The Two Jakes

Abstract

It’s arguable that between them the two representative figures of Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida divide the main possibilities for contemporary thought in the West — with Freud, Kristeva and Zizek on one side, and Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Lyotard, Rorty on the other. Yet what interests me is the point of juncture or interface between them. Whenever I read Lacan I think of Derrida, and when I read Derrida I think of Lacan. I don’t have a sustained argument leading to a finished conclusion — only a series of ‘takes’ on places and topics where they touch on each other.