The Not-Whole Feminine Sexuality, the Big Other and the Other Jouissance—Rereading Seminar XX Encore
Abstract
Through a close reading of Lacan’s Encore seminar, this article locates the reasons and consequences of not-whole femininity. The lack of the big Other and the unnameability of the Other Jouissance can be consequences—and reasons, retroactively posited—of the female not-wholeness. Thus, the not-wholeness of female sexuality breaks down the boundary between cause and effect, form and content, and even knowledge and jouissance. Through analyzing the causes and effects of the not-wholeness, the big Other and the Other jouissance, the article argues that these three constitute Lacanian logic of impossibility, contingency, and necessity.
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