The Phallus Unveiled: Lacan, Badiou and the Comedic Moment in Genet's The Balcony

Abstract

This essay explores how the image of the Chief of Police dressed as a giant phallus is the often overlooked and misconstrued key to the interpretation of Jean Genet's canonical play The Balcony (1956). Drawing on, but also moving beyond, the invaluable readings of Alain Badiou and Jacques Lacan in their respective seminars, it argues that the motif of the Chief's costume condenses the play's insightful, and more relevant than ever, examination of the functioning of ideology in the visible world. Genet's play is a theatrical allegory for ideology's workings at a historical juncture when spontaneous identification with, and therefore allegiance to, traditional authority figures is no longer possible as it presumably once was. A proper appreciation of the comedic moment of the play sheds ironic light on its final vision of conservative restoration, generating precious insights about the workings of contemporary power and the renaissance of authoritarianism at the twilight of the liberal era.