Four Discourses and Sinthomatique Writing in Saul Bellow’s Herzog: A Lacanian Approach

Authors

  • Tohid Teymouri University of Isfahan
  • Zahra Jannessari Ladani University of Isfahan
  • Pyeaam Abbasi University of Isfahan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2018-2403-09

Abstract

This paper studies sinthomatique writing in Saul Bellow’s Herzog in the form of letter-writing. Referring to Lacanian theory, the Sinthome is discussed in the study as a system of signification that exploits the unconscious digging for jouissance. Connected to jouissance in writing unconscious, the Sinthome is the fourth ring in the Borromean knot that protects a subject against psychosis by intersecting the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real orders. This study further develops the idea of the Sinthome in relation to the Four Lacanian Discourses. In respect to Discourses of the Master, University, Hysteric, and Analyst, the following procedure is introduced for a subject excluded spatially and socially: foreclosure of master signifier, rejection of desire, reception of jouissance, and communication of the unconscious. The subject in above-mentioned moves needs a sinthome to protect his/her subjectivity against disintegration. Regarding Jacques Lacan’s example about James Joyce in using specific styles and epiphany, letter-writing is introduced as the Sinthome in Herzog that helps Herzog deliver his subjectivity from dissolution. Herzog is a character on the verge of breakdown and madness after his second divorce. He reconfigures his subjectivity when he forecloses AMERICA as master signifier, no longer enjoys knowledge, receives contradictions and truth, and ultimately jots down his unconscious. Finally, the role of the Sinthome is explored in the production of art. The Sinthome is considered as a kind of unique discourse through which a psychotic artist is enabled to originate new artistic productions. Keywords: Jacques Lacan; the Sinthome; Four Discourses; Saul Bellow; letter-writing

Author Biographies

Tohid Teymouri, University of Isfahan

He is currently Ph.D. student of English literature at Isfahan University. He is lecturer at Urmia University. His recent publications are Ziagan Shast (The Life of 60s) (short story collection), Mother and Other Stories (short Story collection), and "Borromean (De)Knot in Jorge Luis Borges's "Funes, the Memorious"" (a Lacanian study) (2016).

Zahra Jannessari Ladani, University of Isfahan

Zahra Jannessari-Ladani is an assistant professor of English Literature at the University of Isfahan. She is the Persian translator of Kristina Nelson’s The Art of Reciting the Quran and English editor of Quran Recitation Skills. She has also translated a number of Stanley G. Weinbaum’s SF stories to Persian for the first time. Her major contributions to the science fiction domain consist of her lecture “The Rise of the Pulps, 1900s-1930s” given to Lars Schmeink’s The Virtual Introduction to Science Fiction, and her chapter “John W. Campbell and his Writers” published in Leigh Grossman’s Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. And her new book chapter, “Robert A. Heinlein in Historical and Cultural Context,” has been published in Rafeeq McGiveron’s Critical Insights: Robert A. Heinlein by the Salem Press. She is the writer of a number of articles published in diverse journals such as Research in Contemporary World Literature, Lesan Mobin, Translation Studies, etc. Her most recent publication, coauthored with Sharareh Kashi is “The Representation of Fukuyama’s Pathways to a Posthuman Future in Brave New World and Never Let Me Go” in theJournal of Literary studies.

Pyeaam Abbasi, University of Isfahan

Pyeaam Abbasi is assistant professor of English Literature at the University of Isfahan, Iran. Some of his published articles are as follows: "The Masculine Sea and the Impossibility of Awakening in Kate Chopin's The Awakening" (2012); "The Neurotic Prufrock: A Lacanian Reading of The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (2015); "The politics of minoritarian becomings: a Deleuzian approach to Macbeth and Othello" (2017).

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Published

2018-09-27

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 3 (2018)

Section

Articles

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