Wrestling with the Angel : : Experiments in Symbolic Life / / Tracy McNulty.
Wrestling with the Angel is a meditation on contemporary political, legal, and social theory from a psychoanalytic perspective. It argues for the enabling function of formal and symbolic constraints in sustaining desire as a source of creativity, innovation, and social change.The book begins by call...
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Place / Publishing House: | New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2014] ©2014 |
Year of Publication: | 2014 |
Language: | English |
Series: | Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
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Physical Description: | 1 online resource (320 p.) :; 3 |
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McNulty, Tracy, author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut Wrestling with the Angel : Experiments in Symbolic Life / Tracy McNulty. New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2014] ©2014 1 online resource (320 p.) : 3 text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier text file PDF rda Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Enabling Constraints -- PART 1. REINVENTING THE SYMBOLIC -- 1. INVENTIONS OF THE SYMBOLIC -- 2. DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE -- PART 2. POLITICAL THEOLOGY AND THE QUESTION OF THE WRITTEN -- 3. WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL -- 4. THE GAP IN THE WRITTEN LAW AND THE UNWRITABLE ACT OF DECISION -- 5. THE EVENT OF THE LETTER -- 6. THE COMMANDMENT AGAINST THE LAW -- CODA: Toward an Aesthetics of Symbolic Life -- 7. FREEDOM THROUGH CONSTRAINTS -- Notes -- Index -- Backmatter restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec online access with authorization star Wrestling with the Angel is a meditation on contemporary political, legal, and social theory from a psychoanalytic perspective. It argues for the enabling function of formal and symbolic constraints in sustaining desire as a source of creativity, innovation, and social change.The book begins by calling for a richer understanding of the psychoanalytic concept of the symbolic and the resources it might offer for an examination of the social link and the political sphere. The symbolic is a crucial dimension of social coexistence but cannot be reduced to the social norms, rules, and practices with which it is so often collapsed. As a dimension of human life that is introduced by language-and thus inescapably "other" with respect to the laws of nature-the symbolic is an undeniable fact of human existence. Yet the same cannot be said of the forms and practices that represent and sustain it. In designating these laws, structures, and practices as "fictions," Jacques Lacan makes clear that the symbolic is a dimension of social life that has to be created and maintained and that can also be displaced, eradicated, or rendered dysfunctional. The symbolic fictions that structure and support the social tie are therefore historicizable, emerging at specific times and in particular contexts and losing their efficacy when circumstances change. They are also fragile and ephemeral, needing to be renewed and reinvented if they are not to become outmoded or ridiculous. Therefore the aim of this study is not to call for a return to traditional symbolic laws but to reflect on the relationship between the symbolic in its most elementary or structural form and the function of constraints and limits.McNulty analyzes examples of "experimental" (as opposed to "normative") articulations of the symbolic and their creative use of formal limits and constraints not as mere prohibitions or rules but as "enabling constraints" that favor the exercise of freedom. The first part examines practices that conceive of subjective freedom as enabled by the struggle with constraints or limits, from the transference that structures the "minimal social link" of psychoanalysis to constrained relationships between two or more people in the context of political and social movements. Examples discussed range from the spiritual practices and social legacies of Moses, Jesus, and Teresa of Avila to the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière. The second part is devoted to legal and political debates surrounding the function of the written law. It isolates the law's function as a symbolic limit or constraint as distinct from its content and representational character. The analysis draws on Mosaic law traditions, the political theology of Paul, and twentieth-century treatments of written law in the work of Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, Pierre Legendre, and Alain Badiou. In conclusion, the study considers the relationship between will and constraint in Kant's aesthetic philosophy and in the experimental literary works of the collective Oulipo. Issued also in print. Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. In English. Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022) Psychoanalysis. POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory. bisacsh Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015 9783110665864 print 9780231161190 https://doi.org/10.7312/mcnu16118 https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780231537605 Cover https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780231537605/original |
language |
English |
format |
eBook |
author |
McNulty, Tracy, McNulty, Tracy, |
spellingShingle |
McNulty, Tracy, McNulty, Tracy, Wrestling with the Angel : Experiments in Symbolic Life / Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Enabling Constraints -- PART 1. REINVENTING THE SYMBOLIC -- 1. INVENTIONS OF THE SYMBOLIC -- 2. DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE -- PART 2. POLITICAL THEOLOGY AND THE QUESTION OF THE WRITTEN -- 3. WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL -- 4. THE GAP IN THE WRITTEN LAW AND THE UNWRITABLE ACT OF DECISION -- 5. THE EVENT OF THE LETTER -- 6. THE COMMANDMENT AGAINST THE LAW -- CODA: Toward an Aesthetics of Symbolic Life -- 7. FREEDOM THROUGH CONSTRAINTS -- Notes -- Index -- Backmatter |
author_facet |
McNulty, Tracy, McNulty, Tracy, |
author_variant |
t m tm t m tm |
author_role |
VerfasserIn VerfasserIn |
author_sort |
McNulty, Tracy, |
title |
Wrestling with the Angel : Experiments in Symbolic Life / |
title_sub |
Experiments in Symbolic Life / |
title_full |
Wrestling with the Angel : Experiments in Symbolic Life / Tracy McNulty. |
title_fullStr |
Wrestling with the Angel : Experiments in Symbolic Life / Tracy McNulty. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Wrestling with the Angel : Experiments in Symbolic Life / Tracy McNulty. |
title_auth |
Wrestling with the Angel : Experiments in Symbolic Life / |
title_alt |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Enabling Constraints -- PART 1. REINVENTING THE SYMBOLIC -- 1. INVENTIONS OF THE SYMBOLIC -- 2. DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE -- PART 2. POLITICAL THEOLOGY AND THE QUESTION OF THE WRITTEN -- 3. WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL -- 4. THE GAP IN THE WRITTEN LAW AND THE UNWRITABLE ACT OF DECISION -- 5. THE EVENT OF THE LETTER -- 6. THE COMMANDMENT AGAINST THE LAW -- CODA: Toward an Aesthetics of Symbolic Life -- 7. FREEDOM THROUGH CONSTRAINTS -- Notes -- Index -- Backmatter |
title_new |
Wrestling with the Angel : |
title_sort |
wrestling with the angel : experiments in symbolic life / |
series |
Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture |
series2 |
Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture |
publisher |
Columbia University Press, |
publishDate |
2014 |
physical |
1 online resource (320 p.) : 3 Issued also in print. |
contents |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Enabling Constraints -- PART 1. REINVENTING THE SYMBOLIC -- 1. INVENTIONS OF THE SYMBOLIC -- 2. DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE -- PART 2. POLITICAL THEOLOGY AND THE QUESTION OF THE WRITTEN -- 3. WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL -- 4. THE GAP IN THE WRITTEN LAW AND THE UNWRITABLE ACT OF DECISION -- 5. THE EVENT OF THE LETTER -- 6. THE COMMANDMENT AGAINST THE LAW -- CODA: Toward an Aesthetics of Symbolic Life -- 7. FREEDOM THROUGH CONSTRAINTS -- Notes -- Index -- Backmatter |
isbn |
9780231537605 9783110665864 9780231161190 |
callnumber-first |
B - Philosophy, Psychology, Religion |
callnumber-subject |
BF - Psychology |
callnumber-label |
BF173 |
callnumber-sort |
BF 3173 M35846 42014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7312/mcnu16118 https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780231537605 https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780231537605/original |
illustrated |
Not Illustrated |
dewey-hundreds |
100 - Philosophy & psychology |
dewey-tens |
120 - Epistemology |
dewey-ones |
128 - Humankind |
dewey-full |
128 |
dewey-sort |
3128 |
dewey-raw |
128 |
dewey-search |
128 |
doi_str_mv |
10.7312/mcnu16118 |
oclc_num |
979620642 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT mcnultytracy wrestlingwiththeangelexperimentsinsymboliclife |
status_str |
n |
ids_txt_mv |
(DE-B1597)458434 (OCoLC)979620642 |
carrierType_str_mv |
cr |
hierarchy_parent_title |
Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015 |
is_hierarchy_title |
Wrestling with the Angel : Experiments in Symbolic Life / |
container_title |
Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015 |
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The symbolic is a crucial dimension of social coexistence but cannot be reduced to the social norms, rules, and practices with which it is so often collapsed. As a dimension of human life that is introduced by language-and thus inescapably "other" with respect to the laws of nature-the symbolic is an undeniable fact of human existence. Yet the same cannot be said of the forms and practices that represent and sustain it. In designating these laws, structures, and practices as "fictions," Jacques Lacan makes clear that the symbolic is a dimension of social life that has to be created and maintained and that can also be displaced, eradicated, or rendered dysfunctional. The symbolic fictions that structure and support the social tie are therefore historicizable, emerging at specific times and in particular contexts and losing their efficacy when circumstances change. They are also fragile and ephemeral, needing to be renewed and reinvented if they are not to become outmoded or ridiculous. 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