The Jouissance of Transgression: Lacan and Crime

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University

Sunday-Monday, March 10-11, 2002

The event will be held at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

55 Fifth Avenue (at 12th St), NYC

We live in a time when new forms of violence are emerging. The September 11th attack on the United States revealed an unrecognized willingness of terrorists to sacrifice their own lives in order to hurt their "enemies." In the last decade, national conflicts around the globe have resulted in the most brutal forms of torture against civilian populations. In our daily lives, we increasingly hear of brutal crimes committed by young
children and teenagers and between parents and children. The most shocking observation is that many people do not even attempt to give an excuse for why they commit crime, other than for the pure joy of it.

In the mid-twentieth century, French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan developed a startlingly novel school of psychoanalysis by integrating Freudian theory within the context of the Continental speculative philosophical tradition. Lacan suggests that there is a particular jouissance experienced in crime. Participants at this unique conference will ask how the logic of jouissance can explain violence against oneself and others. Leading scholars from many disciplines, including law, philosophy, literary and critical theory, and anthropology, as well as practicing
psychoanalytic clinicians will consider the interrelationship between jouissance, crime, and law.

Psychoanalysis claims that certain primal prohibitions form the basis of the moral law that governs not only social norms but also a subject's inner self. What is the link between these external and internal norms? Paradoxically, the law that society imposes onto the subject does not necessarily limit the subject's behavior-sometimes the subject commits the crime precisely to escape the pressure and feelings of guilt that arise
from his or her inner prohibitions. Crime and guilt are revealed as the founding conditions of law. Can psychoanalysis illuminate the subject's relation to legal punishment? And do lawyers need to know about psychoanalysis in order to better perform their jobs?

Portuguese Conference on "World English"

"Language -- Communication -- Culture"

Evora, Portugal, Nov. 27-30, 2002

Announcement and Call for Papers

The "English in the World: New Directions" team, at the University of Evora, and the English Culture Studies Group, at the University of Lisbon, decided earlier this year, after consultations which took place during and after the Fifth International English Culture Conference held in Lisbon on Nov. 28-30, 2001, to co-organise an International Conference that could combine, and give a wider scope to, their distinct but complementary
projects -- the Evora project with its focus on the role, developments and prospects of English in the world, both as the language of communication and culture in English-speaking nations and as a second and foreign language, the lingua franca of communication and culture in the major contemporary transnational flows; the Lisbon project with its focus on a
social sciences and humanities approach to culture and major contemporary themes, problematics and theories.

Shuffle Boil Poetry and Music Magazine Debuts

Edited by David Meltzer & Steve Dickison

Issue No. 1 is now available, 48pp. + 8pp chapbook insert, saddlestapled, b&w cover-art on glossy cover stock. Published tri-annually (winter, spring, fall).

Featuring: poets & other artists writing on music, musicians' poetry & song.

"Crossover Resistance" Seminar Set for Berlin, April 19–21, 2002

We start from the assumption that all relations of power and domination are intimately bound up with one another. That's why we are putting nation, patriarchy, capitalism, heterosexism, antisemitism and racism in their interrelations on the agenda.
By doing this, we hope to open up new perspectives for resistance.