Abstract
This paper studies sinthomatique writing in Saul Bellow’s Herzog in the form of letter-writing. Referring to Lacanian theory, the Sinthome is discussed in the study as a system of signification that exploits the unconscious digging for jouissance. Connected to jouissance in writing unconscious, the Sinthome is the fourth ring in the Borromean knot that protects a subject against psychosis by intersecting the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real orders. This study further develops the idea of the Sinthome in relation to the Four Lacanian Discourses. In respect to Discourses of the Master, University, Hysteric, and Analyst, the following procedure is introduced for a subject excluded spatially and socially : foreclosure of master signifier, rejection of desire, reception of jouissance, and communication of the unconscious. The subject in above-mentioned moves needs a sinthome to protect his/her subjectivity against disintegration . Regarding Jacques Lacan’s example about James Joyce in using specific styles and epiphany, letter-writing is introduced as the Sinthome in Herzog that helps Herzog deliver his subjectivity from dissolution. Herzog is a character on the verge of breakdown and madness after his second divorce. He reconfigures his subjectivity when he forecloses AMERICA as master signifier, no longer enjoys knowledge, receives contradictions and truth, and ultimately jots down his unconscious. Finally, the role of the Sinthome is explored in the production of art. The Sinthome is considered as a kind of unique discourse through which a psychotic artist is enabled to originate new artistic productions. Keywords: Jacques Lacan; the Sinthome; Four Discourses; Saul Bellow; letter-writing
Highlights
Herzog’s letters look up into the condition of modern world and suffering enforced by it to which a recount on identity is the only way out
Where the Symbolic order in Lacanian theory refers to usually collective spaces signified through language, the sinthomatique writing is unique personal space that can provide a writer like Saul Bellow with space signified personally, which is the mean to individual artistic production
As a function of artistic production, the Sinthome may appear in variety of forms in literary texts
Summary
Herzog’s letters look up into the condition of modern world and suffering enforced by it to which a recount on identity is the only way out. Letter-writing in Saul Bellow’s Herzog may well be considered another example in this respect that produces the Sinthome The protagonist of this novel, Herzog, is an intellectual Jew trying to endure and live on in the contemporary modern life. The present article, so, attempts to study letter-writing in Herzog functioning as the Sinthome that provides Herzog with the last string to protect his subjectivity against dissolution and madness. To this end, the Sinthome is presented in detail in respect to Lacanian theory with a thorough account of the functions of the Sinthome and in relation to the Four Lacanian Discourses (it is part of the present study’s contribution to Lacanian theory). The final argument is on the presence of spaces (it is not limited to style and epiphany as it was discoursed by Lacan on Joyce) in literary texts that function as the Sinthome and the role of the Sinthome in the production of art
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