A language of the unconscious and the enervation of the text

Abstract

The parallel between literary theory a·nd psychoanalysis made by way of linguistics suggests that the psychoanalytic symptom, as an utterance of the language of the unconscious, speaks in a distinctively poetic style which formally and practically approxi­mates the utterances of literary language, the poem and the text. However, an examination of the extent to which the symptom can be seen as an expression of an unconscious language, and the literary text as an instance of a rhetorical or poetic one, indicates that each is better understood as in opposition to the linguistic. Only if the text and the symptom are understood as the re-implementation of a material or perceptual logic necessarily at odds with that governing language as a system can literature and psychoanalysis be recognised as both epistemologically privileged and programmatically radical.

Opsomming

Die parallel tussen literere teorie en psigoanalise via linguistiek, suggereer dat die psigoanalitiese simptoom, as 'n uiting van die taal van die onbewuste, in 'n kenmerkende poetiese styl spreek wat formeel en prakties na aan die uiting van literere taal, die gedig en die teks kom. Tog toon 'n ondersoek van die mate waarin die simptoom gesien kan word as 'n uitdrukking van 'n onbewuste taal, en die literere teks as 'n voorbeeld van 'n retoriese of poetiese uiting, dat albei beter begryp word as teenstellend tot die linguistiese. Slegs as die tel<s en die simptoom verstaan word as die herimplementering van 'n materiele of persepsionele logika, wat noodwendigerwys ingaan teen dit wat die heersende taal as 'n sisteem reguleer, kan literatuur en psigoanalise erken word as sowel epistemo­logies bevoorreg as programmaties radikaal.