Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter’ : 26th April 1955 : Jacques Lacan
by Julia Evans on April 26, 1955
Lacan chose his “Seminar on “The Purloined Letter” to introduce the collection of his Écrits (1966), whose essays otherwise appear in chronological order. The essay was written out in its present form ) between mid-May and mid-August 1956 (and dated as having been completed in Guitrancourt and San Casciano), but its content had been presented a year earlier (26th April 1955) as part of his weekly seminar (1954 to 1955) Seminar II: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis: 1954-1955: begins 17th November 1954 : Jacques Lacan (See here for details). In fact, the whole seminar was a year-long commentary on Freud’s ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle”: 1920.
This essay shows how transference acts and works in the clinic like that intriguing object described in Edgar Allan Poe’s tale “The Purloined Letter”
(From Lacan’s Seminar on “The Purloined Letter” Overview : p55 of John P. Muller and William J. Richardson (eds) The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida and Psychoanalytic Reading : 1988 : Information and availability : The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida and Psychoanalytic Reading : 1988 : John P. Muller and William J. Richardson (Editors & Authors) or here)
Translated by Jeffrey Mehlman :
Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter’ : 26th April 1955
Note : This translation does not include Lacan’s three appendices to the text ‘Le séminaire sur “La Lettre volée”’: as published in Écrits : Paris, du Seuil: 1966 : p11-61 : See below.
Published
i) Yale French Studies : 48 : p38-72 : 1972
Available here
ii) p28-54 of The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida and Psychoanalytic Reading : 1988 : John P. Muller and William J. Richardson (Editors & Authors) : See here
iii) Also reprinted in Morris Philipson and Paul J. Goodall (eds) : 1980 : Aesthetics Today : Readings selected, edited and introduced by Morris Philipson and Paul J. Goodall, New York NY : New American Library, p383-412
iv) Also reprinted in Robert Con Davis and Ronald Schleifer (eds) : 1989 : Contemporary Literary Criticism, Literary and Cultural Studies : 2nd edition : New York NY : Longman : p300-320
v) Also reprinted in Emanuel E. Berman (ed) : 1993 : Essential Papers on Literature and Psychoanalysis : New York NY : New York University Press : p270-299
Translated by Bruce Fink
Published
In Jacques Lacan, Écrits, the first complete edition in English : 2002 : W W Norton & co : p6 – 50 : See Écrits : 1966 : Jacques Lacan or here for details
The 3 appendices 1966 : p30-46 of Bruce Fink’s translation :
Appendix 1: Presentation of the Suite (probably 1957) : p30-32 of Bruce Fink’s:
Appendix 2 : Introduction (probably 1957) : p33-4 of Bruce Fink’s translation of the Écrits :
Appendix 3 : p41-46 of Bruce Fink’s translation of the Écrits : Parenthesis of Parentheses (Added in 1966)
Also see Jacques Lacan’s notes : probably 1966 : p46 to 48 of Bruce Fink’s translation
Available (p30-48 of Bruce Fink’s translation) here
Comment on the three appendices is on p67 to 75 of The ‘Purloined Letter’ an overview : 1986 : John P. Muller and William J. Richardson which includes reference to topology.
First presented:
Seminar II : 26th April 1955 : Seminar II: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis: 1954-1955: begins 17th November 1954 : Jacques Lacan or here : p191 of Sylvana Tomaselli’s translation
Related text
The Purloined Letter : 1845 : Edgar Allen Poe with notes by Thomas Ollive Mabberley, p3-27 of Muller & Richardson 1988 : Available on request from je.Lacanian@icloud.net
Commentaries
Preface to ‘The Purloined Poe : Lacan, Derrida & Psychoanalytic Reading’ : 1988 : John P. Muller & William J Richardson (Editors) : Available here
Published in French:
La Psychanalyse II (1957) : p1-44
‘Le séminaire sur “La Lettre volée”’: Écrits : Paris, du Seuil: 1966 : p11-61 : Information Écrits : 1966 : Jacques Lacan or here
Commentaries
The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida and Psychoanalytic Reading : 1988 : John P. Muller and William J. Richardson (Editors & Authors) or here
Lacan’s Seminar on “The Purloined Letter” : Overview : 1988 : John P. Muller and William J. Richardson or here
Lacan’s Seminar on “The Purloined Letter” : Map of the Text : 1988 : John P. Muller and William J. Richardson or here
Lacan’s Seminar on “The Purloined Letter” : Notes to the Text : 1988 : John P. Muller and William J. Richardson or here
References
Footnote 1 in Bruce Fink : Logical Time and the Assertion of Anticipated Certainty: A New Sophism : March 1945 : Jacques Lacan : See here
The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis (Rome) : 26th September 1953 : Jacques Lacan : See here
The Antithetical Meaning of Primal Words : 1910d : Sigmund Freud : SEXXIV p155-161
The Project for a Scientific Psychology: 23rd & 25th September & 5th October 1895: Sigmund Freud : See here
Seminar II : 22nd June 1955 : Psychoanalysis and cybernetics, or on the nature of language : See p294 of Sylvana Tomaselli’s translation : Seminar II: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis: 1954-1955: begins 17th November 1954 : Jacques Lacan : Availability here
Quoted in:
The Other without Other : Sunday 19th May 2013: in Athens : Jacques-Alain Miller or here
Écrits : 1966 : Jacques Lacan or here
Autres Écrits: 2001 : Jacques Lacan or here
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December 2018 : To request a copy of any text whose weblink does not work, contact Julia Evans: je.lacanian@icloud.com : For fuller details, see Notice : Availability of texts from LacanianWorks by Julia Evans on 7th December 2018 or here
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Practicing Lacanian Psychoanalyst in Earl’s Court, London
Further Texts
By John P. Muller here
By William J. Richardson here
By Jacques Lacan here
Topology and the Lacanian clinic here
Case studies : characters from fiction here
Case studies : characters from plays (and the plays) here
