Logical Time in Austen's Persuasion: Desire and the Unproductive Anxious Interval
Date
2021-06-16
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Journal Title
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Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
This essay reads Jane Austen’s Persuasion in light of Jacques Lacan’s essay “Logical Time and the Assertion of Anticipated Certainty.” We weigh the glances exchanged between characters in a chain of four episodes from the novel, paying attention to the pauses produced in each scene. Such an analysis suggests that the characters, confronted with an effectively carceral system of social rules, must deduce their own gender identities, and their desirability within that sexual regime, by letting go of their very subjectivity. A complex temporality is produced in the field of desire that undercuts any distinction between objective and subjective self-knowledge.
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Keywords
Austen, Jane, Lacan, Jacques, Persuasion (novel), Logical time, psychoanalysis, intersubjectivity, temporality
Citation
Michalski, I., & Sigler, D. (2021). Logical time in Austen's Persuasion: Desire and the unproductive anxious interval. In Kramp, M. (Ed.) Jane Austen and critical theory. Routledge. DOI:10.4324/9781003181309-4