The direction of the movement does matter: A response to Fabio Vighi
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Abstract
In this essay, we take issue with the historicist tendencies in Fabio Vighi’s reading of Jacques Lacan’s discourses on capitalism. We propose a formalist and analytical reading of the four discourses that encircles the ontological negativity to make way for subjective transformation. We argue for deploying the four discourses together as a conceptual matrix foregrounding the direction of movements from one discourse to another in its rotational structure.
Keywords
Jacques Lacan four discourses historicism crisis capitalism MarxismReferences
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