The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading / Edition 1

by John P. Muller, William J. Richardson

Overview

In 1956 Jacques Lacan proposed as interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's "Purloined Letter" that at once challenged literary theorists and revealed a radically new conception of psychoanalysis. Lacan's far-reaching claims about language and truth provoked a vigorous critique by Jacques Derrida, whose essay in turn has spawned further responses from Barbara Johnson, Jane Gallop, Irene Harvey, Norman Holland, and others. The Purloined Poe brings Poe's story together with these readings to provide, in the words of the editors, "a structured exercuse in the elaboration of textual interpretation.

The Purloined Poe reprints the full text of Poe's story, followed by Lacan's "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter,'" along with extensive commentary by the editors. Marie Bonaparte's and Shoshana Felman's discussions of traditional and contemporary approaches to "psychoanalysing" texts precede Alan Bass's new translation of Derrida's "Purveyor of Truth." The subsequent essays join the Lacan-Derrida debate and offer alternative readings by literary theorists, philosophers, psychologists, and psychoanalysts. The Purloined Poe convenes much of the most important current scholarship on "The Purloined Letter" and presents a rich sampling of poststructuralist discourse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801832932
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/01/1987
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.92(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Muller is Director of Education at the Austen Riggs Center. He is coeditor of The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading (also available from Johns Hopkins University Press) and the author of Beyond the Psychoanalytic Dyad: Developmental Semiotics in Freud, Peirce, and Lacan.

William J. Richardson is professor of philosophy at Boston College. He is the coauthor of Lacan and Language: A Reader's Guide to Ecrits.

Table of Contents

Preface
Part I. Poe and Lacan
Chapter 1. Text of "The Purloined Letter," with Notes
Chapter 2. Seminar of "The Purloined Letter"
Chapter 3. Lacan's Seminar of "The Purloined Letter" Overview
Chapter 4. Lacan's Seminar of "The Purloined Letter": Map of the Text
Chapter 5. Lacan's Seminar of "The Purloined Letter": Notes to the Text
Part II. On Psychoanalytic Reading
Chapter 6. Selections from The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psycho-analytic Interpretation
Chapter 7. On Reading Poetry: Reflections on the Limits and Possibilities of Psychoanalytic Approaches
Part III. Derrida and Responses
Chapter 8. The Challenge of Deconstructions
Chapter 9. The Purveyor of Truth, translated by Alan Bass
Chapter 10. The Frame of Reference: Poe, Lacan, Derrida
Chapter 11. Structures of exemplarity in Poe, Freud, Lacan, and Derrida
Chapter 12. The American other
Part IV. Other Readings
Chapter 13. Narratorial Authority and "The Purloined Letter"
Chapter 14. Re-covering "The Purloined Latter": Reading as a Personal Transaction
Chapter 15. The Shadow's Shadow: The Motif of the Double in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter"
Chapter 16. A Notes on Time in "The Purloined Letter"
Chapter 17. Negation in "The Purloined Letter": Hegel, Poe, and Lacan
References
Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

In the story of the interpretations, reinterpretations, displacements, and replacements that have accreted around Poe's 'The Purloined Letter,' this collection, The Purloined Poe, comes like an answer to a . . . riddle.
—Hana Charney, Psychoanalytic Books

A valuable, critical text.
—Year's Work in English Studies

A fascinating volume for both the fledgling and the besotted amateurs of contemporary criticism.
—Library Journal

From the Publisher

A valuable, critical text.

Year's Work in English Studies

In the story of the interpretations, reinterpretations, displacements, and replacements that have accreted around Poe's 'The Purloined Letter,' this collection, The Purloined Poe, comes like an answer to a... riddle.

Psychoanalytic Books - Hana Charney

In the story of the interpretations, reinterpretations, displacements, and replacements that have accreted around Poe's 'The Purloined Letter,' this collection, The Purloined Poe, comes like an answer to a... riddle.

— Hana Charney

Psychoanalytic Books

Lacan's reading of Poe's ``The Purloined Letter'' has become both notorious and seminal. It is one of the rare texts where Lacan demonstrates his theoretical position in terms of a literary work, a feature that highlights some of the more egregious assumptions of his approach. Jacques Derrida's critique set the stage for a debate that has drawn out some of the leading critics allied to psychoanalytic and deconstructionist thought. This anthology provides Poe's tale, Lacan's and Derrida's texts, and a generous sampling of essays spawned by the debate. A fascinating volume for both the fledgling and the besotted amateurs of contemporary criticism. Alexander Gelley, Univ. of California, Irvine

Library Journal