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Abstract
In Impossible Exchange (2001) Baudrillard questions the sovereignty of the thinking–willing subject and invites us to reconsider the subject–object economy with emphasis on the latter. He also develops the notion of the impossible exchange as an opportunity for the individual to see itself from the outside and consider the ontological question as one of presence and absence. This paper argues that Baudrillard’s notions converge with salient characteristics of the Lacanian drive. Bringing Baudrillard and Lacan together creates a unique point of view from which to consider questions of destiny, freedom and choice as well as their expression in contemporary culture. Two modern adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone are used as examples.
Notes
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2. Signification always works by the exclusion and separation of a certain meaning in favour of another. The primordial repression of the desire of the mother as first object of desire also works on the same principle. If the unrepresented-excluded meaning is repressed, it may return as “real” as “something” which disrupts the normal flow of signification.
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5. Psychoanalysis is not interested in the biology of the body or the ‘natural’ origin of the drive. Psychoanalysis is only interested in the representation of biology and nature in the mental and linguistic register.
6. The notion of the double is significant in Baudrillard. The meeting of the two women could be read as an encounter between doubles. Here, however I do not wish to emphasise the narcissistic mirroring implied in the notion of the double, an overemphasised aspect which “has had it day” (Gilloch, in Smith, Citation2010, p. 57). I am focusing instead on the ‘positive’ effects engendered by this encounter in juxtaposition to death.
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8. This question returns us to the upper part of the graph of desire and the ultimate question the Lacanian psychoanalyst will pose: que vuoi? – what do you want? (Lacan, Citation1989). This question invites the analysant to take responsibility of their own desire and recognise it as their own.