Abstract

It is often argued that Lacan's theory of the subject marks an important break from traditional approaches that seat the subject in consciousness. But what exactly did Lacan mean when he spoke and wrote about the subject? What kind of thing was he naming? My answer is twofold. On the one hand, Lacan meant something like a meaning or a cluster of signifiers. This gives us a view of the subject as something determined. On the other hand, he meant something quite different by the subject. "Subject" also designates in Lacan's work an effect of a certain kind of signifying practice, one that I identify as a manifestation of freedom. This is odd, given Lacan's reluctance to speak about freedom, but I show how his theory of the act is much like a theory of freedom. After discussing some of the basic notions in Lacan's work, I study these two ways in which the subject is thought by Lacan: the subject in fantasy and the subject of an act. ;Since Lacan felt that any identification was always a sort of determinism, I also portray his account of freedom as an attempt to sketch what a beyond of identification might look like. One way of explaining how this beyond is made accessible to us is by considering what happens when new signifiers, ones that are not readily identifiable within a given linguistic and social framework, are used in individual and social signifying practices. Lacan associates the use and invention of such new signifiers with manifestations of freedom in individuals and collectivities, and I show how this approach makes an intriguing contribution to contemporary debates on agency in ethics and social and political philosophy. ;Drawing heavily from Lacan's unpublished seminars, in the course of my dissertation I discuss Saussure, Sartre, Derrida, Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy as well as works in political theory and identity theory by Alain Badiou, Judith Butler, and Slavoj Zizek to highlight what is specific and useful about Lacan's theory of the subject for contemporary approaches to ethical and political agency