According to Zizek, odradek is “an object that is transgenerational, immortal, outside finitude, time … jouissance embodied” yet wholly inhuman (164). I’m interested in how this concept of “jouissance realized” relates back to The Prioress’s Tale and the notion of justice, as well as the radical imbalance created by privileging One as neighbor; is odradek what allows us to recognize the capacity for violence within the undead neighbor, per our discussion in class? To some extent, it seems that justice (and the necessity of transformative intercession, i.e. The Prioress’s Tale) as well as redemption are contingent on the violence implicit in the traumatic kernel. Can we understand the Prioress as a vehicle of odradek (as per Kafka's insight into the link between bureaucracy and divine and Lacan's "the father or the worse")? Perhaps this heightened state of self-awareness (could hypocrisy be understood as a facet of piety?) and the Lacanian concept of true universalism (154 “refusal to impose one’s message on all others”) in juxtaposition with Zizek’s interpretation of the asymmetrical definitions of love and hatred (183) figure in here somewhere too...
I'm having trouble posting this morning--and my earlier comment just got lost in the ether. Here goes, again:
ReplyDeleteI think this is very interesting, Bethany--but asked (in the disappearing comment) for more detail about some of the connections you see. I think this is very promising, but wanted to understand the logic of your connections more fully: where, for instance, do you see "bureaucracy" working in the PT? I believe you--but just needed to hear more detail. Fascinating.