Sophocles' Antigone has been a reference point for many thinkers and has left its mark on psychoanalytic theory from Lacan to the present. We will be reading Alenka Zupancic's new work, Let Them Rot as an investigation of ethics and desire. This very short book opened an opportunity to for a series of accompanying readings including Lacan's commentary on Antigone in Seminar VII. This text functions as a stand alone section of the seminar. We will also do a live reading of the play itself over zoom together - each taking on a role to launch this series. On March 28 bring your water bottles and cough drops and be ready to ham it up..

I selected a series of other readings from Joan Copjec, Slavoj Zizek, and Todd McGowan.

Each week will require an average of 30 pages of reading. Reading is not required to attend but strongly encouraged.

Email me if you would like to be included in the reading group email list.

Reading Schedule

Meeting Thursdays from 8pm-10pm CT

Week 1: March 28- Live reading of Antigone. Sophocles.

Week 2: April 4 Let Them Rot. Alenka Zupancic. p. 1-20, Preface and Chapter 1.

Week 3: April 11 Let Them Rot. Alenka Zupancic. p. 21-49, Chapter 2.

Week 4: April 18 Let Them Rot. Alenka Zupancic. p. 50-82, Chapter 3.

Week 5: April 25 A Divided Emancipation: The Alienation of the Modern Tragic Hero. Crisis & Critique Volume 10 Issue 2. Todd McGowan p. 217-228

Week 6: May 2 The Essence of Tragedy: A Commentary on Sophocles's Antigone. from The Ethics of Psychoanalysis - Seminar VII. Jacques Lacan. p. 243-290

Week 7: May 9 Tomb of Perseverance. from Imagine There's No Woman. Joan Copjec. p 12-47, chapter 1.

Week 8: May 16 The Real and Its Vicissitudes from Looking Awry. Slavoj Zizek (p 21-47) OR The Real of Sexual Difference from Interrogating the Real. Slavoj Zizek. p 293-314, chapter 15.