Description
Book SynopsisUses the writing of Freud, Lacan, the Surrealists, and Roland Barthes to elaborate a theory of art beyond the pleasure principle. Lacan was in close contact with the Surrealists and, early in his career, exchanged ideas with Dali. This book offers a reading of Dali's "paranoiac-critical" tour de force, "The Tragic Myth of Millet's Angelus".
Trade Review“This new book by Margaret Iversen is truly exceptional. Ranging across modern and contemporary art with remarkable adeptness, each of its chapters has a luster and perfection that reflects her profound knowledge of philosophical aesthetics and psychoanalysis. It is guaranteed to reinvigorate debate about art and psychoanalysis.”
—David Lomas,University of Manchester
“It is very well written, making difficult Lacanian and other psychoanalytic concepts lucidly accessible and illuminating. It is extremely well informed with respect to the history of Lacanian psychoanalysis and its relations with Surrealism and art and film criticism. I am struck by the clarity of Iversen’s expression when she translates theoretical jargon into plain English.”
—Murray M. Schwartz,Emerson College
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: From Mirror to Anamorphosis
2. Uncanny: The Blind Field in Edward Hoppe
3. Paranoia: Dalí Meets Lacan
4. Encounter: Breton Meets Lacan
5. Death Drive: Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty
6. Mourning: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
7. The Real: What Is a Photograph?
8. Conclusion: After Camera Lucida
Notes
Bibliography
Index
