a co-existcnce
of the acting subject and the
On the one hand they argue that we are constantly
that to 'trace back from images to the structure
ing, which 'just happens':
only schizoanalysis
Instead
if
decision
as and
a master defining his
investigation
literary interpretation,
and would not rescue us from representation,
•
instead of defining submission
A slave defining his situation as desirable,
verse side that is like the real production BwO who becomes.
of and
with your lungs,
beyond the molar? Through following call the 'program
than masochism,
certainly better ones, is beside the point; it is enough that some find this
'real-
it can be asked: how do we perceive
applies equally to one's own active becoming
of characters
becomes
they are not talking about self-destruction
in literally blinding oneself, they are talking about are-naming, ductive unconscious
desire. That there are other ways, other procedures
cry: 'Is it really so sad and
to be fed up with seeing with your eyes, breathing
swallowing
tuting a body without organs and bringing forth a plane of consistency
an eye is
onto a membrane,
of which, later, through cultural interpretation,
ity'. When Deleuze/Guattari, dangerous
potentialities.
object that projects
of limits and
Deleuze/Guattari
argue
would have little significance the structure
did not have a re-
of desire.' This reverse side, of course,
can access, and is the
becom-
forces endure and affect each other. On the other, we
31
Ibid, p. 155.
32
Instead of describing
chist undergoes punished,
masochism
punishment
as the eroticisation
as a rite of passage
of oppression,
to find liberation
he kills off the man he does not want to be.
Deleuze
argues that the maso-
from Oedipalised
desire:
in being
western thought and on the social and political level women have been situated 'real inorganization' into indirect
of the molecular
syntheses
where everything
elements:
of interactions,
partial objects that enter
( ... ) pure positive
is possible, without exclusiveness
operating
without a plan, where the connections
junctions
included,
the conjunctions
polyvocal,
are transverse, indifferent
lying support, since this matter that serves them precisely ceives no specificity
from any structural
multiplicities
or negation, syntheses the dis-
to their underas a support re-
or personal unity, but appears as
as the personification
ment in the role of the "other". Des ire, 'in reality', proliferation
and expansion,
representations, cohesion
a body without a psychical
and latent significance.''''
tian genealogy
to apply schizoanalysis
a given type of BwO and what happens
which something
will necessarily
be produced
and analysis
on it: an apriori synthesis
will be is not known) and an infinite analysis by which what is produced working of desire, dependent
by
in a given mode (but what that
BwO is already part of the body's production'''. although
It is a pre-existent
on the
factory of the
on a certain relation of forces. As shown above,
this factory is apriori, we have to make it work and we have to con-
stantly reactivate
it. Or, in the case of cultural criticism:
ble by schizoanalysing
it. While this reverse
we have to make it visi-
side, then, exists, we have to ac-
not to transcendent
can only be referred back to the working of the body values
or external
points out that, if Deleuzean
seeks its own proliferation
rules
of pleasure.
and expansion,
of the real'
35.
by assembling
in their adaptation
of desire not as longing, but as enjoying
the creation
34 35
Anti-Oedipus, p. 309. Thousand Plateaus, p. 151, my italics. Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation, p. 56.
and
into prothen
in her book
of Nietzsche, of connections
tions. This is used by Grosz to remind feminist theorists
33
singularities
into singularities,
She refers to Grosz, highlighting
Volatile Bodies that Deleuze/Guattari,
Dorothea
'desire aims at nothing in particular
visional entities and breaking down so-called objectivities desire is productive
images,
or secret interior,
projections,
without internal
This we can actually do through a Foucaul-
of ethics to understand
cultural codings, but would then proceed
to reveal the machinic,
A 'promotion'
revealing
lines of flight that can
of Deleuzean
desire might not only be able to reveal th~ molecu-
lar within the molar, but it might affect our own desiring-production:
affIrmatIon
might substitute
longing. What would a world look like in which we merely af-
firm connection
and engagement,
and do not have to be told to do so? Can we
enter the reverse side? Deleuze/Guattari ism create
'schizophrenia'
(meaning
claim that psychoanalysis the psychiatric
symptom)
and capitalby naming the
outside. But this does not imply that the process of making oneself a BwO has the attainment
of the uncoded,
psychotic
mass, the mad(wo)man,
Making oneself a BwO means constantly analysis says: "Stop, find yourself
What the factory produces Olkowski
of fantasy,
deterritorialising,
ther still, we haven't ourselves.'
yet, we haven't
This is not calling for suffering, body'
affirms".
sufficiently
the 'paranoid,
would not be sad, but 'full of gaiety, ecstasy and dance', If
asked
whether
they
had
to an experimental
ever
seen
a
Deleuze/Guattari
would - in spite of Guattari working in a psychiatric
years _ certainly
answer they had not, as their envisaging
36 17
and limit is nol the kind of 'schizophrenia'
Volatile Bodies, p. l69. Thousand Plateaus, p. 150.
" Ibid.
as
program
schizophrenic,
conceive
programme
of that
schizo, drugged,
and rela-
that 'in the history of
go fur-
dIsmantled
but instead, for affirmation
long as these modes of being are chosen according that
recoding
'Where psycho-
again" we should instead say: 'Lefs
found our BwO's
which cannot remain coded. In this affirmation, masochist
as its goal.
constantly
the already coded. The 'BwO is a limit, it can't be reached'''.
tively describe it in order to promote its existence.
itself,
The cul-
take us into new realms of being, or rather, becoming.
33
The real of the BwO is exactly this: a special relation of synthesis 'between
though, sought only its own
and was aiming at nothing in particular.
install the BwO as that which is 'disinvested
the body without organs that fills the space each time an intensity fills it; signifying ...
by this place-
tural coding that makes us desire what we lack, has to be reversed, then, to re-
signs of desire that compose a signifying
chain but that are not themselves
of (male) lack and have been imprisoned
clinic for
of 'schizophrenia' (as pathologIcal
as
symp-
tom) the BwO builds in resistance tity, but is an ongoing becoming,
to desiring-machines.
A BwO is not an iden-
every moment of change is its moment of pro-
duction and hence, its limit is a multiplicity
that resembles
a Buddhist
nirvana.
That a BwO cannot be reached means it cannot he but must naturally continue to deterritorialise
and can only be described
alisation: its moment of production The accusation
interpretation
of glorifying
suffering
and madness
aims to decon-
stands against antipsychiatric
tion. The BwO is the field of immanence
yond the molar, and finding it, 'making things do things',
experimenta-
of desire, the plane of consistency
cific to desire, with desire defined as a process of production
spe-
without any exte-
self beyond
molar notions
' ... overdose is a danger. You don't do it with a sledgehammer,
use a very fine file. You invent self-destructions death-drive.''''
seen as keeping
BwO is 'nonstratified,
sity = 0; but there is nothing negative opposite intensities.'"
about that zero, there are no negative or
Every BwO is unique and can only be 'judged'
to its own mode of production.
Just as Nietzsche
behind the deed, he is solely invented:' fecting, becoming; everything.'4()
according
argues that there is no 'do-er'
... there is no "being" behind doing, ef-
"the doer" is merely a fiction added to the deed - the deed is
In a similar
vein, Deleuze/Guattari
would
argue:
'the BwO is
or even selfyou
that have nothing to do with
the BwO: the plane of consistency
can be
exactly this limit between full and empty, fascist and empty,
obtained,
inten-
suffering,
The idea is to know where to stop, to know what is good for one,
so that one does not risk emptying with the cancerous
intense matter, the matrix of intensity,
- is not about glorifying
one-
destruction:
rior agency, whether it be a lack that hollows it out or a pleasure that fills it. The unformed,
draws roots into rhi-
zomes, creates lines of flights out of fascist structures. Again, it is important to point out that making oneself a BwO - describing
from within the codes that schizoanalysis
struct: psychoanalytic
to create a BwO - whether my own, or to
draw one out of a text. This is because a BwO can account for the molecular be-
through every moment of deterritori-
is its BwO.
levelled at Deleuze/Guattari
is an interpretation
that I have an ethical responsibility
BwO as motivating
force in the middle. It can never be fully
though, as there is always another surface of stratification
the BwO, in which it becomes
that blocks
fascist, and that has to be battled through: roots
and radicles have to be woven into rhizomes again. Throwing
stratifications
into
suicidal collapse, though, would be the worst that could happen, as it would just bring these structures back down on us, heavier than ever. And there is no BwO as an 'original'
hefore the organism,
ess of constructing
it is adjacent to it and in the continual proc-
itself. In fleeing, in becoming BwO, one has to make oneself
never yours or mine. It is always a body.'4) This means that you cannot judge a
BwO, then, and not destroy the root in order to find a hidden rhizome. The focus
BwO according
must always be on an ongoing becoming-Other
to a reactive morality,
every BwO is its own active becoming,
and we must attempt to portray it. Schizophrenia
destination.
as limit, meaning that anything
presents a fictional grid of co-ordinates:
that cannot be halted, and has no
can mean anything
n-l possibilities,
else, merely
a 'multitude
of pleas-
BwO's can be perceived, perception
and their perception
can change us. The description
of a BwO in a cultural text creates an affect,
ures'. Anything that exists on this grid has to be created, or drawn. When I de-
Deleuze and Guattari in their last collaborative
scribe a BwO in a cultural text in contrast
concept of affect has some bio-aesthetic
character,
to a psychoanalytical
reading
I have, in addition or beyond the two binary co-ordinates
analysis, an unknown my description.
multitude
of possibilities.
a psychoanalytic
reading.
of psycho-
and that have to be discussed
But Deleuze
argue
42 43
Ibid, p. 160. I am here thinking,
41
Ibid, p. 153.
the
painter
The Basic Writings o/Nietzsche, p. 481. Thousand Plateaus, p. 164.
Deleuze/Guattari's Frankfurt
for example,
generally
Deleuze/Guattari
40
elsewhere.
The
I find extremely difficult
But regardless
43
of these aspects
,
for example the
and Guattari
necessarily
39
text, What Is Philosophy?
characteristics
by
A BwO I describe is created in
I would have the choice of other co-ordinates,
ones that constitute
of a
or
a notion described
of the description
of the colour blue signifying
with
realm
argue that blue creates
above
School.
associated all
with
stipulations
nothing
an endless
(as in the deep
'a pure affect that topples the universe to
do.'
risk a classification
the universe.
ocean
to high/low
space)?
into the void and leaves
(What is Philosophy, p. 181.) Further, according
Is blue
or outer
some
art that is reminiscent
of
of the
Deleuze/Guattari's
description
to their directions
of the creation of an affect has many similarities
on how to make oneself a Body without Organs; the main dif-
ference being that a BwO, in Capitalism and Schizophrenia,
lived',
are 'beings whose
validity
tion has to proceed, dure'14: 'Art
whereas
preserves,
perserved ... What is preserved
it is
affects,
and exceeds
What matters is not, as in bad novels, the opinions held by characters
any
accordance
in instants before further destratifica-
affects, created through
and
although
lies in themselves
a BwO can only ever be obtained the
only
in
the
world
that
with their social type and characteristics
tions of counterpoint
and in a work of art, en-
thing
affects and brings them to light as the becoming
of his characters'''':
is related to human
beings, whereas an affect is created by a piece of art. Further, like BwO's,
vents unknown or unrecognized
is
their becomings
but rather the rela-
into which they enter and the compounds
tions that these characters
either themselves
experience
of sensa-
or make felt in
or their visions.47
- the thing or the work of art - is a bloc of sensa-
tions, that is to say, a compound of percepts and at/ects.'45
This becomes clearer when we see how Deleuze/Guattari
describe a work of art
that creates an affect: Emily Bronte draws the relation between Catherine In creating affects, we can, as artists, portray BwOs. As cultural critics, we can
Heathcliff
create affects by describing
brotherhood
the molecular
these BwOs: we can let other readers of our texts see
within the molar if we draw their attention
detected. Affects or a bloc of sensations
to the affects we have
capture an ongoing becoming;
they can
love's
between
destiny,
reversing
wolves;
Proust invents
not its unhappy
the existing
hierarchy
an affect by posing jealousy
consequence.
Affects,
of affections,
by finding
by
new definitions:
by
sometimes
reterritorialising
confusing,
there is a direct link between a bloc or being of sensations
and affect:
be made, the artist provides the world with new 'varieties''"
defined
deduced
'human passions
stands in direct opposition
from affections:
the so-called
and their eternity'.
to opinion, which
'knowledge'
of so-
variety
affections.
If affects are created the way BwO are supposed to
should be a 'monument
of [ ...
J
nondistinction'
By that I do not mean that affects endure eternally,
45
by reading/viewing
Deleuze,
but that the sensation
the piece of art that creates
Gilles and Guattari,
Felix (1994):
cept? Resembling relate to Melville's
affects,
of nature.
about certain varieties through longer emotion
Deleuze/Guattari
ways of perceiving
to our repertoire anyone'
becoming
of perceiving.
In Moby
(Ibid, p. 169). Melville's
percept
argue,
is closely
though
they very often overlap.
linked
to vision
stages of this chapter
a percept, and object,
its relation
the perceptions
of the
are the nonhuman
land-
perceptions:
case, for example,
'ocean',
relation
'truth' of nature but percepts
add new
we perceive to the ocean,
then, creates
affect and percept
whereas
to percept
affect
is more directly
an affect
the ocean one that 'no
that gives an
are closely related
related:
and
as a self-sufficient
This I will abstain
an
although
without skills. One does not perceive
coming-Other,
by becoming
ing-molecular,
becoming-woman.
from as it
an affect but is affected in be-
what one perceives, Endurance
by becoming-animal,
affects us if we engage,
engage if we sense an affect. An affect does not reproduce has himself got to be involved
in a becoming-Other
becomand we
memory: the artIst
and portray thIS becommg-
Other as a stark light that has no other object or subject than itself. But how is one affected?
How can a BwO as text or as character
scribed or developed,
46
Ibid, p. 174.
47
Ibid, p. 188.
48
Ibid, p. 175.
49
Ibid, p. 174.
be sensed? In being de-
and hence, in enduring. It is their duration that presents an
active force, and hence, will confront reactive forces.
alat
entitity: it
memory - a memory of
'how it is done' - to show itself: it exists and can be accessed in itself, without memory,
I would
to emotion,
affect is more direct and more usable, could be elaborated.
on per-
Deleuze/Guattari
but both can also stand on their own. Percept,
To me personally,
would divert from my main argument.
beyond
about one essential
has a very different
to 'ocean' that has its very own codes. In that respect, through
existing
from territorialised Dick's
University
on art, do I not concentrate
of man, percepts
are not talking
that are detached
New York: Columbia
to the same critieria.
heath as percepts:
If affects are the nonhuman
Obviously,
affect can be transmitted
different
Hardy's
Ahab's eyes, who, in becoming-whale, needs
elaborations
have to be made according
ocean or Thomas
viewer, in themselves. scapes
percepts
it creates can be accessed
it.
What Is Philosophy?
Press, pp. 163-4. Why, if using Deleuze/Guattarian
human
animal forms that appear 'like a flash'''.
does not owe anyone, it does not rely on somebody's recurringly
(ibid: 175). Such a between
An artist, though, is s/he 'who inLike a BwO, an affect can only be experienced
44
as
then, are created
a BwO by freezing it in order to make it visible. Although
affects are being sensed. Sensation
and
as a violent affect that should not be mistaken for love, but is rather a
articulate
is a knowledge
in
Forces are atoms of experiences.
In order to understand
how we can skim the molecular have to understand periences, dynamism:
from the molar, how we can become-Other,
how reactive
in Deleuze,
interact
fers to talk about forces
how we can be affected,
forces can become
atomism
ing, an ongoing becoming,
a struggle of forces"'. Duration,
up of atoms of experiences,
is nothing but the duration
power, which is not to be confused Nietzsche, another
Nietzsche
pre-
masks an incipient
what appears as a neutral atom has already been, and is still undergo-
affect, and the power to be affected. the will is not something
This incipient
to be exercised
of in her Subjects of Desire.
is the will to
notion of 'willing'.
For
on muscles or nerves, but on
but only another
will can will to obey.
On the other hand, Deleuze's
Nietzsche
argues that a 'thing has as many senses
as there are forces capable of taking possession that Nietzsche's
definition
a political one: Nietzsche
of 'superior'
of it'''. It could be argued, then,
forces is not an essentialist
Deleuze argues that there is an essential hierar-
chy: active over reactive forces; but it has to be emphasised his own preference.
concept, but
(and hence, Deleuze) conceive of the ideal functioning
of forces as affirming difference.
This evaluation
that this hierarchy is
of active forces over reactive forces, the po-
litical choice of the one over the other, provides a basis from which alterity can be articulated.
But forces expressing
a will to nothingness,
that are antiproduc-
and those who are dominated:
there is a will
tive and hence, need to fill a lack, can still be conceptualised
and a will to power that is negating:
a will to noth-
theory.
There are wills who are dominant to power that is affirmative,
then, which is made
of force: the power to
dynamism
with our common
will. A will wills obedience,
which is exactly what Judith Butler accuses him
active: how atoms of ex-
and affect each other. Deleuze's
instead of atoms because
we
against a dialectic functioning,
within Deleuzean
ingness. Further and in the same vein, by defining the preferred or 'superior'
functioning
In the ideal state, after 'ethical and selective thought'
and tested against the eter-
of forces as affirming difference,
nal return, all wills would be affirmative,
active forces:
tive forces have to be selected by applying the eternal return, by freeing the af-
determining
firmative In its relation with the other the force which makes itself obeyed does not
like Hegel's plementation,
joys this difference.
The negative is not present in the essence as that from
which force draws its activity: on the contrary,
it is a result of activity, of
the existence of an active force and the affirmation In other words, we are presented firming
will to power. Again, this will to power is not waiting to be released,
deny the other or that which it is not, it affirms its own difference
difference.
translated
and en-
with an essential
Atoms, in Nietzsche,
into a BwO in Deleuze.
of its difference."
functioning
are translated
it does not follow that all forces are active: ac-
Sublime;
the freeing of the affirmative
return will bring about a new theatre critic, the aesthetic listener, who will not be able to criticise anymore according
to a reactive morality but will skim the mo-
53
lecular from the molar.
of forces as aj~
into forces, the subject is
If a subject is made up of atoms, a BwO is
To Nietzsche,
Hegel's
ity, is dialectical. could
master is really a slave, as slave-morality,
It negates instead of confirming;
see positive
difference;
healthy aggression
very different
sent power and have this power recognised.
acknowledged, statement,
to a Hegelian
subject that wants to be recognised
that aims to fill the lack of not being recognised.
that Deleuze is posing one 'truth'
and
It seems, in this
about the subject against another,
need for a coherence need for domination Hence, Hegel's
51)
'There is no object (phenomenon)
ance but the apparition 51
which is not already
possessed
of a force.' (The Logic of Sense, p. 6.)
The Logic olSense, pp. 8-9, my italics.
of knowing
coming
where
oneself different. Hegel's
in representation:
reactive moral-
it sees contradiction
it holds ressentiment
made up of forces: active and reactive forces that interact and engage. This is a conception
will to power, and its im-
is a political and ethical utopia. If applied and selected, the eternal
where it
there could be a
master wants to repre-
This concept is based on a stated
a need for identity, and consequently,
from lacking
master needs to represent
acknowledgement
power, and cannot affirm himself as
since in itself it is not an appear"De1euze, 53
Gilles (1983): Nietzsche & Philosophy. New York: Columbia
see Introduction.
a
or recognition.
University
Press, p. 6.
different. It follows that, for Deleuze's
Nietzsche,
psychoanalytic
resent a reactive morality: basing their theorisations
feminists
phallus, they are unable to step outside of the binarism
they themselves
they want to be heard and affirmed as women, as molar identity. that this is one way to stand up against oppression. wanting to be affirmed as 'women'
created:
furthermore
questionable
The affirmation
I have also shown that it is in would have more poten-
change.
morality is represented
her ambition to do otherwise, sation of woman's thority',
oppression
by the psychoanalytic
reiterates
in a 'science'.
Psychoanalysis
gender they never accomplished
or never obtained,
tims'
of 'identity'
as constructed
should be exchanged
should not be in binary opposition or rather, becoming. inevitably
one opposed
of a 'victim'
Deleuze interprets
instead
of affirming
world-view,
a certain
laughter of affirmation.
their
theory -
This affirmation
leads to the binarism-traps
that opposition
of the Other in certain terms, linking oneself to the
to that term, leads to stagnation.
If, as described
one's own identity is defined through this opposition, tion is theorised vicious circle.
Nietzsche:
'Everything
pre t·Inoa'tI .,. '50 . To Nietzsche , conscience from within conscience, it is impossible
is related to a force capable of interis essentially
reactive, and this is why,
to conceive
of what a body can do, or
of desire as an eternal search for identity, ie recognition,
ing the lack of not having identity,
is contrasted
in Deleuze's
or: fIll-
NIetzsche
to a
search for what the body can do, what other forms of existence can be descnbed beyond the need for recognition selves in a quandary.
of a fixed identity. But it is here we find our-
Do we not have to presuppose
conscience
in order to act,
in order to make things do things, in order to conceive of a politics that searches for the molecular?
- I am speaking of the 'vic-
to the Other, but affirm its own unique being,
Ressentiment
entails; thinking
of
subjects that mourn the loss of the
by a certain
for the Dionysian
as method, as 'au-
Butler could be accused
describing
The res sentiment
feminist who, in spite of
the Oedipal legacy by basing the theori-
writing a theory of ressentiment, difference.
if it is not
what activity it is capable of, what other forces could be related to a body. But-
locks them into their own slave-morality.
individual
infertility fits into Paglia's picture.
then, is only true affirmation
related to any molar notion, but a molecular notion of oneself.
ler's conception Reactive
how obesity-related
of oneself as different,
I have argued
that they fail. If they split up into a thousand
tiny sexes, become active instead of reactive, feminism tial to create sustainable
rep-
on lack and the war of the
in chapter one,
and further, this opposi-
through a 'tyranny of the past', we remain stuck in an Oedipal
This complication
is again presented in the question of the eternal return and the
will to power. The will to power is defined as 'a principle planation
for diversity and its reproduction,
is] the characteristic thinking
of difference
tha~ serves as an e~and Its repetItIOn ... [It
that cannot be thought out of the mechamstIc
away this order itself"6. It complements
order wIthout
forces and IS 1I1ternal to the.m,
but it is not a force, but that which wills: it affirms or denies, and has as It~ I~struments
action and reaction. The affirmative
will to power is anti-dialectIc:
It
does not fill a lack, it aims to affirm itself. The aesthetic listener will have to undergo the eternal return in order to skim the active from the reactive, but only an active mind can operate this eternal return. How then, can reactIve become ac-
Positive
affirmation,
the opposite
of the fundamental
are so easily linked to the psychoanalytic Paglia-lite,
post-feminist
affirmation
feminist
foundations
dogma, must not be confused
of female difference
so perfectly
that
demon-
strated by Elizabeth Wurtzel, sitting in a vampish pose and showing us the middle finger on the cover of her bestselling nistic
description
of woman
goddess who should not be celebrated as its positive counterpart.
Bitch,4. Camille Paglia gives a determi-
as powerful,
quivering,
in opposition
fertile,
spongy
tive?
with a
earth-
to rational man, but see man
Deleuze/Guattari
criticise the concept of the subject as identity, at the same time, afthough, they presuppose our ability to act. Ob'ViOUS 1y, th'e age ncy'. Deleuze . firms is Foucaultian: we carefully deterritorialise from the terntones we a~e 't t d 'n We become affected by that which differs from this territory, and, If Sl ua e I . . . we decide to engage and hence, to deterritorialise
This not only plays into the radical feminist ruse, it is 55
Nietzsche
56
Ibid, p. 49.
& Philosophy,
p. 22.
- having tested our actIOn 111
the eternal return - we will become-Other.
Our engagement
different, the Other, might give us information eternal return. Testing is an active decision,
with a text, with the
that will entice us to test it in the reactive has already become active
think the eternal return of nihilism, it negates everything therewith And
also negates
reactive
as this self-destruction
forces:
nihilism
that comes with it, and
destroys
its own foundation.
is active, this is the only event in which reactive
before it can undergo the test: Hence, active and reactive forces have to coexist
forc~s can become active and not vice versa. This is the heart of Dionysian
within a body, and we have to be able to emphasise
losophy,
return
will affirm
our engagement,
and every
the active ones. The eternal moment
of engagement,
our
the eternal joy of becoming,
stroying:
'Active
negation
that joy which includes
or active destruction
BwO's will change, as every moment of change, of being affected, is our BwO's
which destroy the reactive in themselves,
moment of production.
return and submitting
themselves
phi-
even joy in .de-
is the state of strong spmts
submitting
it to the test of the ~ternal
to this test even if it entails willing thel[ own
decline.' 57 Again: can we enter the reverse side? And if we could, how would we voice a politicality,
the call to affirm the molecular,
There would not be the language
nor the necessity
anymore if we were merely determined established
a language
such as presented
to do so. We would not act
by forces and the will to power and had
to portray this becoming.
(Do we still have to talk in a
world where we merely affirm and do not have to engage their issuing of imperatives - Deleuze/Guattari
in this thesis?
in arguments?).
In
- 'Make things do things! The tonal has to be kept!'
keep us in our own grammatical
world and deterritorialise
carefully. We cannot think a world beyond identity yet, and hence, a Foucaultian pragmatics
cannot
Deleuze/Guattari of identities:
be abolished.
It is in their
aim to draw the silhouette
It is in the promotion
an Other to fixed and gendered lines of flights towards
of becomings
of concepts identities
'the reverse
attempts
at description
and a language
side', the machinic
testing our ability to do so: what becomings
do I perceive
for in order to describe
become active unless they are submitted
to precede a becoming-active: a political
and ethical
Deleuze/Guattari's
ceptance
and popularity,
mensch, his aesthetic in becoming-reactive,
a philosophy
listener, is not a 'truth',
becoming.
in self-destruction
thought,
reactive
through
choice.
is
as Claire
to
Colebrook
III reference
would argue, to pose yes after no would
with chaos thought creates concepts
are the effect of active thought,
thought ought to proceed.
A reactive philosophy
or - so
and not laws by whIch misrecognises
this rela-
tionship.58
ef-
perceive becomings
Active thought has to remain becoming,
by the eter-
active
but one has to consistently
reactivate
thought's
concepts
and view con-
cepts {n terms of its effects. 'One can't simply identify or find active philosophy;
finds greater acNietzsche's
themselves
has to be tested repeatedly
nal return. One cannot merely oppose reactive thought with the concept of the
Uber-
active must be a continual
own decision and the arguments Deleuzean
affirmation
and become
and led to nothingness.
If we
57
Ibid. p. 70.
58
De/euze
and Feminist
challenge.'
of my decision,
Therefore,
Theory, p. 8.
I ca~not rest on ~y
but must consIstently
in order to see what it can do.
he is a political utopia. Whereas,
denied
has
is always first, and this affi:mation
relation:
the eternal return as ethical and selective
forces are themselves
Further,
In its confrontation
that concepts
by recurringly
described.
invest:
active forces are turned against
reactive,
system of
In the beginning, thought confronts chaos ... Thought is a hetero-genesis
aim to reveal
that I need to find a
of difference,
we will have to actively
affirmation
What is Philosophy?
mistake the cause-effect
becoming of the molecular,
to the selection
in a text? Is it a reac-
fort: we are not in the reverse side, we do not automatically
Until a language
for a
that
its very own BwO? This testing demands
unless an affect reaches us: if a BwO has been effectively
clear that although there exists the possibility
of active forces, reactive forces can never and under no cir-
the eternal return which only an active mind can operate. Hence, affirmation
in which we cannot -
tive, molar concept I have adapted, or an Other, a molecule, language
cumstan~es
that can describe
to describe,
makes absolutely
becomina-reactive
that lie in the shadows
that Deleuze/Guattari
yet? - think, but which we should at least attempt
Deleuze
practIce
It is here we see once more the link between Deleuzeanism challenge of fixed concepts, of wolman's 'identity',
can be effected by becom-
ing-woman, which means nothing else than consistently tion of the concept of wolman. 'Identity
and feminism. The
activating the reactiva-
must be assumed
and immediately
called into question' writes Gallop, but we have, through Deleuzean schizo analysis, erased the notion of identity, and inserted becomings
instead. 'The tonal
must be protected at any cost!', but we can venture further than the Oedipal boundaries describe: if we get lost, we know where to return to. Regarding the question of the 'truth' of Deleuzean philosophy, Colebrook points out that the question in itself is anti-Deleuzean,
as it looks for a true meaning
instead of creating or reading the effect. Further, it would 'suggest that the value and force of concepts could be determined themselves
in advance - as though concepts in
were good or evil, safe or risk-laden'''.
Quite the opposite is the
question Colebrook wants us to ask. Instead of asking how a philosophy coming can be communicated
of be-
to dialectical thinkers, she ask whether it can be
put into practice. If it can, the concept of theoretical work will have to be reactivated, too, and this has already begun in feminist writing (this thesis being one example). As, if thought was not directed towards an image of 'good' thinking but aimed to think differently, then feminism might less be a task of emancipation, lenge of differentiation.
This might provide
and more the chal-
the way of thinking
new
modes of becoming - not as the becoming of some subject, but a becoming towards
others,
a becoming
towards
difference,
and a becoming
through new questions.60 Deleuzean feminism is a philosophy
of becoming by making things do things,
by skimming the active from the reactive. Having tested psychoanalytic
femi-
nism in the eternal return and having negated it, I turn towards a Deleuzean feminism. This actively reactivates the concept of woman by showing what texts can do beyond the reactive law that maps the seen, the read, the perceived immediately onto Oedipal territory. This practice is an ethical choice, taken ac-
59
Ibid, p. 12.
60
Ibid.
cording to a certain political action and conviction that believes in n-l gendered becomings.
her conclusion
that any theory of women's
liberation beyond equality, then, 'had
to abandon the belief that nature was immutable Deleuze/Guattari's
'schizoanalysis'
ics or nomadology
- is a way to challenge
that restrain feminists
- alternatively
called rhizomatics,
pragmat-
exactly those psychoanalytic
concepts
within a discourse
that inevitably
can serve a feminist
Deleuzean
feminists
been described
and will introduce
and their applications
pose. The three examples between,
politics,
of an on-going
be-
some contemporary
of Deleuzean
themes
present
or anti-feminist
for this pur-
can be recoded as something
agency and a re-coding
within the Symbolic itself. These Deleuzean
of the Symbolic
readings represent
nism in practice by aiming at making becoming
Deleuzean
Olkowski senting
I will focus on all show that cultural texts that have
as 'masculinist'
and therefore,
tion for their oppression;
they are seen as its root, even its cause'62.
infrom
femi-
argues that a ruin of representation individual's
Deleuze's
To Olkowski, change:
demands
conception
only a change of logic and ontology
metaphysics
acknowledge Gallop's
the stuttering
BwO, political orientation
becomes
lose their predetermination,
problematic.
common critique posed from a feminist one of the few feminists feminist
project.
If drives, instincts,
how should oppressed
Dorothea
Olkowski
sexualities
groups be defined? This is a
shares
of a BwO as beneficial
her viewpoint
origin
anymore-identity,
angle. Liz Grosz, on the other hand, is
who defend the concept
incestuous
for a
and sums up this
of
that sweeps away the so as to practically
practice of an ontology of becom-
in chapter two, follows a dialectic based on the fear
seemed problematic that cannot
if identity was defined on psychoanalack, or as Deleuze and Guattari say, the
be overcoded.
is real difference,
Becoming,
and not-
Defining antiproduction
active, as forces undergo constant change,
we can account for shifting imaginaries. of being contained
a not-yet
as every BwO is its own machine and can
as a reactive force that can become
against an Aristotelian
feminist attitude in Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation:
can create an ontology
only be analysed according to its very own functioning.
body instead
if we follow
call that identity should be assumed and immediately
lytic terms that installed a constitutive of the subject as
'rights',
of being and identity and their representation,
and conceptually
called into question
is that, with a conception
for their
of a shift from a logic of identity to a logic of difference.
ing'''. Identity, we explained
visible.
can be enacted while still repre-
and fighting
'the task will be to create an image of difference
of catachresis.
A point of critique of schizoanalysis
women's
and rationaliza-
ties them to the past.
This section will show how the focus on and the description coming
and fixed, otherwise,
(and some men's) bodies are taken to be not just the justification
Constantly
by one: Deleuze
interacting
forces make up a
poses the nomadic
unity of being as the ontological
nomos
base for difference.
This
nomos defines as real that which is without property, enclosure or measure . ...the BwO is an attempt to render more complex the character of the kinds of oppression opportunities groupings
these groups endure while simultaneously for construction
offering
greater
of an escape route. Race, sex, class - these
are too fixed, too stable to give way to reform and rethinking.
is only by first breaking
It
up each of these molar unities into a thousand
tiny races, sexes, or classes that we can begin to undermine and regroup ourselves on a pragmatic
their authority
With a notion of the nomadic nomos, focusing on a becoming-Other ing molar identities, fectively
level.
why Deleuze
and feminism
pressed
to our argument social position
that feminism
defined women so narrowly
that change appeared
impossible,
as an op-
I follow Olkowski
and oppos-
logic can be challenged
Claire Colebrook
are so well matched.
more ef-
makes it quite clear
In the introduction
to her
Deleuze and Feminist Theory, she remarks that feminism has always had an odd to its Other: combating
'been obliged to use the master's Returning
patriarchal
than through ecriture feminine.
relationship
6l
the monolithic
the male canon on the one hand, they had
tool to destroy his house' and therefore,
nism 'never has been the pure and innocent
in 62
Ibid, p. 7.
63
Ibid, p. 14, my italics.
femi-
other of a guilty and evil patriar-
chy''''. So while women on the one hand need to address the Other, this cannot
The feminist response"
be done solely in the same (philosophical)
ing, that obviously
language
but should open up new
forms of being in order to find an adequate way to theorise difference cease to pose one monolithic
'truth'
has had exactly this aim, but, I argued, they used a language patriarchy.
By becoming
so that we
against the other. Psychoanalytic 'given'
feminism to them by
came up with the following
moves through
questions:
why does becom-
woman into an atomic non-genderedness,
have to move through woman at all? And did not feminists have to be suspicious of women dissappearing has dissappeared
altogether?
Deleuze/Guattari
acknowledge
that woman
already under the Oedipal regime, which their work condemns:
molecular beyond the molar notion of woman, we tran-
scend binary oppositions
altogether.
The girl's becoming
is stolen first, in order to impose a history, or prehis-
tory upon her. The boy's turn comes next, but it is by using the girl as an We have to articulate singularities resent the molecular language,
beyond the genus ofidentity,
beyond the molar. Deleuze
being, living could be achieved
becoming-woman, pass through. women's
movement,
subject
should
example, by pointing to the girl as the object of his desire, that an opposed
suggests that this new form of
by a general
though, being a becoming
The female
we have to rep-
becoming-woman,
every gender should attempt and
not act as a ground
organism,
a dominant history is fabricated
or limit to the
as the latter should move through molar politics to the mo-
This is why 'woman as a molar entity must become-woman, becomes-
or can become-woman',
lecular"" beyond the binary. The molar entitiy was woman with her 'sexual and
ject. Becoming-woman
into it'''}. If, then, becoming-woman
whereas
a molecular
becoming-
woman did not resemble the woman as clearly distinct molar entity. Schizoana-
exactly
lysis being the attempt to locate oneself within a body in order to dis-organise
Virginia Woolf. Woolf's
that body, it made sense how Deleuzean
changing
thought and methodology
could be ap-
plied to feminism:
becoming
singularities,
ground of reason and good
must begin with his opposite,
coming must then go beyond binary opposition becomings,
is not imitating
this entity or even transforming
is becoming-multiple
would this look like? Deleuze/Guattari notion of female identity,
'woman'.
The only way to get outside
But this be-
tween, the intermezzo
and pass through to other
technique
the dualisms
is to be-between,
block of becoming that remains contemporaneous
events, atoms and particles"7.
64
Deleuze
65
Jerry Aline Flieger summarises
Theory,
organiSlTIS,
register
in a radically material 'micropolitics'.
67
and Feminist p. 41.
Ibid, p. 2.
non-subjective
Theory, p. 4l.)
between
molar and molecular:
forms and their interaction,
intensities, (De/euze
considers
the difference
subjects,
including
being on the level of chemical The molar is transcendent,
'... the molar register
to pass be-
to each opposable term,
man, woman, child, adult. It is not the girl who becomes
p. 4.
molecular
6" Ibid,
to
an ever-
- that is what Virginia Woolf lived with all her en-
defined
a woman; it is
that produces the universal girl."
was a girl before her becoming
whole
produced
which is seen as the effect of a t10w of
And, as argued earlier, I believe that Deleuze/Guattari
concerns
what
ergies, in all of her work, never ceasing to become. The girl is like the
so that man and woman can be seen as events within a field of
becoming-woman
and Feminist
oneself
and molecular,
make this clear by refering
stream-of-consciousness
as
and assigned as a sub-
speech:
Because man has been taken as the universal thinking,
so that the man also
and by molar entity they mean 'woman
defined by her form, endowed with organs and functions
reproductive
roles marked out by patriarchy'''6,
for him, too.""
this
do not assume that there
was stolen, but that the 'invention'
her, and that hence, the universal
girl is not necessarily
of woman female.
'A
social action; while the and physical the molecular
reactions, immanent.'
6K
see 'Can a Feminist Read Deleuze
rescn/afion.
no Thousand 70
Plateaus,
Ibid, p. 275.
" Ibid, p. 277.
p. 276.
and Guattari?' in Olkowski's
Gilles
Deleuze
and the Ruin
(~lRcp--
Deleuzean
reading looks at what a philosophical
molar woman to molecular
becoming-woman
text creates''';
corresponds
the move from
to the search for what
tation of personality Tournier's
and the multiplicities
Robinson
a text can do, rather than what it is or means: what gender identity it represents.
did not even pose questions
Feminists might especially
his becoming.
texts as non-ideological 'masculinist'
feel threatened
by this approach
traditionally
of
methodology
in a discussion
his 'sexism'.
Dorothea
Tournier. Alice Jardine had criticised Deleuze's
Crusoe can be used - schizoanalysed
reason and linearity
that feature opposing
Irigaray's
'masculine',
elements.
anger against her phallic forefathers
Robinson
Crusoe. Moreover,
ual, but reproducing
him
but rather,
an economic
method-
are linked. In Tournier
and
his notion of 'Otherness'
Defoe's
and what
was poorly posed in Daniel
Robinson
was presented
as asex-
world similar to our own, whereas it would
s argument
not Robinson's
isolation is re-posed as a question take Robinson?
that capitalism
and Oedipal
sexuality
origins - his being - are questioned,
of ends and becoming:
but
'where does isolation
what are the effects of the absence of Others? what is an Other?
and what does it mean for the Other to be absent'7'"
in the introduc-
it also erases their
Deleuze
argues that philosophy
in chapter one, con-
reducing
it to an object or subject. Before the encounter
are binaries Deleuze helps us
allowing us to find a path towards difference
surrounding
'being',
have been more likely that an asexual being might create one deviant to ours if we follow Deleuze/Guattari'
be seen to rep-
As discussed
Defoe's
'phallic'
'monolithic'
can, if schizoanalysed,
ceptions of women as fluid and men as reasoning, to deconstruct,
retelling of
A Deleuzean
tion, although this takes the power out of feminist discourse, helplessness.
this
the loss of others entails. The problem of isolation
by taking the power out of the bi-
nary. That which has been termed to represent identities by feminist discourse,
Deleuze read Tournier in order to understand
by Michel
- to deconstruct
instead of aiding in its construction.
ology, then, allows us to reverse domination
resent becomings
defends
eyes, Tournier's
that tried to assess Robinson's
out
use of this text that is concerned
with men and male bodies only. Yet, in Deleuze's Defoe's Robinson
Olkowski
of Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique
except as pathologies'74.
defined
texts such as written by Henry Miller and draw multiplicities
of his texts that do not address
'phallic'
as this perception
matter leads DeJeuze to discuss
of narratives
was not such a unified self; the narrative
beyond binary and
had misconstrued
no subject, and with the disappearance Deleuze's
Bergsonisln
is important),
the problem
of the Other by
of an Other, there was
of the Other, after time (and it is here
there is no subject but an entity expressing
the collapse of the Other: the collapse of the subject and of time. Deleuze elabo-
molar categories.
rates in his Logic of Sense that if one perceived the reality of what the Other was Olkowski's
defence
Deleuzean
of Deleuze's
interrogation
ages." According
discussion
of representation's
to Olkowski,
of Tournier
is embedded
power to establish
Alice Jardine's
reading of Tournier's
supposition
which then carries out various not question the "ideal" 72
im-
narrative,
analytic
looks towards
cliches,
other citations
ries or forms of expression only ruins the hierarchical represented
drawn
though
but it did not actually exist outside of that which expressed
does
forms of content
from the world of a woman-theorist-artist, context)
'by resituating
in images'
(Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin o/Representation,
and therefore, p. 7.)
'a memory shows
naturalist
images,
them in non-representational
to fixed social and psychological but creates
(be they psycho-
schemas.' of something
the 'creative
or
while expressing
by the collapse possibility,
of "Otherness,"
emphasises
field is that the structure-Other
74 Ibid, p. 36. 75
Ibid, p. 37.
7"lbid.
existed,
it, actualising
it, Robinson,
the
is not a
determined
and thus the collapse
of any
including his own.'"
Olkowski
This way she not that will not be
of the structure
perceptual
se-
force of difference'
it. And that which expresses
and realised the
world certainly
character in Tournier, not a unified self as subject, but 'is completely
actions and projects ... such an assumption
order of representation,
it is produced
possible
in the
'coherent'
as opposed
the Other as one developed
world. The expressed
a self,
Mary Kelly as an aItist. who transforms
components
possible
participates
of the unified self, nor can it account for the fragmen-
from an apparently
one merely explicated
corresponding
that 'the subject of the narrative constructs
Deleuze and Feminist Theory, p. 3.
" Olkowski
expressing,
possible
as well as her treatment of Deleuze and Guattari' s philosophy, phenomenological
'meaningful'
in a
that the 'impact of Deleuze's
structuralist
reading of the
and not the ego is what organizes the
perceptual
field. Taken in this light, Tournier's
the disappearance
of the feminine
object: the structure-Other'''.
"adventure"
is a narrative not of
subject but of that which precedes
subject or
Deleuze says in his Logic of Sense: '1 am nothing
new is created Deleuze
and arises,
circumscribes
a new form of desiring,
with an 'uprightness',
deny good sense (temporal progression)
other than my past objects, and my self is made up of a past world, a passing
and/or soul as in phenomenology),
away of which was brought about precisely by the Other. ,n, therewith
of the word. In Deleuze
a temporal distinction is accountable
between consciousness
and the structure-Other.
for the passing of objects, as the field of virtualities
and possibili-
ties can only be verified through the Other. The basis of 'personal' Lacanian
sense was the Other, as nothing
could be desired
seen, thought or owned by a possible Other. Olkowski
installing The Other desire in a
that could not be
would be non-sensical erection of something
passes away, so does the past and so does error and
its object in an eternal present that defies Defoe's
coincides
Crusoe,
with
who meticu-
with predetermined by describing
a becoming-something consciousness
face of the destructuring
ceaselessly
relives the same day
does not measure the days against one another or take
base for redefining
Likewise,
ference.
things affirm their own worth and desire ceases to be "per-
lacking. Thus even the so-called "surpassing"
than a "collapse"
removal of consciousness
subjective
and structure-
instead of being lost in mourning,
of the structure-Other. representation
creates in the
The disappearance
of the Other,
It is exactly this ontological
that enables a 'real' account of dif-
island asserts itself as a com-
and not an object. This is much less a it) of subject and object and of the
Claire Colebrook Through Deleuze's the evolution
of this structure and its effects.'"
finds the same kind of liberation in Deleuze's
Shelley, who traditionally
could have been read as reaffirming
reading, becoming
reading of Mary humanist ideals.
can be thought as something
different to
of some unified self or being. Whereas Frankenstein's
monster is
the reactive creation of man from science, the writing of Frankenstein, Jardine, who had merely criticised with this emphasis,
scribed the non-unified
self and its relationship
creates a base for understanding feminist rewritings
the absence of women as molar entity, could,
not realise that Deleuze's
reading of Tournier
actually de-
with the structure-Other,
which
different forms of desiring and can be used for
of desire. In the collapse
subject
structure. This is achieved
without which life is emty and
inanimate
(as Jardine characterizes
structure-Other
Robinson,
that is not a psychological
then, does not entail chaos, but a creative evolution.
each one to be part of some larger and more important plan or destination.
plex site of forces, an assemblage
de-
reading we can perceive the
and psychological
the effects of a temporary
the island. Instead, Tournier's
a desire for someone or something
Through Deleuze's
reading of Tournier can serve a feminist rewriting of the desiring sub-
ject by demonstrating
Other. Tournier's
sonal,"
stands for that which in psychoanalysis of desire beyond lack): he overwrites,
novel if the Other is lost instead of, as a psychoanalytic
lously counts the days and years by making a mark for each day spent on Robinson
the erection
can hence argue:
the ability to verify; for without the Other, consciousness
or, more accurately,
and common sense (the unity of body
reading would effect, merely being able to theorise the mourning process. Deleuze's
If the structure-Other
of which
exactly in order to
but perhaps, also, a feminist negative coding
(the creation
codes the meaning of 'erection'.
the evolution
an 'erection'
of the structure-Other,
something
its quotations, from being'.
allusions,
framed stories and multiple narrators,
Instead of the 'monster'
Frankenstein
being the ground of thought,
he learns what it means to be human by overhearing Lost. Shelley therefore,
before Deleuze,
structed through assemblages,
establishes
'the monster's
'with all
frees becoming
a narration
of Paradise
being as continuously
con-
humanity or being is an effect of a
way of speaking and writing''''. 77
Ibid, p. 38, my italics.
7X
The Logic of Sense, p. 310. Obviously,
past'. To clarify,
Deleuze
perceives
one could argue that this statement
the past to be contingent
affirms
a 'tyranny
of the
on the Other; thus, every Other can bring
a new past, so that it does not make sense to conceive of just one past, the one of early childhood, object of psychoanalysis. 70
Ibid, p. 38.
the
This shows, argues Colebrook, pressive qualities,
that feminism can liberate the given from its op-
as Mary Shelley does with romanticism's
humanist literature,
or as Deleuze does in interpreting ing. Frankenstein
her to understand
becoming
becomes a parody of the humanist
as freed from be-
ideal of the reasoning,
uni-
ters of representation, tight spatio-temporal
while avoiding relativism by grounding his practice into a framework'''.
fied self.
In 'Teratologies', Confronted elsewhere,
with a body of thought and with a language feminism
has had to pose the question
and speak otherwise. tive repetition:
Shelley's
that comes from
of how it might think
text is one of the earliest instances
the inhabitation
of a dominant
discourse
of posi-
in order to open
up a new site."' Olkowski's
examples
present Deleuzean
they make texts do things, make them become-Other, multiplicity
underneath
the Symbolic,
re-reading
one, by acknowledging
fluidity
that reiterate
in theorising
show the molecular
efficient,
clean (and
techno-culture.
Whereas
with horror, Braidotti
finds this
too simple. with such a discursive
inflation of monstrous
images, I refuse
the nostalgic position that tends to read them as signs of the cultural deca-
There is
dence of our times, also known as the decline of 'master narratives', loss of the great canon of 'high culture'.
coded
monstrous
social imaginary
More particularly
to start with the
or the
I think that the proliferation
calls instead for adequate
of a
forms of analysis.
it calls for a form of philosophical
teratology
which
Deleuze is in a unique position to provide.Hl
These affirmative
or allow us to counter Irigaray, as I did in chapter
sperm's
many other binarisms
thought, reversals.
that needs to be entertained
Confronted
the binaries man/monolithic
It is this liberty within Deleuzean
text and not its origin, that can lead to affirmative
participation
become-woman.
of the disciplined,
in popular fiction has often been described as the outcome of a mil-
lenium decadence
in practice:
of texts, traditionally
texts can be recoded so that we start to deconstruct
reversals can recode 'erection'
feminism
writes about the revival of the monster in popular
white and healthy) human in post-industrial
monstrosity
and it can be spoken. What both these ex-
amples show is that, through a Deleuzean and woman/fluid.
preferably
explanation
and Colebrook's
Braidotti
culture as a contrast to the celebration
and testicles'
softness,
the 'war of the sexes'
or to question
and psychoanalysis'
the latter. We can, through this Deleuzean
underneath
With some degree of optimism demonstrated Manifesto"",
Braidotti supports
re-reading,
nological',
becoming-
could be positively
the molar and argue for an on-going
Deleuzean
Other.
the metaphoric
by Donna Haraway in her 'Cyborg
'the intermingling
dimensions
of the enfleshed and the tech-
of post-industrial
appraised through a Deleuzean
techno-culture,
methodology.
reading of Ridley Scott's Alien to a psychoanalytic
Comparing
presents
finds the Deleuzean strous feminine' Deleuzean
another
concept
such application
of 'becoming'
outside of stereotypical
concepts
to its fixed definitions
methodology 'multiple
psychoanalytic
for defining
would easily devalue of the imaginary.
a philosophy
patterns of becoming
of radical
and the overthrowing
feminism.
for explaining explanations.
She
'the monBy using
cannot be mapped onto a system of gender binarism. In constrast to a positive Deleuzean account, in psychoanalysis trays that which is feared. In a culture putting its emphasis
'new' that is happen-
efficiency
and control, the monster presents
due to the negativity
Especially
female monsters
she is able to point toward something
ing in society, that psychoanalysis intrinsic
of Deleuzean
helpful
Braidotti
praises
immanence
Deleuzean
that allows for
of the humanistic
phered as the monstrous lytic feminism,
and thus interpreted
that
the monster por-
on identity, beauty,
an uncontrollable
(such as Ridley Scott's
feminist
her
feminist reading,
we can see how the (m)other turns, in Braidotti, into a molecular in-between Rosi Braidotti
that
metamorphosis.
Alien) can easily be deci-
or the monster single mother by psychoanaas a symptom of the 'patriarchal'
backlash
parame"Braidotti, X3 H4
Rosi (2000): 'Teratologies'
Ibid, p. 165. in Haraway,
Free Association
Donna ([991): Books.
in De/euze and Feminist Theory.
Simians. Cyhorgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London:
against feminism:
Scott's
alien (a single mother) can then be seen to be respon-
sible for all the evils of contemporary
society.
need to be changed,
which is
exactly what Deleuze calls for and allows us, through his methodology,
identities
are endangered.
to do. In
the Deleuzean
Imaginary
repertoires
sense, the social imaginary
marks a 'space
Yet, one could interpret the renewed interest in monsters and freaks from a more
transactions',
positive angle, argues Braidotti:
giving way to identities that are only temporarily
which is not t1uid, but it t1ows, catching
again. The imaginary, ... a less destructive taken by feminists
reappraisal needing
of the monstrous
to redefine
turalism and the critique of orientalism to rethink the cultural
and scientific
'difference'
positively.
practices
around monstrous
blematic of the vast political and theoretical away form the persistently
thinking that used to characterize
bodies.
to deal with difference
terms. In this case, the freak/monstrous
man subjectivity
Multicul-
in
other becomes em-
efforts aimed to redefine hulogocentric
and racist ways of
it in Western culture."
In this sense, one could argue that freaks and monsters depict an ability to cope with change and metamorphosis, ever-increasing the insecurity professional
whereas the millenium
demand for t1exibility,
from job insecurity
to anti-ageing
of fixed indentities identity. Scott's
constantly
products,
doubting
his ability to cope:
based on health, fitness, youth, integrity
alien, in this way, portrays
a positive
clutching
baby even as she falls into her 'death'
'their'
(hers as well
(Alien III), shows the sur-
species.
Braidotti
(and I would argue, psychoanalytic)
contemporary
for being teratological
('freakified')
that which one fears: therefore, displacement
fascinate
feminism
is still perceived
as
fulfilled identities, 'become-minoritarian',
of the ugly sides (the multiplicities,
etc) within us. In contrast, one could interpret
freaks and monsters (as described
According
to Braidotti,
within feminism hand characterised dismissive
Deleuze's
methodology
in the 90' s anti-Lacanian by a generation
of gyno-centric
had been positively
athmosphere'6,
with an anti-maternal
psychoanalytic
feminism.
received
that was on the one attitude
and hence
On the other hand the 90's
were a time that featured the decline of Europe as a world power and a 'postnuclear predicament
of an advanced
or de-materialized
- because they are changing at such a fast rate under the pres-
sure and the acceleration
world whose social realities become virtual -
of a digitally-clad
economy'''.
Deleuze was right, then, when he argued that the process of becoming lectively-driven,
that is to say relational
tivity and desire, and is thus ex-centric ing back to the question recurringly
was 'col-
and external; it is also framed by affecto rational control'"'.
In other words, go-
posed above as to how change came about:
again, it does come about, the 'real' changes, and people start to invest desire in other imaginaries.
Therefore,
the freak or monster being defined as 'the Other'
psychoanalytic
a Deleuzean
approach,
minoritarian',
the 'BwO',
be
feminism, described
could, in a feminism determined as the
or in Donna Haraway's
to the 'perfect woman' and desirable,
'nomadic',
the
by
'becoming-
terms, the 'cyborg':
superior
instead of being a threat to her.
to our millenial
situation
the un-
How an imaginary
is defined is dependent
on memory and narratives
tivate the process of bringing into symbolic representation
which ac-
that which by defini-
the interest in
above) as a positive identification,
as an adaption
its interpretation.
because we fear them. Their
of organs, their chaos is what we at all costs want to avoid, and
which portrays a firm self-loathing
sense, does not possess a unitary or gener-
alizing meaning: it was social and cultural critics who defined the imaginary and
within traditional
in so far as difference
monsters
and
superiority,
vival of this kind of metamorphic criticises
on as it goes, meaning
fixed but capable to transform
human is faced with an
the media mirrors as well as fuels
and, I would argue, Sigorney Weaver protectively as the alien's)
in a Deleuzean
and
and racism have also contributed
The need has emerged for a new epistemology non-pejorative
other has been under-
of transitions
a desire to where stable
H6
I would argue that there are still few feminists
psychoanalytic
tradition,
in the publications " Ibid, pp. 169-70. " Ibid, p. l70.
but I acknowledge
of the 1990's.
interested
in Deleuze
that if Deleuzean
Feminism
compared
to those keeping
had any 'springboard',
to a
it was
tion escapes consciousness:
'As Deleuze
cuts across the experiential
would put it: the pattern of becoming did not program us
field of all that phallogocentrism
or the soothing voice of the board computer,
affectionately
called 'Mother',
who
wakes the crew after their long sleep on the return from distant solar systems.
to become.'"9 This process has to be invested by a yearning or desire for change:
Their spacecraft,
an alternative
of al-
spacecrafts,
which
scenes. Astronauts
being in space yet attached to the ship by a safety line, are of
can only be written and read if there is a desire to change. If we embrace change,
course
as being
we can account for the monstrous
though,
ternative
Deleuze
imaginary
narratives
can only be memorised
(and here I would include
provides the methodology
would be described in gyno-centric
feminist
critical
theory),
in other ways than as the monstrous with which the monstrous psychoanalytic
as a challenge
(m)other.
can be theorised
vagina dentata-ist super-mother
outside of the concept of the threatening, text about the monstrous
if there is an endurance
feminism.
as it
which ejects - as is common in science fiction films - smaller
again is seen as maternal
interpreted
attached
by an umbilical
her case of the omnipresence
of a pre-phallic
analysis of the film that lacks coherence
First, I find Creed's description openings
would not describe account, it is interesting
as Barbara Creed. The fixed definition
to look at film theorists such
of the imaginary
can be easily perceived
and criticised in her book The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. In her chapter 'Horror and the Archaic Mother: Alien', Creed argues:
ambivalence
from the openings
of 'womb-like'
the archaic mother as a visible figure does not appear in Alien,
her presence
forms a vast backdrop
for the enactment
She is there in the images of birth, the representations the womb-like
imagery, the long winding
of all the events. of the primal scene,
tunnels leading to inner cham-
bers, the rows of hatching eggs, the body of the mother-ship, the life-support
the voice of
them as vaginal.
seem definitely
The tubes leading
have ridges such as sometimes
testines or the throat; the openings
mother, the pre-phallic
womb-like
organic,
but I
into the cavern away
visualised
in drawings
of in-
are very clearly moulded with defined out-
lines, closer to ears or anuses then something
as multiple, to speak in an Irigara-
yan sense, as a vagina. Why the cavern has to be 'womb-like'
(where caverns as a huge amount
of eggs normally do not hatch in a womb but in a cavern or mould in the ground, which the cavern could just as well represent. is the sleeping 'Mother's'
chamber of the spaceship,
voice. She describes
chamber as a rebirthing
Another 'womb-like'
where the astronauts
the astronauts
emerging
-site to Creed are awaken by
from their sleeping
scene:
system, and the birth of the alien. She is the generative mother, the being who exists prior to knowledge
of
the phallus.'" The pre-phallic"
on various
-sites inflated. What she descibes
to the hatching-cavern
are dark and dangerous enough as it is), is not clear, expecially Although
In my opinion,
mother is based on an
accounts.
as 'vaginal'
Braidotti's
and portrays
chord.
them as birth
Braidotti writing a
rather than a threat is a start for chang-
ing the imaginary. To complement
by Creed, who interprets
mother,
for Creed,
is everything
imagery of the alien spacecraft
that 'generates':
be it the
in which the alien eggs are hatching,
In outer space, birth is a well controlled,
clean, painless affair. There is no
blood, trauma or terror. This scene could be interpreted
as a primal phan-
tasy in which the human subject is born fully developed
- even copulation
is redundant. incestuous
The first birth scene could be viewed as a representation
desire par excellence,
for the father is completely
of
absent; here
the mother is sole parent and sole life-support." H9
Ibid, p. 172.
'" Creed, Barbara (1993): The Monstrous-Feminine. Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge, pp. 19-20. 91 The 'pre-phallic' is nevertheless phallic in our Lacanian understanding. Creed fuses Kristeva and Freud in her article to m-gue for a pre-phallic maternity omnipresent in Alien, which nevertheless amounts to the same phallic maternity that is feared in traditional psycholU1alysis. This discussion is of no importance for my argument and will not be discussed here.
Whereas
I agree that it is unusual in science-fiction
are female (board computers,
films that electronic
voices
from Star Wars to Star Trek, have traditionally
been male), I still do not see the awakening
as a birth scene, nor the relation to
the 'Mother'
as incestuous
an important
function
- she would have to be more prominent
as to be the object of desire. 'Mother'
to have such
has a function,
but
discussed by Creed. Further, why the alien, which grows in Kane's stomach and breaks through
its walls, is compared
as Ripley and other crew members appear all but helpless and are very much in
'birth'
charge,
nancy - according
'Mother'
supportive,
does not appear as pre-phallic,
omnipresent,
giving, reliable network in the background.
male can be seen as 'new', mother that 'explodes
yet I cannot
but more as a
That this network is fe-
see the potential
for a 'pre-phallic'
symbolising
a psychoanalytic,
plosion when Ripley is ejected from it at the end of the film). Further, the 'ejec-
the different,
tions' do not necessarily
determined
have to appear as births but could just as well, if seen as phallic ejaculation.
The primal scene, i.e. in Freudian rental intercourse, the crew, enters
terms the child's
(which
Creed
first confrontation
describes
are therewith
negated, repressed,
of life only
within this pres-
and turned back onto
gendered model. Creed does not allow us to admire the 'new', but assumes
we immediately
psychic structures
translate
which, obviously,
with pa-
This is the 'tyranny
of the past' Deleuze's
allows us to break with, enabling
as a gigantic,
Alien, is that generation
Investigating
thing jumps out onto Kane's
him by ejecting
womb-like
an egg, somesomething
into his mouth - a grown alien will later break through his stomach.
it back
into our pre-
must among others have been
male 'mother', reproduced
of life does not necessarily
if 'mother'
continously
with a 'maternal'
spatio-temporal
us to embrace
definition
the 'new'.
of desire
What is 'new'
Freud's reference to subjects that imagine themselves
womb watching themselves
be conceived,
being inside the
Creed reads:
is a certain position within the oedipal set-up that is
as the phallic mother'''. Especially
Alien III presents us
monster, but this monster is so un-feminine
eningly fat witches, for example)
(there are no fea-
of the group watch an enactment
which Kane is violated
as to deny stereotypical
of the primal scene
in an act of phallic penetration.
III
Kane himself is
rather 'skinny',
stereotypes,
or stig-
s/he is rather male than female (no female forms but
aerodynamically
formed with a penis-shaped
scene in Alien III where the alien confronts
guilty of the strongest transgression;
he actually peers into the egg/womb
very intimate,
threatening
In so doing, he becomes a 'part' of
indeterminacy
of the alien's gender. Could s/he eat/rape/kill
yet moving
head). The famous
Ripley, and the two have contact - a
in order to investigate
its mysteries.
threat-
comparisons,
matisation as monstrous single mother. If we do want to compare Scott's alien to our gendered
Two members
in
have to be located in a fe-
tures that remind us of the typical maternal monster, as in Walt Disney's Recalling
this
have about preg-
to Freud), again shows the given understanding
scene: Kane, a member of
chamber) where the rows of alien eggs are hatching. face and 'infertilises'
birth (she analyses
children
defined by having witnessed the primal scene, which the film will appeal to.
is read by Creed into the following a cavern
to a traditional
misunderstanding
being able to evolve from the female uterus. All the challenges entation of life-formation
at the moment of giving birth', (referring to the ship's ex-
gendered at all, be perceived
the common
scene, confuses
exactly because
the primal scene, taking up the place of the mother, the one who is pene-
shaped head snapping forward is 'phallic' ...is s/he aiming to penetrate,
trated, the one who bears to take on characteristics
sniffing to detect a fellow female, who carries her baby?
associated
bodies; in this instance man's body becomes grotesque
with female
of the
Ripley? The penisor is s/he
because it is capa-
ble of being penetrated."
Having thus seen Alien I-III various
times before reading
Creed, none of the
Oedipal imaginary Creed depicts seemed familiar to me when reading her analyTo see a man being penetrated that takes heterosexuality treats the homosexual very monstrous-feminine,
as grotesque
for 'normality',
as the deviant. yet fertilise
can only be the reading of a culture or by a psychoanalytic
reading
that
sis. But after having read the analysis, one forms an analytic memory and views the film in a different light, abandoning
How the alien can, on the one hand, be
the antiproductive
in a phallic way, is ambivalent
rialises decoded flows onto a gendered,
and not
Oedipal structure.
readings that would have led away from
Psychoanalytic
film theory, then, reterrito-
Oedipal territory,
where identities
stay
fixed the way they function as contemporary structure,
The
therewith
sustained,
powerful
'gender
war'
- phallic
identifications
mother,
The psychoanalytic
or 'bad'
supposition
reachable
and proven,
single
_ js
that they are born Of
and women have to continue
ideal of being young (controllable),
mother
that argues that men feilf
women because they do not want to be reminded
women is justified
within our capitalist
to reach the utJ-
slim (no maternal
features
thilt
would remind men of their origin - the womb), giving yet tough (not too mateJnal), just as men have to be strong, independent capitalist society,
and powerful
in contemporarY'
olitical correctness among h to be a f orm 0f P , t ere seems 'I feminism m orderto , . h ft r first deconstructmg mo ar Deleuzean femllllsts t at, a e . t't 'ms to fuse gYnocenb oming-woman agams I, al pose a Deleuzean molecular ec th d logies, But to meread , , .' and Deleuzean me 0 0 , tric or psychoanalytlc femmlsms I' 'tes' ' "culturalfemi, ake sense, When F leger wn .' ' closely, these fuslOns do not m I Iy performative effect,will ' h B tl who see gender as a arge J d nists, such as u It u er, ,, . "95 it seems that atleast notion of becommg, , h D lean probably welcome tee eUZ h I '11criticise tIllS attempted t died closely enoug, WI one of the two has not b een s u AI' gel" s fusion ofFreud , examples: Jerry me Ie fusion by concentratmg on two S heber and MoleCular [den, , h 'B 'g Woman' Deleuze, c r and Deleuze m er ecomm '. f L Irl'aaray and Deleuzein k"' fusIOn 0 uce 0' tification', and Dorothea Olkows I s Unfortunately
Fr
Psychoanalytic
readings
such as Creed's
Paglia, who base their arguments
ensure
that theorists
on Freud and evolutionary
widely accepted: that women are seen as spongy earth goddess, cave, house',
Seeing the threatening,
Creed reterritorialises
caverns, darknesses,
gel' that women represent
in a 'patriarchal'
name, to fix it. Not fixing, transgressing
engulfing,
our gendered,
coding, binary
addictive
everything society,
territorialising structures,
like CarniIle theory, are stit1
'nature',
'womb'
'unknown',
'grave,
everywhere,
'Morpho-logic:
'96
,
onto the daP'
to give the 'unknown'
it
it would leave it blurred, A liberation
.
Deleuze and Ingaray
of desire
Deleuze-Guattarian
sense would leave the unknown
ised in a productive
way, with a desire to engage with the unknown,
in it
open, let it be reterritoria1~
' 'h t deterritorialise is suggested by , 'h th t from w h Ie 0 A fuslOn Wit e s em t t d at any cost!' Thedif, , 'The tonal must be pro ec e , '. Deleuze/Guattan themselves, ,,' d Deleuzean femInist D leuze/Guattan s fUSIOn an ference, though, b etween e , d' del' to afterwards integrate , . first estabhshe m or fusions is that the difference IS , , f f Ily drawn thataloss , Fl' er similantles are orce u ' , to the stem, In Olkowski and leg" t t distinctions, It is as if theysay: . 'ff h t make the Impor an . over the fme dl erences t a h really saYing is very tl carefully what t ey are if we read Freud/Lacan/ B u er "b bl welcome': Is nottheir , h h hand I should pro a y Deleuzean, ThiS, on t e ot er , d/L !Butler can do instead ofwhat , ' lyse what Freu acan readmg one that alms to ana . blems with Deleuzean . ' I will articulate my pro . , they mean? In the followlllg, 'h hoanalytlc feministsI ,., ' t of my 'Others, t e psyc , felllllllsts harmomc treatmen f ntradicting Deleuzes , d whom I accuse 0 co , criticised in precedmg chapters an anti-dialectical
thinking.
, f b coming-woman, Flieger notesthat e , b t D I ze' s notlon 0 In the debate a ou e eU . d sarial positions, EspeCially . " ften been cast m aver Deleuze and felllllllsm have 0 . ' chno-bodies such as Anne Balsamo sceptics of the postmodernist reahtJes of te
Deleuze and Feminist Theory, p, 59. .'. mple that is very c!osetoOikowski's . . Another mterestmg exa . both in Deleuze and FemInist Theory, . her Nomadic SubJects. I" . ray and Deleuze m argument is Rosi Braidotti's fusion 0 f Jlga
95
96
fixed the way they function as contemporary structure.
The
therewith
sustained.
powerful
'gender
- phallic
identifications
mother,
The psychoanalytic
or 'bad'
supposition
and proven,
within our capitalist single
- is
that they are born of
and women have to continue
ideal of being young (controllable),
mother
that argues that men fear
women because they do not want to be reminded
women is justified reachable
war'
to reach the un-
slim (no maternal
features
that
Unfortunately
there
De1euzean feminists pose a Deleuzean
seems
to be
a form
of political
that, after first deconstructing
molecular becoming-woman
tric or psychoanalytic
feminisms
correctness
molar feminism
among
in order to
against it, aims to fuse gynocen-
and Deleuzean
methodologies.
But to me, read
would remind men of their origin - the womb), giving yet tough (not too mater-
closely, these fusions do not make sense. When Flieger writes: ' ... cultural femi-
nal), just as men have to be strong, independent
nists, such as Judith Butler, who see gender as a largely performative
and powerful
in contemporary,
probably welcome
capitalist society.
the Deleuzean
notion of 'becoming"",
effect, will
it seems that at least
one of the two has not been studied closely enough. I will criticise this attempted Psychoanalytic
readings
such as Creed's
Paglia, who base their arguments
ensure
that theorists
on Freud and evolutionary
widely accepted: that women are seen as spongy earth goddess, cave, house'.
Seeing the threatening,
Creed reterritorialises
ger that women represent
in a 'patriarchal'
name, to fix it. Not fixing, transgressing
our gendered,
Deleuze-Guattarian ised in a productive
engulfing,
caverns, darknesses, coding, binary
addictive
everything society,
territorialising structures.
fusion by concentrating
like Camille
theory,
are still
'nature',
'womb'
'unknown',
tification',
'grave,
a
it would leave it blurred,
sense would leave the unknown
Jerry Aline Flieger's
Deleuze,
Olkowski's
Schreber
fusion of Freud
and Molecular
fusion of Luce Irigaray
Iden-
and Deleuze
in
Deleuze and Irigaray'96.
onto the dan-
to give the 'unknown'
A liberation
and Dorothea
'Morpho-logic:
everywhere,
on two examples:
and Deleuze in her 'Becoming-Woman:
of desire
in a
open, let it be reterritorial-
way, with a desire to engage with the unknown.
A fusion
with
Deleuze/Guattari
the
stem
from
themselves:
which
ference, though, between Deleuze/Guattari's fusions is that the difference the stem. In Olkowski
is first established
that make the important
if we read Freud/Lacan/Butler
carefully,
is suggested
in order to afterwards
drawn that gloss
distinctions.
It is as if they say:
'probably
welcome':
I will articulate
my problems
feminists'
harmonic
of my 'Others',
the psychoanalytic
criticised
in preceding
with Deleuzean
and whom I accuse of contradicting
feminists
I
Deleuze's
thinking.
In the debate about Deleuze's
notion of becoming-woman,
Deleuze and feminism have often been cast in adversarial sceptics of the postmodernist
realities
of techno-bodies
" Deleuze and Feminist Theory, p. 59. 96 both in Deleuze and Feminist Theory. Another interesting argument
Is not their
can do instead of what
they mean? In the following,
anti -dialectical
integrate
are forcefully
reading one that aims to analyse what Freud/Lacan/Butler
chapters
feminist
what they are really saying is very
This, on the other hand, I should
treatment
by
at any cost!' The dif-
fusion and Deleuzean
and Flieger, similarities
over the fine differences Deleuzean.
to deterritorialise
'The tonal must be protected
is Rosi Braidotti's
fusion of Irigaray
and Deleuze
example
Flieger positions.
notes that Especially
such as Anne Balsamo
that is very close to Olkowski's
in her Nomadic Su/~iects.
warn against a Deleuzean (1996) Balsamo
'echoes
thetIc to postmodernism,
approach:
In her Technologies
the sentiment
of many feminists,
even those sympa-
criticise a molar feminism as constitutive
of 'woman as defined by her form, endowed
of a notion
with organs and functions
and as-
it was obvious how they could be linked to Donna Hara-
way who lacks the dystopian
tenor of other feminists when talking about cyber-
netics: 'she welcomes this permeability tumty for feminism, strictly constructed
Body
who question the erasure of the body in millenial cul-
ture"". If Deleuze/Guattari signed as a subject''',
of the Gendered
of animal-machine-human,
or for living beyond and observed
join the club: like Haraway's
the boundaries
gender ... '. Flieger
human-machine,
belies a single identity: in his becoming, posItIon but a binary apposition,
as an oppor-
imposed
by a too-
argues that 'Freud could
Freud's paraphrenic
man-woman
identification
with masculine
phrenic man-woman
at the Schreber
case, which is a subject of study for both Deleuze and Freud, Flieger argues that Freud's
than Deleuze
limited analysis of Schreber's
situation
and ignoring
the economic
schizophrenia, and political
that Freud did actually make references discriminated
acknowledges.
tion to his identification
had criticised
reducing
it to the familial
influences.
Flieger counters
to Schreber's
minority (Jews) in Germany,
Deleuze
situation
as member of a
and linked this feeling of discrimina-
with women. Was Deleuze being too oppositional?
reading seeing what Freud's
politically,
analysis
was more Deleuzean
proach,
merely focusing on the 'schizzes that Deleuze's
as intensities
dismissal
aimIng
A
than Deleuze's
of Schreber
and becoming-Other
is seen as pathologi-
pathology
as a political
the
act. It is exactly this ditIer-
that is the difference
between
Freud and Deleuze, and I wonder why we have to embrace Freud if Deleuze not only has his own language to articulate in a more productive
Schreber's
politicality,
but also does so
manner for a feminist rewriting of difference.
Another link is attempted by Flieger between Deleuzean by comparing
Deleuze's
becoming-Other
discription
schizoanalysis
in an act of commingling'
of two beings were actual evolutions:
chain, each partner signifying
Other. The signifying
, and this fusion was productive
schizoanalysis,
of of
the Other but not actually being the
ehain is proof of the constitutive
guage, and of the constitutive Deleuze's
no organ-
and individuation,
JIlJ.The 'desire of the Other' was also an intrication
one being in another, an 'act of commingling' the signifying
and psy-
of becoming to Lacanian desire.
ism remains in itself but is always drawn out of its 'isolation
lack of the subject,
lack of meaning in lan-
of his desire of the Other.
though aims to refute the idea of signification
at the
base of desire, for him, there is a sexual relation, and this is real becoming. It could be said that the orchid imitates the wasp, reproducing
anti-
to study
intensities
and flows', the molecular
transforcase'J<XI.I
focus on intensities
have their own materiality
is his own micropolitical (difference) In Schreber's
fashion (mimesis,
a veritable
attributed to or subjugated
that can be emcase, he analy-
De/euze and Feminist Theory, p. 41. 10J
Ibid, p. 55.
l)l)
102 ThOlLr,'Wld
Plateaus, p. 10.
else
of code, surplus
becoming,
a becoming-
of the wasp ... There is neither
only an exploding
on a line of flight composed
ap-
"' Thousand Plateau.\', p. 275.
Deleuze and Feminist Theory, p. 60. J<XI Ibid, p. 51.
at all but a capture
wasp of the orchid and a becoming-orchid imitation nor resemblance,
its image in
mimicry, lure, etc.) ... [but] something
is going on: not imitation
value of code, an increase in valence,
non-
of ideology in Schreber's
ployed to account for an active becoming-woman. "7
this non-identity
material becoming-Other
a signifying
of Schreber,
mation, left us 'with the troubling counter-argue
psychoanalysis,
ence between
entirely Deleuze's
para-
and Deleuze would argue, materi-
analysis 'can do', namely effecting a socio-political
critique of anti-Semitic Germany, Freudian reading himself. Further,
of an
cal, and has to be reversed through therapy, whereas Deleuze schizoanalyses
The Deleuzean
Freud is more Deleuzean
and flows' that expresses
belies a single identity',
ally so. But, in Freudian
choanalysis
man is de-positioned'"".
How does Flieger deduct such a notion from Freud? Looking
a rejection
power. Flieger is surely right that 'Freud's
man-woman
is no longer a binary op-
whereby majoritarian
ses a plane of intensity of 'schizzes
of two heterogeneous
series
by a common rhizome that can no longer be
to anything signifying. J02
But Flieger argues that Deleuze's signifying Freud:
chain, and that this signifying
'For the signifying
calls "the compulsion 'intensities duction,
notion of becoming
did not really escape the
chain could be led from Lacan back to
chain is [ ... ] an elaboration
to repeat",
associated
of the drive that Freud
with the death drive',
which were
that, in a sense, do not satisfy or annul desire, but feed desiring pro-
perpetuating
actions that are 'meaningful'
tion, in response to a compulsion
only by dint of their repeti-
Although tracted
the eternally
wanted to prove in relation
something
other than the Lacanian
of Deleuzean
pleasure
death-drive
principle
and corresponding
severe misreading; ating
potential.
Freud's
it distorts Deleuze's Deleuzes
notion of becoming
theorisation
pleasure principle,
becoming
with the Freudian
is based, in my opinion,
but the difference
to Lacanian
certainly
owes
to
desire is crucial. La-
can's rewriting of the Freudian relation between the pleasure and reality principle'lil aimed to prove their incommensurability, real'. The trauma - the real-
which he theorised
can never be abreacted,
larly, in Deleuze, anti production
represses
a constitutive
pressed is - contrary to Lacan - not predetermined. tutive for the 'desire of the Other', liberating
potential
of Deleuzean
and reorientation
feminism.
of each organism,
opposite
of Lacanian
opening
Simi-
outside, but what is re-
The Lacanian
Becoming
'real' as consti-
is 'not an imitation
The wasp-orchid
a dislocating
identification
it to becoming-other'
desire: the past of the organism
although it can be associated
or
which "forgets"
is never forgotten,
with Deleuzean
chain, proof of a constitutive
repetition,
is arbitrary
whereas,
based on a 'real' that cannot be dissociated
coming-Other,
and I completely
zome deterritorialises plication
of
criminating
The
in a Lacanian
(1992):
The Seminar
ol'Jacques
"" Thousand Plateaus, p. 10.
does
hide
the
Deleuze
and Butler,
notion of becoming,
saying
rhi-
though,
that
out of a quest to
in the clinical practice in rela-
patients such as Schreber, that
Butler
and this was 'especially
or masking, which characterises
still follows a very diswhen Fliegel' wants would
welcome
the
true of 'cross-dressing' the mutual lure of the
orchid and the wasp' "", and later: But the joke is on no one, for in becoming-other,
spark
that
cally, one finds "survival"
at the expense
other ... the surviving of the fittest becomes
of "identity", the conniving
by becomingof the wittiest -
as when the orchid "dresses" to fool the wasp. In this molecular play of in-
ignites
Freud, repetition
every "one" loses face
and identity, and finds creative solutions, ways to gain pleasure. Paradoxi-
16
tensities, the orchid is a transvestite,
is
cross-dressing
luring the wasp with a material wit."
IIl5
is a parodic
performance
that which is lost or could never be obtained,
LeLCan,Book VfT: The Ethics 01' Psychoanalysis. NOiton.
in a mutual be-
fact,
did evolve
from a union with the (m)other.
Trans. by Dennis Porter. New York and London:
to
Her very witty ap-
ontology. In this light, then, it is also worrying
to compare Deleuzean
engaged
thought as 'conductor'.
methodology
gued in chapter two, emphasises
Jacques
his potential
future.
dogma that, especially
tion to schizophrenic/paranoid
mourning
1959-1960.
in this way is thwarting
terminology
schizophrenic
combat the psychoanalytic
In Butler though,
"" Lacan,
of
that is affirma-
agree with her that a Deleuzean-feminist
from Freudian
Deleuzean
Deleuze/Guattari's
implies a
memory that in Deleuze is opened up to the material changes of
repetition
Deleuze
Fliegel' argues that Deleuze and Freud are themselves
sexuality. The pleas-
are contingent
Deleuzean
and misreading
lack, but a becoming
propel feminism into a new and unpredictable
it re-
fixed corporeal
on the environment.
but a becoming
"~, which is exactly the
duration,
that
'there is no sexual relation';
what
that was
gether, he is talking about their product, which, to him, is not the reproduction
as a kind of performance
effects a disorientation
mains 'the tyranny of the past' that frames and formulates ure principle,
'the
a desire that can never be filled, opposes the
tracing, but a mapping and connection. the past of the organism,
through
as it is inaccessible.
desire,
in a
and forfeits its liber-
of antiproduction
of Lacanian
to their fusion was a becoming
that does fill a desire, that is desire in itself. He is not asking why they come to-
tive. Ignoring This nexus spun from the association
law, that the orchid and the wasp will be at-
to each other, might seem like an analogy
Deleuze
a signifying
to repeat.'
recurring
Deleuze and Feminist Theory, p. 59.
11l61bid, p. 61.
. and expressIOn
of
which, as has been ar-
the original and unresolvable
desire based on
gender binarism. 'forgets
It is very far fj-om a cross-dressing,
the past of the organism',
mourmng,
expressed
as essentIally
that is de-individuated:
1J1the parodic performance,
hi-sexual.
that
on the contrar;,
re-individuates
the
the performer
As shown, Butler is far from agreeing with De]euze, as
his Idea of desire as affirmation,
not lack, is opposed to her theoretical
ology that refers to psychoanalysis.
Cross-dressing,
actly the mimesIs and mimicry Deleuze's Similarly,
a becoming-Other
method-
as the word implies, is ex-
becoming-Other
opposes.
could actually be exemplified
in l'ecriturefeminine,
as its sub-
versive practice (that does not have to be limited to women writers), notably in Ingaray's Mater':
sensual lyric in This Sex Which is Not One, or in Kristeva's 'written [...
J
with the same" molecular"
coming" as, say, Deleuze's
ter', though, is an essay in which Kristeva does present 'graphic s~ges on becollung-mother' of becomll1g-other'~
"J7
'Stabat Ma-·
and lurid pas-
that are 'imbued with the transformative
But, I argue, Kristeva's
'Stabat
atomised material sense of "be-
chapters on "faciaIity" and "rhizome".'
experience
certainly
presentlllg
aims to be subversive
calnatures
in respect
multiple was still subordinate
to relations,
whereas
terms and independent
world was 'an open whole that guaranteed
transformation'''l9.
erence to the concept of becoming-woman, girl, to Irigaray,
actly this gyno-centred Olkowski's
difference
being here, and in ref-
that for Irigaray, the girl has a sexu-
description
was characterised
by virginity.
speak would be to insert mo-
Let us follow her argument:
'The becoming-woman
of any 'molar'
cepts correspond
Olkowski
then proceeds
by castration
to compare
or its threat.'
to Deleuze's,
The somewhat
of the female body to the
having a very gyno-centric
vision of what makes her
dizzying result of this kind of thinking
multi-dimensional
cycli-
a multiplicity
body, the assemblage
of behaviours
fixed bodies
molecules
con-
for all the becomings
constituted
strands together,
are a powerful
by analogy.
contagion,
Woman
both lrigaray
logiC that could pass through the dualisms constructed and legal institutions,
JIJ7 IOS
and Deleuze
by language and by social
The Kristeva
Reader.
Oxford:
Blackwell
Publishers
Ltd ..
the structure. Her and mucosity.
of Huidity, all those words that or woman's
luminous
body
JlO
of forces
here,
so prominent
Nietzsche,
or molecules,
in Deleuze's
are always
already
and the Ruin of Representation,
p. )03.
Irigaray - even while insisting on fluidity - retained an es-
Ibid, p. 59. see Tori! Moi, ed. (1997):
sought a
is
itself _ may then enter, for the first time ever, into our knowledge. Where can we detect the anti-phenomenological,
that although
the
as becoming
spread by symbiosis
vulvar, the clitoral, the vaginal, the placental,
be contructed. does acknowledge
of sexual forces,
that pass between
are so distasteful because they express the body of woman - the uteral, the
a
creative and original point of view on certain feminist problems or issues might
Olkowski
is the multiple and
of a multiplicity
And if we succeed in a logic and language
but Irigaray, contrary to some opinion, did actuBy folding the two theoretical
Problematically,
the 'molecules'
'molecular':
attempt to fuse Deleuze with Trigaray, and her defence
dichotomies.
male or fe-
male', is, as its limit, 'what Deleuze and Guattari call the Body Without Organs, that is, the body not organised
thus anomic, against and outside the rule, the principle,
ally challenge
and
And it is ex-
of woman that, to me, makes her molar. In
view, though, to make the gyno-centric
powerful,
Not only did some of Irigaray's
the
lecular woman into language.
and fertility reiterates the gender war.
of lrigaray against exactly this accusation.
For lrigaray,
alised body that is different from the boys prior to the Oedipal intervention,
a Huidity that is normally absent in our way of thinking and speaking.
This links us to Olkowski
Deleuze's of them: the
to the unity of being, while in Deleuze, multiplic-
ity inhabited each thing. Their most prominent
as it tries to create another language,
But, as Butler argues and I argued before, to base this Huidity in women's
framework
of relations left them in-between
notion of the molecular,
essay tightly defines the 'becoming'
a woman has trachtlOnally been limited to: virgin, mother, or whore. "'" Ecriture feminine
and totalising
this pre-Oedipal
fusing Delcuze with Kristeva seems just as risky. Flieger argues that
becOll1lng-Other
sentialist conception
109
Gilles De/euze
JlO
Ibid, p. 107, my italics.
Foucauldian/Nietzschean idea coded.
of becoming? What
Atoms,
idea to
makes a woman's
body more symbiotic, predetermined molecular,
who defines the quantity of mucus? How then, does this
conception
of the female body fit into a becoming
when it is exactly
gyno-centric
this limited
notion of woman
multiple and
(as reproductive,
machine) could be seen as a molar term?
Rosi Braidotti follows a similar line of argumentation tions on a Bergsonian Nevertheless, non-sexed
language
reading of Irigaray, the womb has no consciousness,
memory or
and is defined as the opposite to the male logos; 'there is no access to
through ecriture feminine
woman as endowed
and stuttering of that which remains below the level of the type can be
colonialism,
heard'
A language that wants to account for 'real' difference
Europe as well as 'man'
express
multiplicity,
babbling
a single word can never be uttered
and stuttering
Woman's
multiple
logic into language, is mythologised
of that which remains
sexuality,
muting
'the
the level of the type'.
This Sex Which is Not One, can bring this new
so that it does not remain outside of language
anymore and
Supporting
Irigaray in this con~ic-
instead of deconstructing
by her organs. Interestingly,
she does acknowledge
th~ molar notion of
comparing
terrumsm
that, if looked at closely,
- bursts into a thousand
to post-
the oppresso:
-
tiny races and sexes. But m-.
stead of concluding that articulating these molecules might take the power out ot .' . . t t'ng a feminine symbohc. Altheir oppressive force, she mSlsts on cons ruc I . though, following Irigaray, she considers this feminininity to be 'still blank', It is and remains an Other to masculinity.
as the Other, the mad: the myth of woman as speaking hysteria.
The goal, for Irigaray, Deleuze, non-pathological incide.
below
without
than my
Braidotti confirms that lrigaray beheves
basis of sexual difference.
the Platonic cave and its wisdom; the logos does not set up a space in which the must be able to
philosophy.
seems to enforce the notion of a nomadic nomos and a becommg-
babbling III.
Her elabora-
her work remains more closely tied to ecriture feminine
tion Braidotti wo~an
as Olkowski.
have helped to promote Deleuzean
notion of becoming-woman.
in the ontological
In Olkowski's
becoming
and Olkowski,
multiplicity/fluidity,
is for us all to be able to speak
and it is here where they definitely all co-
In her Nomadic Subjects, a whole chapter is devoted to the 'feminisation ture' she envisages engage
through Irigaray.
in some severe
man-bashing,
of cul-
She warns the reader that she. is about to knowing
that this is not gOing to help
feminism in the long run: But why can only female sexuality bring this schizophrenia mittedly,
Perfectly
but, as I have aimed to establish, this is a cultural coding based on a
advance
binary that locked feminism Other inscribes
position:
hysteria
aware of the fact that I am lapsing into a polemic that may not the feminist cause very far in the long run, I shall nevertheless ll2
a focus on woman as
gleefully enjoy the whole performance.
the binary once more into the sexes. Even if man is invited to realm, where is the theory that explains
to do so? If woman is the one who is fluid, why would man fol-
low into becoming-woman? the reproductive becomings,
been coded as embodied
in its oppressed
follow into the multiple schizophrenic his disposition
be anything,
Adand
the female body has culturally
multiplicity,
into language?
Women can see the light where men just stare into empty space, watching
Is she then not, once again, as in psychoanalysis,
monster-mother
if woman holds the potential
of a multitude of identities
or rather,
she is not man's Other anymore. Without fear of her difference,
can follow into becoming-Other:
the downfall
man always has to hate? If though, woman can
he will be affected if her becoming-Other
dures, if we can create n-l multiplicities.
of the phallic monuments
by and for themselves.
and documents
they have erected
In
he en-
If the oppressor
is not homogenous,
was it all men who erected these monu-
ments? Is it all women who can see the light? Certainly, for is a becoming-Other
112
Nomadic Su~iects, p. 136.
1131bid., p. 130.
of a gyno-centric
what could be Wished
notion of woman, a notion of woman
that opens up to hermaphrodites that embraces
and cyborgs. A Harawayan
notion of feminism
change, also bodily change in the form of cybernetics,
becoming-Other
of feminism that Irigaray/Balsamo/Gallop
is such a
etc. are far from, but
Deleuze/Guattari
have served as a stem for, a stem 'that has to be kept at any cost'. It is a stem
Anti-Oedipus,
that serves as a base for a molecular
difference
politics representing
exactly those women
who wish to define as ontologie ally different to man, who define themselves mucotic-symbiotic.
From this stem, rhizomes
can be webbed,
some towards a different future. Just as psychoanalytic stem from which Deleuze/Guattari lytic methodology,
that might lead
accounts,
have spun their rhizomes
as
which are the
into a schizoana-
have to be kept in order to have a safety net to fall back on.
They present something
that is known and has grown deep roots: that is fascist,
but at least not empty. Deleuze/Guattari,
always aiming to stay in the middle
between the two modes of being, advise not to eradicate it, and to always come
accuse postmodernism Deleuze/Guattari
between postmodernist
the important
above. Holding on to psychoanalytic
of consumerism
If it is true that it is of the essence of a map or rhizome to have multiple entryways,
then it is plausible
or the root-tree,
[... ]. For example, with signifying spite of itself..
the necessary
precautions
are taken
and subjective
affections,
to find a foothold,
in
essentialism,
knowledge
Cultural Studies for having deconstructed
they would ac-
'high' art and culture. Yet,
critique had not moved far enough outside of the representations Only by creating new texts (such as A Thousand
one that could end the reign of Oedipus. Desire cannot be spoken about in the abstract, living and creating it. A liberation
as one can only know desire by
of desire, therefore,
with living desires, deterritorializing
duced by the stratification
meanings
will have to be occupied
according
critieria of schizoanalysis This return to the stem is different, is important
though, to a mutual becoming-Other.
to highlight
And
in order to remind us that deterritoriali-
where there was fascism.
It is a paradox
of desire under capitalism,
only be described by schizoanlalysis.
Therefore,
to one's own senses
that schizoanalysis
of desire. The remarkable isting mode of discourse. Schizoanalysis,
by contrast, it
to whether it is able to effect a production
magnum opus, A Thousand and recoding
Plateaus,
Thousand Plateaus, pp. 14-5. Ibid, p. 19.
provides
according to any ex-
I
then, is to bring into representation
the unthinkable.
only be done if one becomes aware of one's own location and limitations
115
can
it cannot be critically as-
sessed to see whether it conforms to some model of 'truth'; can only be assessed according
is pro-
but this stratification
the
are entirely immanent:
the evidence: it escapes comprehension
114
Pla-
new be created. Only creation is a true cultural critique,
and values, and speaking about the various desires that exist. Desire is not pre-
.114
sation began somewhere
or mere inter-
Just as they accredit Lacan
made one step away from Freudian
existent but needs to be constructed.
this difference
interpretation,
that one could even enter them through
assuming
one will often be forced to take dead ends, to work
powers
of schizoanalysis
which are often found in cul-
tural studies texts, could be seen to be conservative.
teaus) could something
tracings
as cultural expressions
for having
postmodernist
The
it is not enough to explain concepts,
thing is to create, which is the ethical dimension
as described pretation
even if, in
as the final solution.
and schizo analytic methods is between inter-
pretation and creation. With schizoanalysis,
erected within capitalism.
back to it. To repeat a quote from the introduction:
of giving into consumerism,
do not see Marxism
This can in rela-
tion to the unthinkable, and capitalism.
i.e. by reading Deleuze/Guattari's
But this genealogy
genealogy
of Oedipus
will only explore the strata in order to find
lines of escape that one could take, as the analysis of one's formation
me to write this thesis and to attempt my own Deleuzean
alone will
not lead one to invest desire into new formative practices. Unlike psychoanalysis
As long as there are texts, sites, subjects presenting
- or Judith Butler - , Deleuze/Guattari
sires (such as Deleuze/Guattari
the past in order to 'heal' about
by
practising
Deleuze/Guattari's tempt
it,
and
The liberation
investing
deconstructive
at practising
do not believe in a simple regression
an individual.
in
new
By practising
and people
as an at-
receiving
is a possibility structures
formations.
style of writing could be described
the outside.
into
of desire can only corne
desire
it, new
that poses itself in this theoretical
people to invest in the 'new',
the 'outside'?
and Schizophrenia,
The feminist dilemma as described could
ever escape
one's
approach
themselves
in the preceding
puzzled
with a difficult
text?
chapters had been how one
how one's
oneself with something
feminism
is: what will bring
Why would anyone, for example,
confront
own subjectification,
would allow one to confront desire. Psychoanalytic
desiring-structure
one did not immediately
over jouissance
as a fixed drive, or
Ernest Jones' fear of aphanisis. As Rosi Braidotti tion Deleuze memory
points out in her article 'Teratologies',
can make to feminist
can challenge
Bergsonian
reading of a continuous
'tyranny
Basically,
of memory as a centralized
then, if the unconscious
new memories
approach
of the past'.
Through
present, Deleuze had redefined
and productive:
'Deleuze's
tion of memory as a nomadic or deterritorializing lished definitions
the biggest contribu-
theory is that his materialist
the psychoanalytic
scious as forward-propelling
the uncon-
'minoritarian'
defini-
force runs against the estab-
data bank of frozen information'
can change as a result of the formation
made, people can change,
to his
as can their desires.
2.
of
The question,
then, is not anymore how one comes to invest in that which one does not immediatly desire and which might cause aphanisis: 'outside',
if desire endures.
has been employed
in their work), as long as they are present, there
that people will invest in them, be confronted
will change, anti production
by them: desiring-
will give way to real encounter.
Capitalism
by feminist theorists.
it just happens, if the 'other',
and Schizophrenia
exists, endures,
the and
It has inf1uenced me, and has inspired
The fol-
lowing chapter, then, was written to add to the body of work that shows what texts can do beyond their being mapped onto psychoanalytic reasoning.
read Capitalism
desire, living their own de-
representations,
see what desires they can reveal beyond those that are legitimised
memories will be formed. The question
analysis of the follow-
ing plays by Sarah Kane in order to show the molecular beyond the molar.
cho-logical
Enjoy: see what we can make them do; see what 'things' gendered identities we can describe.
to
by Oedipal beyond psy-
and actively deconstructing empty, she overdoses In the following,
I want to apply Deleuzean
theory to two texts by the late play-
wright Sarah Kane, that, in my mind, can be read as instances woman, becoming psychoanalytic
BwO, if we refrain from mapping them onto the known, onto
concepts.
I will here follow an ethics of 'doing',
therewith
releasing their becoming
stratified,
present - as Rosi Braidotti
trism did not program psychoanalytic
of becoming-
beyond stratification.
They would, if left un-
would say - 'everything
us to become"
of reading and
that phallogocen-
and thus, portray a becoming
teleology that describes the constitution
Hegelian
notions of identity and desire. Kane runs
on her experiment.
She fails on the road of making herself
a BwO. The focus lies, in this analysis,
on becoming:
ends, a becoming
change. A belief in the power of dura-
we define as ongoing
tion could have shown Kane that active and reactive life if the tonal is kept. In focusing
it is the becoming can alternate
on her own becoming
Kane
throughout
- not interpreting
life from the being of death - we can see shifts in her imaginary,
her
we can see mul-
tiple identities and desires, and we can perceive her being in-between.
beyond a
of the gendered subject.
4.48 Psychosis
describes
Sarah Kane's
own process
of becoming-woman
and
making herself a BwO which, sadly, ends in suicide. David Greig writes about 4.48 Psychosis
is a complicated
cape from Oedipalisation
example of becoming-woman:
that ends in suicide. Simultaneously,
shows the making of a BwO; in its constant deterritorialisation be described
a successive
es-
4.48 Psychosis
4.48 Psychosis
that the difficulty of assigning
Sarah Kane is that throughout a problematic
as BwO. Crave will be shown to have just such deterritorialising
Kane's
Psychosis
to escape
world we can territorialise rectors'
fixed gender
identities
going back to psychological
interpretations
as well as a psycho-logic,
between
active and reactive,
more actors. The mind that is the
is the psychotic
mind. A mind which is the
author, and which is also more than the author. It's a mind that the play's
of her play Crave show, we will again see - as we did in
alternation
4.48
is not a letter from one person to another but a play, intended to
subject of the play's fragments
open form allows the audience to enter and recognise
Alien - how different readings allow different room for what a text 'can do'. Sarah Kane's
against its own lim-
Why should her authorial self be any different?
be voiced by at least one and probably
'stems' in order to stay rooted in a
from, can be found in both texts. But, as different di-
used to describe a becoming
Kane's work, the self is
and fluid entity, shifting and struggling
its, and transforming.
attempts
to
the text itself can
potential, but two different stagings of Crave show how it can be re-Oedipalised. while frequently
the play's internal monologues
themselves
4
within.
full and empty, can be
beyond a Hegelian teleology or Lacanian determin-
ism. The 'light' we will see her following
It should be said of all art that, in relation to the percepts or visions they
is not based in the tyranny of the past
- it is not the union with the (m)other she craves. On the contrary, the 'light' she
give us, artists are presenters
strives for and aims to attain in death is a union of active and reactive, of Hege-
fects. They not only create them in their work, they give them to us and
lian acknowledgement
make us become with them, they draw us into the compound.'
ating between
and Nietzschean
these extremes
gramme of experimentation. cho-logic
that conceives
affirmation;
throughout
it is schizophrenic.
the play, she follows
desire as following
can prove an ongoing change of the imaginary.
and creators
of af-
her own pro-
It is this dual form of desiring that counters a psythe union with the (m)other,
and
Her failure, her running empty,
giving into reactive desire - wanting to be affirmed in vanishing gelian line of argument.
Fluctu-
of affects, the inventors
Sarah Kane's
compounds
into which we are drawn and in which we become-
Other, perhaps become-multiple, ties. One compound
invite us to let go of fixed (gendered)
is four different
identi-
voices in Crave making up one identity;
- follows a He-
But Kane had no desire for death. She was continously 4
Greig,
David:
Introduction
Ltd., p. xvii. , What Is Philosophy,
p. 175.
to Kane,
Sarah
(200 l): Complete
Plays. London:
Methuen
Publishing
another compound
is the connection
sis. These interplays come-psychotic, Deleuze/Guattari
of two opposing sentiments
allow the flash of lightning
realise
our intrinsic
psychosis
in 4.48 Psycho-
to strike, enabling
us to be-
(or rather, schizophrenia6),
would argue, the transcendental
schizophrenia
as
at the base of
Four years ago, I started an essay on Sarah Kane's Phaedra's lowing words: 'Sarah Kane is lucky: only twenty-six
identity that shows itself in the affect, in the instant that a piece of art can con-
few women playwrights
serve, but that Kane as human being aims to hold eternally, makes herself guilty
being staged in Europe with great media furore.' Just six months later, she killed
of wanting to keep. Reminding access
us of Goethe's
truth, in his unhappiness
Faust, who, in his eternal want to
of being unknowingly
flirts with the devil,
herself. The following of depression.
to be successful.
Love with the fol-
years old, and one of the
is an analysis of her last play written during her last bout
Critics have recurringly
warned against analysing
the light of her own mental condition
Mephistopheles:
After Blasted, Phaedra' s Love is now
and suicide, as it risks ignoring her skills
as a writer'. Her great talent in managing If ever I lie down in idleness and contentment,
and ironically
re-interpreting
let that be the end of me, let that be final.
signs that could have predicted classical
If you can delude me into feeling pleased with myself, if your good things ever get the better of me,
duced to the poetic outpourings
then may that day be my last day.
shows an impressive
her suicide;
psychoanalytic
diversity
different
literary genres, mixing them
them is often overlooked
rected towards
in the search for hidden
and I assume this criticism
readings.
of a so-called
Kane's
work cannot
suicidal
psychotic:
of literary skills in dealing
and power that has been discussed
Kane's work in
elsewhere'.
is dibe re-
her work
with love, violence
I will, in this chapter,
neverthe-
If ever the passing moment is such that I wish it not to pass
less intentionally
and I say to it 'You are beautiful,
stay awhile',
logues of 4.48 Psychosis,
realising that I am committing
then let that be my finish. The clock can stop.
pas. I do this consciously
not in order to discuss her work in the light of her sui-
You can put me in chains and ring the death-bell.'
cide but in the light of her active creation of her own BwO. I am doing this to
equate Kane the writer with the voice of the internal
see what a Deleuzean
mono-
capital faux-
feminist approach could do with her text, not with her sui-
cide. I am not reading her backwards, On 20 February
a critic's
I am reading her in her becoming.
1999 Sarah Kane was found dead in the hospital
rushed to two days earlier after having swallowed
she had been
ISO anti-depressants
and 50
sleeping pills. The nurses had merely turned their backs for 90 minutes, enough time for Kane to hang herself on her tied shoelaces She had just finished 4.48 Psychosis,
in a toilet close to her room.
in which the protagonist
describes
a possi-
ble suicide thus:
6
In Anti-Oedipus, Deleuze/Guattari
chapter 'van
on neurosis
and psychosis
present psychosis they generously
Goethe, l.W. (1999): Faust. London:
and schizophrenia
exchange
David Campbell
as closely connected:
one for the other. Publishers
Ltd., p. 787.
in their
Hsee David Greigls introduction Guardian, 28th February , Ibid.
1999.
Sarah Kane's
Complete
Plays,
or James
Macdonald
on Kane in The
herself questionsl2:
she ironically
reports her psychiatric
diagnosis
and, with the
dry, black humour she was known for, describes the 'real' pathologies the medication
Sertraline, 50mg. Insomnia worsened, - It wouldn't
work. You'd
start to feel sleepy from the overdose
and wouldn't
have the energy to cut
dal thoughts,
caused by
perscribed:
plans and intention.
severe anxiety, anorexia, (weight loss 17kgs,) increase in suici-
Discontinued
[medication]
following
hospitalization.
your wrists.
Kane offers us a confusion can do':
negative
pathological
are being questioned.
to copulate
(or reproduce?),
nosed as pathological? Deleuzean Please don't cut me up to find out how I died
methodology
actly what Deleuze
of actions
and emotions
hitherto
Why is not eating, not sleeping,
feeling
desperate
and having
On the other hand, this questioning,
pears to be a complete
I'll tell you how I died
about 'what a text means' and gives hints at 'what it
connotations
of schizoanalysis, emptying
does actually
gerous', J had
the creation
of one's very own 'program
Swallowed
'Don't
overdose.'
of experimentation'
glorifies
the
concur with what ap-
Deleuze
challenges
the
was 'sad' and 'dan-
in order to create it, as we saw
suicide - part of an 'anti psychiatric
of the program' '" or pure pathology?
proof that schizoanalysis
diag-
of one's very own BwO, and the invention
in chapter three. Is suicide - Sarah Kane's experimentation
as
of her BwO: it leads to suicide, she does ex-
warns against:
and advocates
a death-wish which resembles
idea that being tired of one's body and its specific functions Everything
defined
not wishing
destruction,
Is her desire to die, then,
illness,
suicide, etc, as so often
has been suggested and which I aimed to refute in chapter three? As critical theorists, termination
how can we interpret,
describe,
deal with such a strong de-
to die, in a literary text as well as in the creator of the cultural text
herself? In a Deleuzean
perception
of a text, I should rather ask: What can this
text do?
It is not. To make oneself based on active behaviour return. Schizoanalysis,
which looks for the schizophreuia
in order to reveal lines of flight that can be explored BwO, to become-woman,
We here have the chance to apply a Deleuzean one that would describe
a BwO, to become-woman,
Kane as suffering
)0
Kane, Sarah (2000): 4.48 Psychosis.
II
Ibid, p. 39.
London:
Methuen
reading versus a psychoanalytic
from 'pathological
Publishing
Ltd., p. 8/9.
grief', which she
don't
aims to tread carefully:
do it with a sledgehammer,
overdose,
is an ethical program;
as defined through that which is tested by the eternal at the base of a body,
and followed to construct
is a danger. You
you use a very fine file.'"
Sarah Kane did
and one could argue that by doing so, she failed the programme
12
Ibid, p. 21.
13
Thousand
14
Ibid, p. 160.
Plateaus,
p. 151.
a
' ... overdose
of
experimentation.
Deleuze
would argue that a rushed form of self-destruction
fication of rhizomatics
that does not do justice to Deleuze's
was a brutal emptying of one's BwO. In Kane's case, though, I aim to show that
scribed programme
her suicide is not an emptying, but a becoming that mounts into a being. It is this
that obscures his theoretical
being that Deleuze would have condemned,
of experimentation
against overdosing
must be protected
criticism
heritage on the other.
After having shown itself as glimpse - described ning - schizophrenia
advised
on the one hand, and attracting
de-
even if what she ends up being is a
Body without Organs. Deleuze
very carefully
on actively
affirming
oneself:
at any cost!', is the line from Castaneda's
'The tonal
Tales of Power he
the instant, the lightning,
a flash of light-
that cannot be kept or
attained in life, and should not even be aimed for. A 'BwO is a limit, it can't be reached'17, argue Deleuze/Guattari,
and this must be understood
a BwO must undergo constant deterritorializaton:
as meaning that
it cannot be, it cannot consti-
cites in A Thousand Plateaus";
and Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis
imperative
in her own life: Whereas, on the one hand, she is
tute an eternal, religious light. Kane's making of her own BwO constantly
herself in great depth, as I will show, she at the
nates between full and empty, active and reactive. Kane is making her own BwO
is put into operation
able to skilfully psychoanalyse same time ridicules
her psychiatrist
for being enclosed
shows how this
remains
in her playas
in his own system that
as well as creating a work of art as BwO. 4.48 Psychosis
alter-
is a BwO in itself, that,
she exceeds in her desires, in her needs. Does she lack, or does the dialectical
as a work of art, keeps exactly this balance between full and empty: it creates an
concept of lack close off our view towards
affect, a moment of nonhuman
keeps us inbetween, providing
protecting
alternative
ways of desiring?
the tonal but challenging
Kane
it at the same time,
lines of flight, and even in her death she is not sure which to believe -
the psychoanalytic,
or her own judgement,
which to me represents
and it is exactly
a true becoming-woman.
becomings
of man'" that can, in life, only exist in
an instant, but as a work of art, as an emotion perceived can endure and recur: a bloc or being of sensations
through a work of art,
is extracted.
this in-between
Of course, with death herself,
her becoming ends and mounts into a being. In 4.48 Psychosis, Deleuze's
warning:
derstanding
'The tonal must be protected
Sarah Kane's
suicide in a way that shows us how Deleuze's
fascist visions - by making ourselves not be confused
BwO's
with the shizophrenia
through
that underlies
dinates on which a BwO constantly mania''', this relationship
at any cost!' gives clues to un-
unfolds.
active becoming
is too often unreflectively
simplified,
antidelineated
should
performers. psychotic
Deleuze-o-
voices, and no textual indication The same fragmentation mind experiences,
is literally
ing place between figures that resemble " Ibid, p. 162 I am thinking
of a paper presented
by Manuel
History, on Deleuze and generic algorhythm 200 l. Arguing
fused with population ergy vs extensive to become supposed be risking
different
thinking
quantities
more creative; confusing
such as defined
anything
between
by creating
properly,
notion
by architectural
where
population
of British topological
of intensive structure) thinking
remotely
to do with 'multiplicity' 'multiplicity'
to the mathematical
with 'Deleuzianism',
nolo
creation
multiplicities Academia
a doctor and a patient. Unnamed,
of a suicidal psychosis.
A landscape
enwere
seems to
where there is a
of something
new and
Thousand Plateaus, p. 150. " What Is Philosophy, p. 169.
17
'9
Greig, David (200 I): Introduction
of the
of dialogues tak-
might also be a lover, a friend, or perhaps the pa-
in order for generic algorhythm
existed.
in the structure
and fragments
to Complete Plays, p. xvi.
the internal
more extreme and pitiless
even than those described in her four previous plays.'"
had to be
(i.e. gravitational
reflected
own dialogue with himself. The whole play describes
landscape
on 4th June
mathematics
and Deleuzean
and the active formula
Architects
quantities
BwO is to move beyond that what already
mathematical
according
algorhythm
and the Deleuzean
I wondered
to meet. To become
great difference
at the Royal Institute
that, in order to use generic
tient's
de Landa, author of A Thousand Years or Non-Linear
of the number or gender of the
of self, the losing of borders that the
piece. The writing consists of monologues
leading to a glori-
the voice of authority 16
to such an edge that
there are no
the other as a grid of coor-
In todays fashionable
Sarah Kane had pushed formal elements
Is it necessarily
the landscape
rather, a questioning the pathological?
of suicidal psychosis
of structures,
authorial
voices and fixed identities
David Greig rightly describes
Kane that was her clearest,
that we encounter?
'when the confusion
Is it not beyond
4.48 a.m. as the moment of psychosis
for
seemed to evapo-
rate', and argued that 'the paradox in the play is that the moment of clarity in the ps~chotic
mind is, to those outside it, the moment when delusion is at its strong-
est. It IS this paradox which, as I will later argue, renders 4.48 Psychosis of art in the Deleuzean
a work
sense of creating an affect. I do not believe Kane primar-
ily mmed to portray a psychotic
landscape
but to question the pathology
of psy-
choSIs. Greig actually insinuates
this himself when writing: 'The mind that is the
subject of the play's fragments
is the psychotic
mind. A mind which is the au-
t,hor, and which is also more than the author. It's a mind that the play's form allows the audience to enter and recognise recognise
ourselves
within a psychotic
Kane writes schizoanalytic, Paradoxes,
unresolvable
themselves
within.,2() If we can
mind, is not psychosis
revealing the psychotic in everyone
and left unresolved construction
part of all of us? of our selves.
congruous,
reality are in agreement. There is no difference and yet yearning the protection
corresponding": between
between being in
old: her mind wants to die
because she is tired of life. Kane claims the right to feel like an eighty-year just as she defends her right to feel depressed
in spite of her young
Crave". Because and in spite of are the adhesives
that connect her thoughts
emotions, forming the uncontrollable
old,
age in and
body of thought that cannot be psychoana-
lysed anymore as she deconstructs
the analytic criteria. A net is webbed out of
lines of flights, webbing a rhizomatic of indeterminate
and
being scared of dying
of death. There is no difference
one's late twenties and feeling like an eighty-year
metaphor
picture that stands on its own in its beauty
determination.
In James Macdonald's tre", the protagonist
interpretation
4.48 Psychosis
is not sure whether his behaviour
at the Royal Court Theais reactive or affirmative:
YES/NO he25 writes, with a black marker pen, on his forearm. This act of writing symbolises
what is seen by the protagonist's
psychiatrist
as self-mutilation:
- like clear and deluded being one
and the same moment - are woven throughout flight from sanity, a rhizomatic
open
A simile, similar: alike, comparable,
the play like a thread, a line of
interrupting
the psychiatrist's
ques-
tlOmng. _ That's
a very immature,
attention
seeking
thing to do.
Did it give you relief)
-No. - Yes. It's fear ~hat keeps me away from the train tracks.
I just hope to God that death is the fucking
_ Did it give you relief?
end. I feel IIkc I m eighty years old. 1'm tired of life and my mind wants to die.
" Collins Concise Dictionary and Thesaurus, p.685. 23
'There's worse things than being fat and fifty ... Being dead and thilty.'
24
London, June 2001. James Macdonald divided
25
the three parts Kane defined 20 21
Ibid.
4.48 Psychosis, p. 8-9.
the protagonist
into three: the victim,
to make up everybody's
by a man, as Kane had given no stage direction
identity.
whether
(Complete Ploys, p. 164)
the perpetrator
In his staging,
the protagonist
and the bystander,
one of these was played
was male or female.
In a momentary victory, she forces her psychiatrist
to step out of his system and
put himself into another; to ask what a body can do instead of reading it according to psychoanalytic
criteria. This victory is very short lived, though, the play
will show how the psychiatrist,
with cool, distanced
hand. Kane is the one left needy of affirmation
remarks,
of her Otherness,
retains the upper as she does not
turn away from him, as she keeps the navel cord towards the ones she wants affirmation from intact. This is her reactive side, she cannot affirm herself without finding affirmation
from the Other.
But, whereas Kane, on the one hand, can quote ironically come of her hospitalisation - No. Far too fucking sane and sensible. I don ' t k now where you read that, but it does not relieve the
'happy',
what one side of her wants to achieve:
tension.
to communicate,
Why don't you ask me why? Why did I cut my arm?
-ASK. ME.
to converse
to laugh and make jokes to win affection of desired Other 27
I've never understood what it is I'm not supposed to feel like a bird on the wing in a swollen sky my mind is torn by lightning as it flies from the thunder behind"
WHY.
At 4.48 when sanity visits
4.48 Psychosis, p. 14-16. Ibid, p. 33.
26
27
" Ibid, p. 37.
what the desired out-
would be, what it would mean to be 'sane'
and
for one hour and twelve minutes
this is the sickness
I am in my right mind.
a fragmented
puppet,
a grotesque
of becoming
great
this vital need for which I would die
When it has passed I shall be gone again, fool.
Now I am here I can see myself but when I am charmed
by vile delusions
of happiness,
To Kane, suicide promises the fulfilment
the foul magic of this engine of sorcery, I cannot touch my essential
self.
of desire, although she simultaneously
argues that I have no desire for death
Remember
no suicide ever had
the light and believe the light.
Nothing matters morc. Stop judging
by appearances
31
Yet, death promises her a warmth in which she can escape the prison of her alien and make a right judgement.29
shape: 4A8 a.m. is, according kill themselves, .
to Kane's
because
accord1l1g to Kane's
play, the time when people are most likely to
it is the time when 'sanity visits' . And' .. 448
. a.m. IS,
~lay, the time when people are most likely to kill them-
selves In spite of It bell1g the time 'when sanity visits'.
I have reached the end of this dreary and repugnant talc of a sense interned in an alien carcass and lumpen by the malignant
spirit of the moral majority32
This moral majority that lumps her, that makes her swell up with their morality, which leads to her perceiving behold the Eunuch of castrated
thought
her body as alien and makes her utter these nega-
tive _ reactive - phrases at the beginning
the capture the rapture the rupture of a soul
at 4.48 the happy hour when clarity visits warm darkness which soaks my eyes
311
Ibid, p. 40.
31Ibid, p. 42. 32Ibid, p. 12.
of the play:
I can't think I cannot overcome
my loneliness,
my fcar, my disgust
I cannot love My brother
is dying, my lover is dying, I am killing them both
After introducing
us to her yearning
for a woman she has never met and feels
she will never meet, her agony and loneliness: Sometimes
I turn around and catch the smell of you and I
cannot go on I cannot fucking this telTibJe so fucking
go on without
awful physical
expressing
aching fucking longing
I have for yoU?6
she blames
a God that she perceives
to be guilty for presenting
her with the
Other: Fuck you. Fuek you. Fuck you for rejecting when desperation
about myself, fuck you for bleeding
visits
my life for good and fuck my mother
I shall hang myself to the sound of my lover's
breathing33
me by never being there, fuck you for making
the fucking
me feel shit
love and life out of me, fuck my father for fucking
for not leaving
up
him, but most of all, fuck you God for making
me love a person who does not exist,
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU."
In a world that presents her with what she has to be subjectified
into: the right
kind of woman; that defines the gender - with the right kind of genitals - she is supposed
to be, that dictates the right shape, the right way of interaction
with
people, she is a failure. She is tired of not 'seeing with her eyes, breathing
with
your lungs, swallowing
with your mouth'S4 the way her body should do, or is
defined as doing: Everything ressentiment
about her is failing those standards;
for the Other, the better, the functioning;
hates herself for not matching
up to her own expectations:
compares
she is full of herself and
a classical picture of
At the same time, she asks whether it was possible for a person to be born in the wrong body, or the wrong era. So while she on the one hand blames her parental home and the stereotypical as if a therapeutic
tion), her main accusation,
that dictates measurement,
354.48
Ibid, p. 4.
34
Thousand
36
Plateaus,
p. 150.
entity
that presents her with
and makes her love someone she, in this world, cannot access. God, whoever he despot, has given her a desire based on lack, a lack that can
never be filled, a Lacanian vicious circle.
33
(stating them as if she had to,
had taught her to enclose them in her accusa-
'most of all', is that there is a metaphysical
that makes her feel inadequate, is: the overarching
depression:
notions of child-abuse
environment
Psychosis,
Ibid, p. 12.
"Ibid,
p. 13.
p. 10.
Please ..
like a bird on the wing in a swollen
Money ...
my mind is torn by lightning
Wife ..
as it flies from the thunder behind"
Every act is a symbol the weight of which crushes
sky
This instant, which occurred
me"
the plat" Kane sees herself stuck in an Oedipal
dilemma,
money, wife, the system that
is portrayed
at 4.48 a.m., and is a returning
as a religious light: 'Remember
instant throughout
the light and believe the
light'; and it is this instant in which I perceive her to be occupying
crushes her, that creates desires that crush her, that do not let her escape. Her BwO is between full and empty in so far as, when it is full, her body is taken
she, as a formerly very religious person, aims to regain in death. Therewith,
over by reactive morality,
though she portrays her dilemma, the feminist dilemma we are by now used to,
by the fascism of the system; when it is empty, it is
looking for that what could fill it in the beyond, 'a woman she will never meet':
she simultaneously
a calm, between
a plateau of
intensity that suggests an equilibrium,
full and empty, and that al-
and from within it creates an alter reality, an affect that re-
veals a schizophrenic
desire:
It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mindYJ
a consolidated
consciousness
resides in a dark banqueting
hall near the ceiling of a mind whose floor shifts as ten
It is exactly in-between, 4.48 Psychosis,
on the plane of consistency
that makes up the affect of
when she clearly argues:
thousand
cockroaches
thoughts
unite in an instant of accord body no longer expellcnt
as the cockroaches
when a shaft of light enters as all
comprise a truth which no one ever utters
My life is caught in a web of reason
I had a night in which everything
spun by a doctor to augment the sane.
How can I speak again? the broken hermaphrodite room in reality teeming
was revealed
to me.
who trusted hermself
alone finds the
and begs never to wake from the
nightmare
In a Foucauldian
reasoning
she explains
her dilemma,
or rather, her situation:
She cannot be healed by a system that cannot affirm but only convert her, she is trapped in a web of reason - definitions
of healthy and unhealthy
- that are cre-
and they were all there every last one of them and they knew my name as I scuttled
44
like a beetle along the backs of their chairs
ated by the system she is in. But she wants to escape, yearns for a world where you would 'walk on your head, sing with your sinuses, see through your skin,
'Body no longer expellent'
breathe with your belly'4'. Shc has seen this world, in an 'instant of clarity be-
truth anymore,
fore eternal night', describing
ceives in an instant, the instant in which the flash of lightning
it at the beginning
ing and coming back to this sentiment,
of the play like a flash of light-
this moment of affect, throughout
- the body, the socialised
the truth the consolidated
body does not dismiss the
consciousness
produces,
or rather re-
strikes and unites
the
play:
Psychosis, p. 37. David Greig describes
38
Ibid, p. 24.
414.48
39
Ibid, p. 43.
43
40
Ibid, p. 31.
41
Thousand
awake every morning Plateaus,
p. 151.
44
4.48 Psychosis,
in his introduction
to Sarah Kane's
at 4.48 during a severe boust of depression
p. 3-4.
COlllplete Plays how Kane did actually in 1998 (see COlllplete Plays, p. xvi).
all thoughts. This description
is reminiscent
fects are being whose validity affected, then, is a nonhuman
of Deleuze' s concept of affect4':
lies in themselves becoming
of man. The socialised
body does, for
an instant, not shy away from the truth anymore, the cockroaches. beyond speech, cannot be reproduced
this truth, this teeming truth, this reality, that is a nightmare but the loneliness
This truth is
in the speech of our socialised
how can Kane speak again? What truth is it the cockroaches in, begs to stay in? And why is it a nightmare? of becoming-cockroach
Af-
and exceeds any lived, to be
See me Love me my final submission my final defeat4?
bodies, so
comprise?
What is
Kane prefers to stay
She wants to become-cockroach,
is a reality she can only face in an in-
watch me vanish watch me
stant. The instant in which truth can be faced cannot be kept: It is always a question of freeing life where it is imprisoned, ing it into an uncertain
or of tempt-
watch me watch me
combat. .. How can a moment of the world be ren-
dered durable or made to exist by itself? .. It is not an organic or muscular athleticism
but its inorganic
double, 'an affective Athleticism,'
an athleti-
cism of becoming that reveals only forces that are not its own ... In this re-
It is this contradictory
spect artists are like philosophers.
world that crushes her, in which she does not want to speak anymore, and yet to
too fragile,
not because
have seen something themselves,
What little health they possess is often
of their illnesses
or neuroses
but because
in life that is too much for anyone,
they
too much for
and that has put on them the quiet mark of death.46
be witnessed
duality of, on the one hand, wanting to vanish from the
by exactly that world that is Kane's
between the two extremes represent
her fluctuation
truth she feels she
the alternation
between emptying
and fill-
ing her BwO, of being active and reactive. Her text itself, though, 4.48. Psychosis, is exactly that, an attempt at deterritorialisation
In her dream, for an instant, she is part of the cockroached
ambivalence;
the tonal, and incorporates
that returns, in intervals,
the tonal in its deterritorialisation.
to
It is the creation of
cannot keep, she sees herself as a beetle, wants to be a beetle, a Body without
a work of art that endures, that makes the moment, the affect, endure. Thus, by
Organs. She understands
creating
about the loneliness
she has to face by living, facing
this truth, by making herself a BwO, by becoming-woman,
becoming-animal:
a plane of consistency,
thoughts,
it reflects
it is a BwO,
her own process
she will be scuttling along the backs of the chairs of the people who she wants to
woman is the alternation
be loved by, the audiences
vanish, but to be watched in vanishing.
who all knew her name, affirming
her. She will be
and as it represents
of becoming-woman.
of both, represented
Kane's
Her becoming-
in the moment she dies: wanting to
She sees this need to be affirmed,
for
behind them, out of their sight, as she does not share their language, their reality,
which she would die, as a final defeat, but the question who will affirm her: she
and still, she wants to be affirmed by them, to be noticed:
herself, in the beyond (it is myself I have never met. .. ) or the Other(s) of this world is exactly enclosed in that so often repeated statement:
Validate
Witness me
45
placed between the empty and the full:
'The artist creates
blocs of percepts
must stand up on its own. The artist's Philosophy, 46
'this vital need for
which I would die'. On the last pages, we find this statement
me
p. 164.)
Ibid, pp. 171-2.
and affects, greatest
but the only law of creation
difficulty
is that the compound
is to make it stand up on its own.' (What Is 47
4.48 Psychosis,
" Ibid, p. 42.
p. 41.
ambiguously
In short, it is not Oedipus that produces desire that is already submissive submission
neurosis;
and searching
it is neurosis - that is, a to communicate
its own
- that produces Oedipus.
In contrast, to augment and expand Oedipus by adding to it and making a Is it her vital need to be loved which makes her want to commit suicide affirmed,
watched in vanishing?
She wants to be noticed in vanishing,
to be
paranoid
a~d she
wants to be able to meet herself in the world beyond the one that crushes her. This, she attains by killing herself and by explaining
and perverse use of it is already to escape from submission.
Deterritorializing rything
this to us in her last play.
Oedipus into the world instead of reterritorializing
in Oedipus
and the family.
enlarged to the point of absurdity,
But to do this, Oedipus
[...] eve-
had to be
comedy. To do this, the 'Letter to the
Father' had to be written." Deleuze/Guattari
name three monumental
methods or criteria with which to rec-
ognise a piece of art that creates an affect.") Two of them are made up of con~rastmg bodies that are either woven into each other or are pictured by the artist III
then separation,
and in the ability to visualise
tween them through light, air or emptiness. this
III
4.48 Psychosis,
she expresses
the remaining
connection
be-
I would argue that Kane does exactly
the need to be affirmed (her final submis-
sion, her final defeat) on the one hand, on the other, the wish to be elsewhere beyond;
and the connection
of both, through
emptiness,
In his famous letter, Kafka accuses his father of having only ever reacted, submitted, bowed his head in front of the authorities, lage to escape Jewish dogmatism national authorities, augmentation
thought: death; the hope to be affirmed in vanishing.
and that he had never changed anything
of Oedipus
mommy-daddy-me
that what cannot b~
those triangles
beetle
surely
IS
schlzoanalytic Literature,
Kafka's
'The
escape from Oedipalisation
Metamorphosis'.
reading of this legendary
published
going to disguise
They describe
dance, an entire limit-connection
itself as an exaggerated
present Kafka's
'Germans
de-
with an Outside that is
Oedipus that is beyond all limits'51.
Kafka had blown up Oedipus consciously:
Kafka:
What Is Philosophy, p. 193.
51
Deleuze,
Gilles and Guattari,
'judge - advocate
a Minor
sity Press, p. 11.
Literature
Univer-
repeats
a child's
of
Because it is libido from
in The Trial, or the triangle
the Oedipal
in that Deleuze/Guattari
etc. are no substitutes
Oedipus,
Ibid, p. 10. In 'Metamorphosis" who suddenly
thematic
of Anti-
argue that the judge, the bu-
for the father, but the father is rather a con-
the same - in the 'Letter to the Father'
tenants
Kalka - Toward a Minor Literature. Minnesota
- accused'
densed form of all those powers, to whom he submitted,
53
Felix (1986):
triangle
- Czechs - Jews'. Towards
reaucrats
52
50
submission.
that make up the world map that occupies
against the inhumanity
Ibid, p. 40.
about his life. The
the familiar
a multitude of other, much more active triangles, from which
Oedipus, then, especially
enlarging
49
us to detect behind
a
text in their Kafka: Towards a Minor
two years after Anti-Oedipus.
pression as a 'molecular
Deleuze/Guattari
by becoming-
allows
the family draws its strength, its mission to propagate day one: the triangle
The most famous case of an attempted
that he had left his Czech vil-
only to find himself having to bow in front of
advising his son to do
as well as in 'The Metamorphosis'
53
And,
of those dark powers, that can only become apparent by
we can also find lines of t1ight, of escape: to become non-
ocdipalisation penetrate
is also represented
in the sudden
invasion
of the: three burcaucrat-
the family itself and sit on the same scals that were formerly
by the father, the mother and Gregor. family as well as that of the economy.
Gregor's
becoming-cockroach
occupied
is a flight from the triangle
of the
human, to become-woman,
Body without Organ: 'to become a beetle, to become
Prozefi)
in
order
a dog, to become an ape, "head over heels and away,'''54 rather than bow one's
Deleuze/Guattari,
head to the authorities
molecular,
and the majoritarian
morality.
In his diary Kafka wrote
how the pulling force of the (Oedipal) world is great, but that the one of his own was, too: those who loved him did because
they knew that the freedom
and Guattari,
move beyond a boundary firmed themselves,
to become-animal into a continuum
was to obtain this movement, of intensities,
the
minor
literature
to find a minor language
in
yet
as part of Kafka's
another
way.
process to speak
that is a limit, the articulation
of its speech
being a process in itself. Kane's becoming-cockroach
fails. Her desire is to be affirmed,
both by herself
and by others, and death promises her this fulfilment.
to
that existed in and af-
where all forms evaporated
to the benefit of an ~lOformed matter of deterritorialized fying signs.[ ...
J
In the becoming-insect,
flux, of nonsigni-
it is a mournful whining that car-
ries along the voice and blurs the resonance a cockroach
tackle
of
movement that he was lacking in this world he would obtain on another plateau, in happier times. To Deleuze
to
then, see becoming-animal
of the words. Gregor becomes
not to flee his father but rather to escape where his father
She sings without hope that in this life, she will gain the affirmation life is on the boundary
of sane society, and on the boundary
needed, her
of death. Or does
she mean that there is no hope on the boundary of death? Her last words:
didn't know to find one, in order to flee the director, the business, and the bureaucrats,
to reach that region where the voice no longer does anything
but hum: "Did you hear him? It was an animal's clerk." Sadly, Deleuze-Guattari
voice,"
argue that in his becoming-cockroach
said the chief
promise Gregor comes to
a point where he halts, where we can witness his re-Oedipalisation.
His sister,
aiming to help him, wants to clear his room of all debris reminding
him of his
former territorialisation; supported
his non-human
and joined
sexuality
of his return to Oedipal
him in his becoming-animal,
as a resistance desiring,
Gregor fails: he lets himself be re-oedipalised lets himself be penetrated
Kafka had left all animals
to the Oedipal, she becomes
by his father throwing the apple,
to promise a real becoming-Other,
with animals,
having
and starts hating him. From there,
and waits for his death. Deleuze-Guattari
animals are still too territorialised why an identification
loved in death for what she is: I think that you think of me the way I'd have you think of me
as deterritorialisation,
the final period the final stopOS
The final period: her sexed, gendered, she can finally become-herself,
Ibid, p. l2.
" Ibid, p. 13.
menstruating
her actual body not coded by a malignant
and that is
and affirming
must always
fail.
behind when he wrote The Trial (in German:
Der
mentation,
majority anymore.
her own codes within a carefully
treaded
which, over time, might make her independent
4.48 Psychosis, p. l2. Ibid, p. 43. 58 Ibid, p. 41.
57
body will cease to exist and
a woman in her own right, felt as hermaphrodite,
argue that
56 54
the hope to meet herself after death, to be able to love herself or be
but Gregor does not want to let go of the portrait of the
lady in fur. Having accepted jealous
It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind"
Instead of finding
programme
of experi-
of the affirmation
of
this malignant decision:
majority that 'judges by appearance',
she cannot let go of affirmation,
hermaphrodite promises Suicide,
a
but she will not be affirmed for her
self in life, not by the ones she wants affirmation
her the fulfilment
of both these desires: to be validated
'accident time where there are no accidents',
a becoming
she makes a judgement,
from. Dying
demonstrates
how, in life, deterritorialisation
stages, that a becoming-woman experimentation
decision to be a
alternating
paddling
empty, crossing
stroke it gently swaying
the middle, starboard,
there although, if steered persistently, ment, a becoming,
Cut out my tongue tear out my hair cut off my limbs but leave me my love I would rather have lost Iny legs pulled out my teeth out my eyes
than lost my love
5<)
This love, the woman she has never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of her mind: herself, who she wants to meet, keep, he. We could ask: what use does a focus on becoming portray, if it mounts in death? But this is a question that originates
in being:
I have no desire for death no suicide
ever had
Kane writes; she is not dead, death is not her goal. Following ing two opposite desires, reactive Bergsonian
Grosz, we cannot predict
know of the virtual's look backwards: Deleuzean.
actualities),
the grey-zones
thing to look forward than to
death-life, in-between.
as shown in Olkowski's
not exist: we do not exist.
a
on the grounds of her being dead is not
It portrays a logic of binarisms:
between importance,
If, following
the future from the now (as we do not
it is a different
to judge her becoming
that does not acknowledge
the light, follow-
and active, is her programme.
discussion
here-there,
man-woman,
Without granting the inof Aristotle,
of
has to be followed that refers back to the tonal when the grou.nd III lll-
stants if we pursue the course. Like a kayak being steered on a river, with every
Body without Organs:
gouged
can only happen in
can never turn into a being. A programme
is lost. The memory of the light can only guide, and promise to reappear
in vanishing.
is not a becoming-woman,
Body without Organs anymore, but a non-accidental
4.48 Psychosis
time can-
is assured.
from left to right, from full to
with each stroke, but never remaining the direction is kept and a forward move-
..
d d and this varies with every artist and forms part of the work'. There are nee e , b' '61 Th bemg of 'different procedures in the search for the sensation as emg. . e '62 . tI'act from Crave is 'the powerful sense of a self fragmented , sensatIOns we ex . . h b' of the method used to create the affects we perceive and from WhICh t e emg
IS
In the preceding simultaneously
section, I portrayed
4.48 Psychosis
as a Body without Organs,
stating that it created an affect in the Deleuzean
word. This relationship
can be read as an attempt to escape territorialisation tion, and demonstrate
definition
of the
can also be found in Crave. I will show how also Crave and therewith
sensations is built I will try to describe here.
Oedipalisa-
how different theatre directors allow the text to do this to
different degrees. The affect is not the passage
., s Art undoes the triple organization of percepArt does not h ave opmlOn . tions, affections, and opinions in order to substitute a monument comts affects 'md blocs of sensatIons that take the place of pose d 0 f percep , ' k th language. The writer uses words, but by creating a syntax that ma es :lm 'nto sensation that makes the standard language stammer, trem. e, pass 1 k 't 'b ate seIzes 'lng' The writer twists language, ma es 1 VI r , cry or e ven 'S . . . . . h hol~ of it, and rends it in order to wrest the percept from perceptIons, t e
from one lived state to another but man's
nonhuman becoming ... .It is a zone of indetermination,
of indiscernibility,
as if things, beasts, and persons [...] endlessly reach that point that immediately precedes their natural differentiation. fect.60
This is what is called an af-
•
We could argue, then, that in reading Kane, we momentarily destratified, gendered
deterritorialised identity.
fragmented, Psychosis
from the dogma of sanity, unity and coherent
The being of sensations
non-coherent
ously arguing 'because'
self. I have argued how in 4.48
and 'in spite of'. Affects are only momentary
the identification
between the psychiatric
that is in-between
and the rhizomatic,
'sanity'
mind in 4.48 Psychosis
and 'fragmentation',
in-
is what makes her work a piece of
is in Crave, her preceding
not engaging with each other, make up a melodic interaction the way Deleuze/Guattari
had suggested
aim of art 'is to wrest the affect from affections
Kane lets the protagonist
say:
play, divided
that unites them in
a book be perceived.
as the transition
. . d' t' whether this is an accusation or a statement, describing a WIthout mIca mg k n b anyfractured identity as identity, the monologues in Crave could be spo e y d fit the lack of stage directions: Kane did not aSSIgn any gender or ages, one, an (A B M and C) _ to the four different vOIces. A very nor names - only letters , :. en b a voice (in the original Plaines tender desperate love confeSSIon IS spok y bl th , .' ld man) who is also given lines that resem e e Plough stagmg, It was an 0 er ..' . , Therewith and fascmatmgly, the hnes are memories and deSIres of an abuser. d lace themvery specific and general at once: anybody can access them an P
The
from one state 61
to another: to extract a bloc of sensations,
where
we return to terBut to provide us
into four distinct voices, that, in a melodic rhythm, blend together and, although a symphony
In Crave, four different bodies occupy one life. Like in 4.48 Psychosis,
identifica-
art. The fractured
How does Kane play with language in order to create affects?
precedes their natural dif-
is always and only momentarily,
ritories just as, in the play, Kane returns to territorialisations. with a bloc of sensations
and
between full and empty, by simultane-
tions, that endlessly reach that point that immediately ferentiation:
63
built on these affects is that of a
or non-analysable
Kane does this in fluctuating
.,
affect from affections, the sensation from 0pllllon ... become-psychotic,
a pure being of sensations.
A method
Ibid, p. 167.
Complete Plays, p. xiv. What Is Philosophy, p. 176. M 4.48 Psychosis, p. 29.
62
62
selves and their own experience are diffused and often evaporate
somewhere
in her play. Borderlines
entirely. The individual
rectly interact, but only interact in the overall picture: dance to its rhythms in performance,
monologues
of character do not di-
in the text, then, are rather like those in a composition:
is used to indicate
Kane wrote in the author's
delivery,
Into the light, Beyond the darkness
revealing its meanings not line by line but,
stroke (I) indicates the point of interruption tuation
time
Hold my hand,
'The text demands atten-
rather like a string quartet, in the hypnotic play of different voices and themes.' (ibid) Directions
Gaining
e
in overlapping
not to conform
dialogue',
M
The truth is behind YOLl, And ever shall be
'A
and 'Punc-
to the rules of grammar',
note to the text."
And yet, their voices interact:
'At the edge of nothing, here I am, hold my hand'
_ gives us a different feeling - one of despair and fear - than the confidence
in
the afterlife of A's, C's or M's words. B' s words, though, reveal what Kane is doing: gaining time in writing. The text in its flow reveals exactly all these dif-
An example of the voices non-interaction
yet simultaneous
creation of rhythm
ferent emotions as one stream of consciousness.
and one fractured voice: Greig argues that the 'voices speak without narrative A
On the edge of nothing,
B
Here I am,
the most fragmentary
hint of a narrative.
context
and there is only
The voices describe
their desires, re-
member their losses in the past, and question their future in the face of their psy-
e
Hold my hand,
A
Glory be to the Father,
chological
M
The trLlth is behind YOLl,
of love's assault upon the wholeness
B
[' d give it all LIpfor YOLl,
e
Into the light,
A
As it was in the beginning,
that binds the piece and, like in 4.48 Psychosis,
e
Beyond
as redemption,
M
And ever shall be,
is, as in 4.48 Psychosis,
the darkness,
B
Into the light,
A
At the end of the day it comes back to this, 66
B
Gaining timc
All four characters
are inbetween
life and death, their lines could stand on their
own: A
On the edge of nothing, Glory to the Father, As it was in the beginning, At the end of the day it comes back to this
B
66
of the self.
the search for recognition,
Free-falling
B
Into the light
e
Bright white light
A
W orId without end
e
You're
M
Glorious.
B
And ever shall be Happy
B
So happy
e
Happy and free.6S
What is the overpowering
sentiment,
B answering
'And ever shall be', or A answering
I'd give it all up for you,
both, and as was shown in 4.48 Psychosis,
Ibid, p. 195.
Ibid, p. xiv.
6' Ibid,
p. 200.
light
67
of the self
•
Glorious.
A
67
for being loved as a whole,
ends in death, a liberating
dead to me
Here I am,
Complete Plays, p. 154.
I would add or correct, that it
that promises, as Greig phrases it, the 'shedding
A
Into the light,
65
damage. Binding the whole piece, as in Cleansed, is the exploration
C's 'You're
dead to me' with
B's 'And ever shall be' with 'Happy'?
It is
they both belong together, creating an
affect that reveals the fracture at the base of identity, the lack of coherent opin-
M is the only character who defines herself as female. She repeatedly
ion. Having an abuser performing
the fear of getting older and the wish to be pregnant; at one point, she says
victim, perpetrator non-genderedness Featherstone's
a love declaration,
and bystander, and agelessness
these fractures of Kane's
original performance,
terming one single person correspond
protagonists.
to the potential
Sadly, since Vicky
there seems to have developed
a routine of
copying her cast of M as an older, C as a younger woman, A as an older and B as a younger man, although there is no reason why C could not be cast as an old woman, B as a young girl etc. M can be clearly assigned a gender, she is female. C does mention menstruation ders she talks about, confusing
In the coJJected voice expressed
through
the four monologues,
M seems to ex-
press the maternal sentiment, wanting a child, feeling maternal. Yet, she the relatively aggressive
gIven
IS
lines:
once, but s/he herself switches between two genour notion of who s/he is talking about, and it
seems s/he is talking about exactly hermself when commenting relationship
talks about
on her disturbed
with her mother:
and later, after encouragingly then repeatedly
demanding
exclaiming
'Forwards,
upwards,
onwards'7"
and
'Move on.' - helping to push the dialogue forward at
a stage where it is speeding up as individual
phrases are becomll1g shorter and
sharper - she criticises (A, B, and C): C
He needs to have a secret but he can't help telling. He thinks we don't know. Believe me, we
know.
Similar to 4.48 Psychosis, its beginning C
I believe in anniversaries.
ial or forgotten.
That a mood can be repeated even if the event that caused it is triv-
In this case it's either."
Crave is more 'reactive',
and, moving faster and faster towards
more affirmative.
At the beginning,
Switching inbetween
his/her relationship
following feminine
hir. In contrast,
to his/her mother, and talking about his
it seems the two people are one, especially
as he is
C
Listen. I am here to remember.
C only once appears to be under the pressure to be
(but that does not necessarily
indicate a gender as s/he could be pres-
sured to be 'fem' by a gay partner): C
He buys me a make-up
kit, blushers
and lipstick
and eyeshadows.
I need to .. remember.
I have this grief and I don't know why75
And I paint my face in
bruises and blood and cuts and swelling, and on the mirror in deep red, UGLY. 71l
Ibid, p. 165.
71
Ibid, p. 163.
72
Ibid, p. 184.
73
Ibid, p. 188.
74
Ibid, p. 191.
75Ibid, p. 17 1.
at
hght~r,
there seems to be a reversIOn to the past Il1
the search for explanations:
need to shed his emotions,
meaning psychoanalytic, 'the light' , becomes
C
The, navy denim dress I wore at six, the elastic
red and blue belt tight round my waist, nylon
S~CkS, the h.nd ClUst of scabs on my knees, the metal barred climbing
frame between
my legs, David-
'If you want me to abuse you, I will abuse you': no person is only a victim, but also a perpetrator Here. we have ~ first confusing
irony - do six year olds have conscious
~ which later gives way to a more determined
orgasms?
tone, taking on more responsibil-
Ity: M
Couldn't
and we steal other people's
Couldn't
M
To be perfectly
C
(when am I ever 'perfectly
B
Take no more,
given to us; which are our childhood
love you more, honest'?)
to have sex with the fourteen year old or was it abuse? Do we construct
a history
of sexual confusion
to create
and abuse, do we adapt other people's
narrations
Kane questions the tyranny of the past but cannot find a present: her alternative is death, as we saw in discussing
This never happened.
Fear nothing.
4.48 Psychosis.
In Thomas
ing of Crave at the Schaublihne
am Lehniner
dialogue
light appears, promising
speeds up, a beautiful
Ostermeier
None of it,
Instead of them glowing blue-greenish are pitch-black
(reminding
plagiarist,
stealing
other people's
pain, subsuming
it into my own until
I can't remember
vandalism
stag-
Witfully, reminiscent
meets New British Artist.
and being filled with formaldehyde,
they
one of the incident when Mark Bridger poured a jar
of black ink into one of Hirst's
I am an emotional
redemption.
placed A, E, C and M on high objects that are frightfully
All of it, None.
Ostermeier's
Platz in Berlin?", the moment the
of Damien Hirst's shark tanks: New British Dramatist
All or nothing.
was his own artistic
tanks in the Tate Gallery in 1994, claiming this mission).
They do not feature
the conserved
Whose
corpses of sheep, cows or sharks, but the body of a naked woman is projected
Any more??
onto these black tanks for three short instants throughout the end we are, or rather the dialogue
There seems to be a critique of agency and memory, corresponding the following
to M telling
story:
is, speeding
I ran through
the kitchen
door I saw hIm sIttmg with my grandmother
ressed her breast. They looked around
farm. When
I burst in through
on his lap. He kissed her on the lips and ca-
and saw me, smiling at my confusion.
When I related this to my
more than ten years later she stared at me oddly and said 'That didn't
pene,d to me ..My father dIed before you were born. When that happened
happen
I was pregnant
to you. It hap-
The body looks
slightly spongy, like a drowned corpse, and the picture is not completely if she could be floating in formaldehyde.
the poppy field at the back of my grandfather's
the play, presupposing
towards.
As in Hirst's
stalled in life, finds a place in life. Damien Hirst's
mother
are
honest,
A silence.
.
memories
what is our pain? Did we want
memories,
our own identity in memoriam?
A heat.
M
pain and experi-
love you less,
B
C
and bystander;
ences. Kane, here, is not a victim of pain, she seeks it. Further,
'The Physical Impossibility confrontation sential
preserved
of life and death.
still, as
death is in-
shark tank (1994) is called
of Death in the Mind of Someone
with rotting corpses,
co-existence
sculptures,
in formaldehyde,
Especially
brutal
Living',
and the
portrays the es-
is his sheep,
sliced
with you, but I
dldn t know It untIl the day of his funeral. 78 79
Ibid, p. 159. The show ran all through
19th-23rd
2000-2001;
June 2001. Interestingly,
my viewing
'Crave'
of it is based
was translated
on a guest performance
into 'Manque',
which
'laque', the Lacanian lack ("Mangel' in German). This contrasts with the Deleuzean 76
Ibid, p. 176-8.
77
Ibid, p. 194-5.
this analysis, reading into 'Crave', and that, I believe, Ostermeier
in Paris,
is a synomym
for
desiring I am, in
pOitrays in his staging of it.
through the middle, showing an unborn lamb in its womb: the pain of separation is pre-empted, ceived:
the cycle of life and death is shockingly
the affect is the realisation
perceivable,
of the possibility,
directly per-
the actual existence
of
In Ostermeier's
direction,
acting towards
each other although
ceived to be doing so. Yet, whenever him. Contrasting
Taking the risk of stretching
the interpretation
too far, it could be argued that
another New British Artist is referred to in Ostermeier's
staging. Jenny Saville's
obese spongy women, their bodies covered in circular lines directing the beauty surgeon's
scalpel, can be detected in a sequence
age projected
onto the tanks, being covered
their sentences
gery) with agency:
(red lines indicating
plastic surgery
circulating
red brush
incisions as in suicide or plastic sur-
is, nevertheless,
the conscious
decision
to
The differences
in meaning extracted
be shown in the following the much younger
childhood
in Hamburg".
memories.
incorporation
of death in Ostermeier's
interpretation
at the Deutsche
First of all, the setting is the landscape
The play opens with the four characters
each other in the seats and manner
of C's
sitting opposite
of a moving train; there is no carriage,
memory
lane is directly
wards a luggage rack that resembles as such throughout
connected
with C's opening
her getting up and wandering
sentences
in the heath to-
a metal barred climbing frame and is used
the play. When the before-mentioned
sentences
rape are spoken, the effect created is one of a lasting childhood
about her
trauma that is
present and endures as does the setting of the play, erect until the end, emotional
staging,
M can be detected. In Rauwald's
the
are performed
to-
performances
can
M smootches
with
production,
staging, no age dif-
staging, the age differyears. Ergo: man needs
B' s need could be seen to be the desire for a mother: merely somebody
for whom he does not have to be a father. Correspondingly, C, cast as a young woman, is seated opposite addressing
him at many instants, signifying
rocking in their chairs, background
a moving train. This jour-
from these contrasting In Rauwald's
somebody that is not a little girl, but not necessarily
In Ostermeier's
sound insinuating
example.
M and B seems to be at least fifteen
though: the seats and the sitters are placed amidst a purple heath, the characters
about her mother, and following,
between the actors throughout
and male B. When B says that he has to be seduced by an
mother. In Ostermeier's
Band
ney through
on light and rhythm only,
older than him, not older per se. In Ostermeier's
ence between
Schauspielhaus
the stream of speech towards
older woman, and M replies that she is not old, B says he is merely looking for
decision can just as much imply to make incisions that kill oneself''''.
rather psychoanalytic
be per-
gether.
ference between Band
staging with Ute Rauwald's
attracting
that is concentrating
staging features direct interaction
somebody
this very calm and accepting
could sometimes
play; lines are spoken at each other and strands of dialogue
take control of the body, to form it to one's own desires. To make a conscious
Compare
never re-
where the corpse is, in the im-
in generous,
(one can merely see the hand and the brush). This image fuses self-
hatred and destruction
Rauwald's
this direction
speak into the auditorium,
a dialogue seems to arise, it is immediately
broken by another speaker intervening,
death.
strokes
the protagonists
in Rauwald's
(especially
in contrast to the couple
M) that young woman is looking for her (dominating
numerous pantomime;
staging,
there is no interaction
moments throughout especially
towards
Rauwald's
Crave,
A, who is cast as an older man,
between
and abusive) father. C and A. Further,
at
staging, child abuse is represented
in
the end of the play, where the narration
shown above - would suggest a movement 'tyranny of the past'. Death, in Rauwald's
- as
towards the future, not towards the version, is represented
in the four ac-
tors sitting together in the purple heath, at the end of the play, as a nuclear family: the picture of a perfect family.
baggage included. Obviously,
there is space to argue that Rauwald's
much room for different characters' so I wonder whether choosing two British artists from the Sensation Generation as references, Ostermeier is drawing a link to a whole scene of mtists toying with taboos, such as Tracey Emin's selfrepresentation 81
through a positive affirmation
of her teenage sexuality.
Rauwald's staging of Crave run at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus throughout 2001 and 2002.
interrelations;
wald's and Ostermeier's the past, childhood
readings
nevertheless,
leaves just as
more amhiguity
I think it right to conclude
overall foci diverge: whereas Rauwald
trauma, and attachment,
the future, on redemption.
production
that would perceive
Ostermeier
In Kane's script, C stammers
in the
that Rau-
concentrates
concentrates
on
on Irony,
'What have they done to
me?' seventeen
times in a row which is followed
by M's 'Grow up and stop
blaming mother'. In the text, no slash indicates that M has to interrupt C. Yet, in Ostrermeier's
staging, M's harsh sentence comes like a bolt out of the darkness,
clearly cutting C, stopping her in her whining, rendering the empty space in front of her. These sentences the play that in Rauwald's
production
her alone as she faces
are on the last thirteen pages of
have been cut completely
apart from The motion is a line of flight without
about ten sentences picked from these pages.
direction,
and nobody
knows where it
might lead: no direction would be able to reveal an ontology that assigns coherRauwald's
production
leaves Kane's
text abruptly,
approximately
three quarter
ent agency, that 'blames'
somebody.
through the play, which is exactly where the text starts speeding up, becoming lighter and more 'responsible',
as I described
above. Instead, Rauwald picks up
C's English original line 'Put me down or put me away',
'death'
is calm and light, too, with the actors being quiet for a few
minutes while they lie down in the heath, getting up and changing
asking: 'David'?
which is M's
and then; calm guitar music in the background
of the play. These lines insinuate attachment,
looking back,
dawn, before they all get up to assemble for the 'family portrait'.
over and over again, interrupted line at the beginning
and lets B repeat it
Rauwald's
by C repeatedly
ressentiment and irresponsibility - and, in my view, do not do justice to the end of the play that, like 4.48 Psychosis, clearly and strongly moves towards a light
one has of this death (that is prefigured
in the atmosphere
of the death the play is moving towards,
of clarity and responsibility
pages. In the unshortened
established
over the last thirteen
text, the speed created through the shortening
of lines
pantomime) rhythmic
by M and C balancing
is one of anger and frustration
But the feeling on a tightrope
what is lacking is the non-evaluative,
drive towards it that makes up the agency, determination
decision that, in my mind, the interplay of Kane's poetry suggests.
up a strength
termeier's
Kane's rhythm 'work'
But Rauwald
as the flow of text is always interrupted
(as for example the paedophiliac
or incestuous
pantomimes)
- who never lets by performance
- picks as one of the
sentences for the end sequence C's 'As if the direction makes any difference.' this assimilated
context, it has a pessimistic
be read as having a liberating C in her self-pitying
whining:
connotation,
play we are left with a feeling of peace, Rauwald
sation of rapists, paedophiles,
in
at life. Not denying that this is part
in this last part of the text, and the melodic rhythm created through this, builds that leads into a clear direction.
positions now
and a white light signifying
parents, unfulfilled
and active Where in Os-
leaves a silent accu-
or unfulfillable
loves and the
cruelty of life.
In
notion; in the original text, it could standing in direct link to M stopping
Both of these Interestingly,
interpretations
are in and can be drawn
Rauwald improvised
them read the text, so that quite distinct characters
onto them. It could be speculated
based
the actors
grudges
and memories
characters;
that with such an actor-
might have brought
ressentiments,
into the work, and it has been rumoured
that all actors
had severe bouts of depression Ostermeier's
text.
must have evolved before the
text was projected production,
out of Kane's
for six weeks with her actors before she let
themselves
during rehearsal time.
staging, in contrast, plays much more with rhythm than with actual as the actors are not clearly visible (the height of the tanks does not
allow a close study of their facial expressions
etc.), hardly move and merely use
voice and intonation
to create sentiments,
the text than that the the text originates
it feels more as if they are carriers for in them. The text as BwO, then, is re-
for immortality. Ostermeier's
Rauwald's
characters
characters
make jokes to 'relieve the pain', whereas
make jokes because they take death lightly.
leased from identities, but is created in the rhythm of interaction. With Germany's Interestingly,
the actor's
open discussion,
themselves
Rauwald's
thought Ostermeier's
present a very different
In an
viewpoint.
Crave actress (C) Caroline Peters said that she had
staging too sentimental,
and Edith Adam (M) added that it
director for establishing
improvisation,
and serious, like a dark anthem in praise
pretation
and memory of Sarah Kane.
created
actresses can criticise another
Ostermeier's
staging, the grandeur of the
by the stark lights, does have something
fascist about it. It is hence understandable
markably
Ostermeier's
as melancholic
how Rauwald's
a 'monument'.
tanks and sharp shadows
had been important for them, in their work, not to glorify Kane. They described production
theatre world having the fight against fascism as its main po-
litical motive, it is understandable
interaction,
how, through
and splitting up the text into fragments,
is attempted that takes the strength, the dramatic
re-
'humour', a new inter-
power out of Kane's
text and uses it in another capacity: for blaming the guilty ones, the perpetrators Admittedly,
the four tanks are reminiscent
and skilled composition
throughout
of grave-stones,
the rhythmic
the play creates a grand symphony.
far, I think, from a funeral march. On the contrary,
calm
But it is
the melody and rhythm is
_ mommy and daddy - for what they did to 'me'. It is though, I argue, exactly in this fracture that Kane's
text, that like 4.48 Psychosis
BwO, becomes-reactive,
and therewith
light, strong, brave. Peters and Adam stress the humour of Rauwald' s production
we could extract from the text's affects, its in-betweens,
in contrast to the solemnity of Ostermeier.
bours, is relinquished
lot of giggling interaction
The humour they refer to, though, is a
and laughs that sound desperate
does not do justice
and drugged,
and the chaos of
to the silent and dark humour
Kane's poetry which comes out much stronger if performed
embedded
in Ostermeier's
in dry,
tinct interpretation the potential
fear to be too melancholic of responsibility
Rauwald's
staging,
it drowns
stands in great contrast seriously. Rauwald's
in ironic
to Ostermeier's
laughter
and hyper voices,
actress expressing
reveal its potential
which
this very calm and
actors seem evasive, acting, fake; Ostermeier's
the text as itself and therewith 'identity':
according
to encounter
the becomings
it har-
for a safe mapping, a territorialisation,
a dis-
to affections
something
as a
and opinions
new is abdicated.
is, in my opinion,
we are familiar
with -
What Peters and Adam
a fear of Kane's
Otherness,
her
BwO, sensed by us as affect when reading her texts; a fear of the Other, the new,
rhythmic direction:
III
in preference
could be described
fascist. The bloc or being of sensations
crew speak
to create a new variety of
the affect created is that identity does not necessarily
have to strive
and the future.
Butler claims that rhizomatics suppressed, Psychoanalytic
feminism
argumentative
is hard to escape because
structure.
The lacking
and, as Dorothea Olkowski accounts
subject orginates
complains:
the 'Hegelian
for any rupture with itself.'! Butler's
ing from this tight reasoning,
in Hegelian
J
system [...
psychoanalytic
allows her to criticise Foucault's
tance, and to pose a strategy of open mourning mourning
it is a highly sophisticated dialectics,
always already
approach,
evolv-
accounts of resis-
in its place. Not only does this
'slow things down', as Adam Phillipps put it in his critique of Butler's
Lacanianism,
but remains, in spite of all parody, within the binarism Butler aims
to deconstruct
through
this 'therapy',
as was discussed
in relation
to Carole-
Anne Tyler's thoughts on the politics of gay drag and Elfriede Jelinek's discription
of gender configuarations
parodic
The argument
of pleasures',
I repeatedly
and the motor of rhizomatics,
is an essentialist emancipates
structures; Hegel's
and a descriptive
'Sublime'
was that Foucault's life-affirming
defines the overcoming
as the motivating
of the body and the construction
force of desire. Lacanianism
deduces
of identity
from this dialectic
an
of which
struggle, in that desire wants to
itself in action. I argued that there is a perceives
political action in order to gento be - fascist and aborescent
teleology that denotes a psychological
determinism.
cannot not be reached, but a BwO should not be kept. Ongo-
ing deterritorialisation
is the motor of becoming-woman, chosen construction.
and this becoming-
Whereas for Butler, fol-
lowing Hegel and Lacan, all desire is based on lack, for Deleuze, Hegelianism
'desire'
concept, the attainment
great difference between an ethics that advocates from - what Deleuze
truth, long
and hence does not oppose a Heencountered
follows a Hegelian dialectic of a life-and-death affirm, and, long suppressed, erate a liberation
ontological
which is echoed in Deleuze's
woman is an ongoing, responsibly
in her dramatic and literary work.
as a 'universal
essential to human emancipation"
gelian dialectic. 'multiplicity
emerges
an idea of 'investment'
it is based on
which has an ethical rather than a determinist
motiva-
tion.
essential lack at the base of the subject which it desires to fill. Read through the Lacanian argued,
feminist approaches follows
a gendered
presented structure
Hence, the Hegelian-Lacanian for alternative
constructions
in this thesis, this lack of the Other, I that we can theorise
dialectics
employed
unconscious,
and resistance
gent on historical
and cultural
exact opposite: Foucault's ing identities, choanalytic imaginary
genealogy
and importantly:
I argued through Deleuze approaches
conditions
approach,
and familial
According
subjection
structures.
to
is contin-
I argued the
of ethics allows him to conceive of chang-
an unknown multitude of those, a multitude that-
- has to be created by reiterative
discussed,
practices.
The psy-
in contrast, remain stuck to their pre-defined
that will always determine
a binary gender system.
defines the workings
lack at the
of human negativity.
Sat-
isfaction of desire results in the making and remaking of identity: an underlying and intrinsic human need for coherent identity is at the base of the psychoana-
without the notion of the
could not be articulated.
theory with its anti-essentialist
reading of Hegel, desire is only realised in experiencing
sight of the Other, and therewith
lytic notion of desire. This is a very different point of departure
models. Feminist psychoanalysi~
though, that without psychoanalysis, subjection
psychoanalytic
by Butler et al cannot allow
of desiring subjects outside of their own discourse
and thus cannot bc used to discuss alternative counter-argued,
to be determinist.
In Butler's
from Deleuze's
to whom desire is about a certain quality of forces. For Deleuze, negative forces but only an interaction tent that, if a force dominates, ing and enjoying and synthesise, reactive
it does so not by means of negation but by affirm-
its own difference
from other forces. Forces want to interact
and it is not a question
of who dominates
a power is. But, similar to the creation
have to be made or promoted way: whereas Hegel's
active forces
or, to say it another
very strict notion of identity, based on
the body, creates a negativity
filling of lack, for Deleuze, there is a multiplicity tiplicity of motivations
but of how active or
of multiplicities,
so they can affirm themselves,
and hence Lacan's
an inherent desire to overcome
there are no
of active and reactive ones to such an ex-
that thrives on the
of forces and therewith
for desiring, namely exactly n-I.
a mul-
Although
forces in Deleuze
might be defined in exact opposition
portray just as much a 'universal desiring productions
ontological
truth',
they could stimulate is not something
be actively created in an ethical manner, by constantly scribing
constant
own becoming
deterritorialisation.
a hermaphrodite
Sarah Kane's
production.
automatic,
but has to
deterritorialising
or de-
very own BwO, her very
self, had to be made visible, just as much as
Ridley Scott's Alien had to be protected strous in-between
to Hegel and
their activity and the n-l
from weed killer to convey the mon-
that exists, endures, and could influence the reader's
desiring-
Just as our reading, or the film itself, could have an impact on other
film producers'
representations
of gender identities.
grounds
of a fluidity linked to their 'otherness'.
with which we want to disturb 'being'
I believe
and 'identity'
that the multiplicity
must and can be articulated
beyond the binary. As I have argued, if the power of patriachy late a group of becomings
under the notion of woman and mother, I find it un-
helpful to take this enunciation
as a starting ground for resistance.
ment against 'the other' on the grounds of accusing lus we have to reveal, will continuously to dominate
that what is enunciated
as (m)other.
A ressenti-
them of posessing
provoke confrontation
canian theory, this need will be theorised (m)other,
was to accumu-
In a Grosz'ian
as stemming
the phal-
and man's need reading of La-
from his origin in the
who we think is a Sex Which Is Not One. But ironically,
this strategy
effects the writing of woman as sex, and the way out of gender stereotypes Deleuze's
concept of becoming-woman
monster.
Becoming-woman,
cyborg. In her Simians, new political
prefigured
in Harawayan
Donna Haraway's
language,
Cyborgs and Women, Haraway
myths: consciousness
should actively participate
is simulation,
barred once again. A politics based on a notion of woman as other constructs
would be a becoming-
reactive notions of woman and her binary other, man, that exclude and discrimi-
articulates
but within
in forming the symbolic,
the need for
simulation,
and she personally
we
would
rather be a cyborg - and hence, write cyborg myths - than be a goddess'. though I find Deleuze more useful in articulating
Al-
an ongoing deterritorialisation
How can we step out of our enunciation
as woman and describe the in-between?
As I have aimed to show, we all participate like Haraway,
who has concerned
in our own enunciation.
of time, who might have already undergone
subvert mainstream
simply says: 'I'd rather be a cyborg than a goddess."
such as nature/culture, of the in-between
of desire that serve the reproduction
slave/master,
man/woman.
The cyborg as manifestation
similarly stands against perfect communication
and aims to subvert monolithic
of binaries
and translation
do we ascribe this phallic power through
In all this one could always find links back to Irigaray, Kristeva or Cixous. But
practice,
Haraway agrees with the tenor of this thesis in that 'power must neither be phal-
Deleuzean
lic nor innocent'4. Irigaray's
ing. This 'thinking
for women to reveal the father's phallus,
through
can subvert mainstream originary
that cannot be detached
of an original real
from the union and desire for the (m)other.
Irigaray's
I'.
What this thesis has been suggesting and analysing
- 'thinking
notions of desiring
real. We can account
and its reliance
for changing
such a practice, and hence, can participate
noise' as Haraway and diverse
in constructing
feminisation
of culture in This Sex Which Is Not
convictions,
draws a female resistance
but from a different starting point, the elaboration
, Haraway,
Donna J. ([991):
Association
Books, p. 181.
4
Ibid, p. 174.
Simians.
Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention
ot'Natare.
London:
Free
a
way of thinkwould put it -
the anti-fascist
of an anti-humanist
be counter-productive.
'Become-
is that through
on binaries
One, in all its anti-essentialist
on the
affiliation?
imaginaries
Deleuze and Guattari had hoped for. lrigaray suggests a similarly
description
or has she
texts, employing
we can promote a new, non-monolithic
the in-between'
or to create their own, leads, as I have argued in the first chapter, to the conthe existence
our own methodological
a new way of describing
methodology,
tinuation
of a vicious circle that will reaffirms
Is she mourning,
we cannot simply give (phallic) orders. We cannot dictate:
woman, become-cyborg
suggestion
many steps of deterritorialisation,
ever mourned a failed identity? Who has the (phallic) power to say? And whom Similarly,
identities.
Somebody
herself with feminist theory for a long stretch
beyond a 'being' cyborg, I welcome her call for the creation of political myths to structures
is
chimeric
and an through utopia
'fluid' writing,
of which I have described
to
Psychoanalytic
theory would argue that somebody
be cyborg, surely, has not placed 'themselves
exlaiming
that they desire to
within a signifying
to be any place at all''', and must either be schizophrenic,
chain in order
woman finding another woman sexually alluring must necessarily
be explained a monster
A woman writing about four people is
surely talking about the nuclear family. Who is monolithic? lacking. She was becoming,
and her becoming
Kane was not (only)
ended. But her becoming
can be
Perhaps this analogy is too far fetched. And a fusion with the stem from which to deterritorialise
is, after all, suggested
tonal must be protected
in order to describe her life as polysemic,
seduced by Deleuze?
for a reactive theory that knows the 'truth' about subjects. Interpret-
ing her life from the being of her death codes the virtualities fixes them; although
these virtualities
of her durations and
could have become actualised
in many
In the example of Sarah Kane's striving,
text, it was shown how important
to keep deterritoriaJising
without
then, as a Lacanian
there is a great difference. tion of a procedure,
ever arriving.
it is to keep
Although
one might
desire that cannot be fulfilled, I argued that
Whereas
an in-between,
becoming
is Deleuzean
and a conscious
desire, an affirma-
decision to be in-between,
on the road, being BwO is an empty state that is reactive. Lacanian
Am I reacting
status as the rebellious more, belonging
daughter,
desire is a
Feminist
discourse,
Looser'
as any other critical
- the generation
selves as 'women';
of Jelinek,
I described the tendency of some Deleuzean in order
at losing my any-
or forcefully
the two approaches
base with which to think 'real' difference.
feel they have ventured
mation of difference
and Deleuzean
these fusions did not make
between
too far from the 'sisterhood',
is too lonely and hedonistic?
and
from her feminist
Gallop - that saw them-
as a woman writer because I don't
Kane stubbornly
that I believed
as Hantzis
emphasised,
and I started the
in n-l gender. An emphasis
on woman's
even if, in a poststructuralist
ex-
sense, there is
with an infatuation
with rebellious
adolescents
like Tank Girl and Lara Croft, who, in real life, might be unable to
menstruate.
Their androgyny
represents
an Other to birth machines.
Sarah Kane
becoming-woman
feminisms
have to be emphasised
it seems that it is the distinctions
brought us the theoretical
molecular
or psychoanalytic
I argued that to me, read closely,
after first deconstructing
is surely,
war. Being the same age as Sarah de Lauretis,
no belief in woman as such, is combatted
feminists,
to pose a Deleuzean
it, to fuse gynocentric
sense, and I wonder why similarities
feminists
the process, the unfinished,
Not either or, but n-l steps inbetween.
discourse,
'I have no responsibility
believe there is such a thing'",
perience as as a space of resistance,
whereas
to
their
Am I not myself
angered
Kane would have been, I share with her a sharp distinction foremothers
the
methodologies.
resistance
than I thought, that Irigaray, after all,
argue in PC Wars, a generational
sire is affirming the now: and most importantly:
feminism
they fight against?
out of ressentiment,
edge that Freud was much more Deleuzean
de-
against
to the feminist
of rape, to acknowledging
to 'their' gender? How does it affect my identity if I acknowl-
desire that is empty, not in the 'now', but striving for the beyond. Deleuzean
molar
'The
to these feminists
who does not even want to be a daughter
thesis announcing
hermaphrodite.
be compared
in the power structures
themselves:
my resistance
has her strong points?
different futures.
read becoming,
by Deleuze/Guattari
Cannot
seeing the fluidity in men, to the desexualisation own participation
as a success in stages, and not as the
at any cost!'
taking away my object of criticism
described and shown, in order to reveal the lines of flights she could have taken, justification
suffering for support
from their contemporaries?
or else, feel lacking. A
as yearning for a sexual union with the (m)other. A film representing that gives birth must be anti-feminist.
rectness, or a backlash, wanting to exchange the Dionysian
read, that
Do these
that their affir-
Is it a form of political cor-
, Hantzis, Jeffrey, II
Darlene ed. (1995):
M. and Looser.
'I write about human beings,
sibly within vicitims
Devoney:
'Of Safc(r) Spaces
PC Wars. Politics and Theory
my understanding.
and perpetrators.
and and "Right"
in the Academy.
Speech'
in Williams,
New York: Routledge
and since I am one, the ways in which all human beings operate I don't think of the world as being divided
I don't think those
are constructive
divisions
is fea-
up into men and women.
to make, and they make for
very poor writing ... When people talk about me as a writer, that's what I am, and that's how I want my work to be judged
_ on its quality,
want to be representative
what I am. Not what other people Langridge, pp. 133-4.)
Natasha
not on the basis of my age, gender,
of any biological
class, sexuality
or social group of which I happen
want me to be.' (Sarah Kane, interviewed
(1997): Rage and Reason:
Women Playwrights
011
or race. I don't
to be a member.
in Stephenson,
Playwriting.
London:
I am
Heidi and Methuen,
swerved in and out of anorexia 'odor di femina',?
and 'hated the smell of her own genitals':
the
psychoanalytic
feminism went wrong. It is this attachment
us that it is only in the construction As mentioned
in chapter four, Rosi Braidotti
was well-received tion remember
in the anti-maternal
showing
believes that Deleuzean
sentiment
words',?
her teeth - barking
Don't
we hear, watching
at her opponent:
Tomb Raider,
sert themselves themselves
When Deleuze/Guattari
of psychoanalysis
was that of the production
of the unconscious.
picture, this discovery
of de-
But once Oedipus entered the
was soon buried beneath a new brand of idealism: a
classical theatre was substituted
for the unconscious
for the units of production
as factory; represen-
of the unconscious;
that was capable of nothing but expressing
tragedy, dreams - was substituted
for the productive
and
itself - in myth,
Deleuze/Guattari Meanwhile, nology,
ventured out from psychonalysis'
continue
on the path
psychoanalytic
we are in another generation:
so that we are not as threatened in the academy,
cauldian Nietzsche
grown
beginning, just as Deleuzean had embarked
on.
path), and not those who insert themselves against a becoming-Other Deleuzean walking,
feminism. spinning,
it but affirming
into it or reshape it, they are arguing
Simultaneously,
it is not about provocation: a path while searching.
again, taking one step back, to rest, and reassure ourselves,
Kane's
Montrelay's
becoming-Other
emphasis
on an 'odor di femina',
which was motivated
it is about
And, now and
before we take the
of the
has very much failed us; and
up with an anti-phenomenologist, the pre-cultural
biologistic
the smell of her own genitals. We voice an anger, a ressentiment
against a femi-
creative lines of flight we yearn for, which we had hoped to inherit instead of having to find them ourselves.
body
a base of resistance,
'Female'
to us represent
forms, described by ecriture feminine
a reactive description
want to identify with. It is so often in acquiring
in
losing the identity of a woman in order to become an individual
self implies not to turn around and bark back in ressentiment.
And this is exactly
to create new critical texts and cultural commentary engaged in describing
as woman which, after
it, they could not escape, whose sticky threads are so different to the
Fou-
As Flieger says, everyone loses face and identity and finds creative solutions
on Sarah
by her hate of
articulating
disappearance
I focused
and accompanied
one much more used to cyber tech-
tempted in chapter four instead of being eternally
and
ones to come.
by a potential
and Butler who deconstruct
it (by
their own
of both the stem and the rhizome, psychoanalysis
finding and creating
the Other of femininity
why it is important
is made by those who oppose
nism that span a net of defence out of their experience
as being always already coded.
becoming-other:
or
free the line and
unconscious.'
feminists
body; one in which the ideal of 'back to nature' one having,
say that history
lines of flight to leave it; not by negating
I criticised
theorists
system they found ready-made,
must have allowed this operation:
a small plant; but it became a root-tree from which
sire, of the productions
an unconscious
invented,
the diagonal, draw the line instead of plotting a point. .. to
was
finding
tation was substituted
into it, or even reshape it). This is not done for provoca-
tion but happens because the punctual
'Suck my Clit!',? We do not, be-
we now have to further deterritorialise: The great discovery
of new texts that we can create progress.
History is made only by those who oppose history (not by those who in-
Lara -
cause it is a PG film, but it would not shock us if she would. Psychoanalysis once a rhizome, a beginning,
with
so rightly advise
feminism
of the 1990' s. Can my genera-
when 'the uteral, the vulvar, the clitoral, the vaginal, the placen-
tal' were 'distasteful
and engagement
the past that, again, slows things down, and Deleuze/Guattari
tional birth-machines.
that we feel rescued
androgynous
forms that signify
from the destiny to become irra-
The smell of our own genitals
nected with a reproductive
as
we cannot and do not
can, then, only be con-
and archaic notion of woman we do not want to be
limited to. Sarah Kane's emptying of her own BwO, her collapse and suicide, is,
as at-
in my opinion,
proof that she lost track of her programme
where
lost patience, deterritorialised
of experimentation,
too quickly and found nothing to hold on to any-
more: She emptied herself of the small steps required to find new ways of recoding her own odours, her gender, as a positive affirmation. to go back, but ran forward,
and hence, depleted
She did not want
her BwO too quickly, so that
she could not move forward anymore in the sense of progression. overdosed, powering.
anti production
ran riot, and the contingent
She did hate herself: not, as psychoanalysis
In running she
death-drive
tity Crisis in Feminist Theory',
Feminism
versus Post-Structuralism:
The Iden-
Signs, Nr. 13, 1988, p.3.
became over-
would argue, because she
did not solve the Oedipal complex and could not acknowledge
Alcoff, Linda (1988): 'Cultural
her sexuality and
Balsamo,
Anne (1996): Technologies
of the Gendered
Women. Durham and London: Duke University
Body: Reading
Cyborg
Press.
gender, but because she did not affirm herself as different, as rhizome, as schizo. If there had already been more affirmation Deleuzean
of the in-between
out there, more
feminist cultural criticism, perhaps she would not have felt so lonely.
Bordo,
Susan:
on Resistance. Can we accuse psychoanalytic
feminism
of bringing
by, as argued,
us anorexia,
as in Kane's
example,
territory
of femininity
with such a strong mapping of the body that made it so affirmations?
occupying
the
myths, new territories;
to affirm differences
with the reactive,
programmes
of experimentation
asking
& The Crystallization
Boston: Northeastern
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of Culture'
and Foucault:
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Reflections
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And if we did, what would it
change? The lines of flight will still have to be created. It is time to create new of arguing
Nervosa
depression,
suicide,
hard for us find new definitions,
unintentionally
'Anorexia
mond, Irene and Quinby, Lee, eds. (1988): Feminism
instead of negating Others. Instead
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the active and the reactive, inbetween
full and proc-
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