.nr LL 6i
.nr PO 1i
.nr VS 24
.PP
Literary criticism often borrows from psychoanalytic theory.  Characters
and authors are usually not the subjects of analysis.  Rather, the text is
treated as subject in itself, with its own unconscious, and its own
desires.  In this view, the text speaks to the reader/analyst.  Through the
process of speaking the text works through a problem (or problems), just
like in analysis.  An interesting characteristic of this situation is that
the reader never responds to the text.  The text tries to engage the
reader, to make him react, and the reader might well react, but the text is
never aware of it.  This situation is very similar to an ideal Lacanian
psychoanalysis session.  In Lacanian analysis the one who is being analyzed
does all the talking.  More or less, the job of the analyst is to make the
subject speak.  Through his speech the subject works through his problems
and, it is hoped, comes to terms with them.
.PP
Speech, language, and its relation to the unconscious is a central theme
in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory.  Lacan (who considered himself a follower
of Freud) believed that language was necessarily bound to the unconscious.
He went as far as saying that the unconscious 
.I "is"
language.  (One point where Lacan differs from Freud is in his view of the
unconscious.  Whereas Freud states that unconscious thoughts can be
revealed, for example through psychoanalysis, Lacan denies that the
unconscious can ever be reached; we can only move around it but we can never
penetrate it.)  It should not be too surprising, then, that Lacanian theory
is a popular one for critics, since it addresses exactly what literature is
based on.  Its application to literary criticism can often lead to
interesting and revealing results.
.PP
This essay examines some specific writings of Lacan where he addresses language
(or symbolic representation in general) and meaning.  The writings referred
to here can be found in the English translation of his volume
.I "Ecrits,"\**
published by Norton under the same title.
.FS
.I "Ecrits"
de Jacques Lacan (Paris: Seuil).
.FE
In discussing language and meaning Lacan continually refers to the phallus,
and to what he calls the Saussurian Algorithm.  The latter term refers to a
diagram invented by the French philosopher Saussure: S/s.  Its relevance for
us is that it depicts the separation and the relation of a signifier (the
capital `S') to its signified (the lower case `s').  In this essay we will
further explore the nature of this relationship.  We will also explored the
role and the purpose of the phallus in Lacan's writing, but we should
realize that, for Lacan, the phallus is not necessarily a symbol for the
penis (although the suggestion is clearly present), rather, as we shall see,
it acts as an elusive signifier that motivates language and the possibility
of meaning.