Ryan and Todd devote this episode to unpacking Joan Copjec's groundbreaking first book, Read My Desire. In this first part of a two part series, they focus on the first four chapters of the book, devoting most of the episode to an explication of "The Orthopsychic Subject," which is Copjec's critique of apparatus theory in film studies. In so doing, they work through Copjec's understanding of the gaze.

Read My Desire, Pt. 1: Gaze and Excess

Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.

TV & Film

Ryan and Todd explore the problem of the ending, focusing on when and why the ending becomes important in film and television. They discuss the relationship between the ending of life and the ending of a work of art, especially in terms of psychoanalytic thinking.

Endings

Ryan and Todd analyze Slavoj Zizek's contribution in what may be his magnum opus--The Parallax View. They discuss how he builds on the concept of parallax as originally articulated by Kojin Karatani and its implication for Zizek's understanding of politics.

Parallax View

Ryan and Todd unpack Jacques Lacan's most well-known seminar--Seminar XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. In doing so, they focus on Lacan's own exclusion as a starting point and then delve into two concepts that Lacan does not list among the fundamental ones--subjectivity and the objet a.

Seminar 11

Ryan and Todd analyze the complexity of Jacques Lacan's Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. They discuss the various notions that appear there--from das Ding to sublimation to death drive to the ethics of desire.

Seminar 7

Ryan and Todd continue their exploration of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason with the Introduction. They discuss the importance of his critique of dogmatic metaphysics and the incredible discovery of the synthetic a priori judgment.

Ryan's sports article: https://link.springer.com/journal/41282/online-first

Read My Desire, Pt. 1: Gaze and Excess

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