SEXUATED TOPOLOGY AND THE
SUSPENSION OF MEANING
A NON-HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGICAL
APPROACH TO TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
WILLIAM J. URBAN
PART II
SEXUATED TOPOLOGY AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
In effect, a discourse like analytic discourse aims at meaning. By way of meaning, it is clear that I can only deliver to you, to each of you, what you are already on the verge of absorbing. That has a limit, a limit provided by the meaning in which you live. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that that doesn't go very far. What analytic discourse brings out is precisely the idea that that meaning is based on semblance. If analytic discourse indicates that that meaning is sexual, that can only be by explaining its limit... Meaning indicates the direction toward which it fails.593
These words were spoken by Lacan moments after he placed his famous formulae of sexuation on the blackboard during a session of his well-known twentieth seminar. The excerpt is telling. Its last sentence thoroughly frustrates reading the first as somehow advocating analytic discourse be taken as meaningful discourse. Indeed, given that meaning (sens) indicates the direction (sens) toward which it fails, a less charitable reading of the 'aim' of analytic discourse suggests itself. It is perhaps rather like the way in which a sharpshooter lines up his target into the crosshairs of his scope. Yet if this new reading nevertheless goes too far (and it does), this is not so much for having elevated meaning into the position of foe as it is for treating meaning as an object to which the subject of the analyst's discourse might externally oppose himself. This is not to say that reverting to the spontaneous understanding of the first sentence fares any better. True, treating meaning as a substance which mediates the subject-object divide seems to be encouraged by Lacan himself who tells us his teachings only succeed 'by way of meaning.' Yet the further statement that there are nevertheless limits implies that this substance is not without a structure. This at once allows for meaning to be demoted from the realm of being to the status of mere semblance. But meaning takes an even greater hit at the hands of Lacan. From the perspective of analytic discourse which embodies such structural limits, meaning is neither to be conceived strictly as an object nor as an imaginary substance which mediates the subject's engagement with the object. Rather, what analytic discourse ultimately reveals is nothing short of a real understanding: meaning is sexual. Coming to terms with this rather surprising claim is the major undertaking of the next two chapters which compose this Part II of the present study.
In general terms, what is being proposed is that the formulae of sexuation be directly used to demonstrate how meaning is sexual. More specifically, the contention here is that these formulae are not only able to revealingly articulate the hermeneutical circle but can further be used to demonstrate the ultimate suspension of meaning and thus free the subject from its alienating grip. This thesis is put forward in the firm belief that these formulae not only inscribe the real of the sexual relation but equally the real of any relation struck by the speaking subject. If Lacan's words above are to be believed, the relation the subject strikes with meaning is hardly an exception, and by unraveling its logic with the help of these formulae it will be shown that important considerations for interpretive theory arise. These considerations may be especially appreciated in light of issues raised in Part I and in the following two chapters frequent pauses are accordingly made to address them and to suggest further applications of the formulae to other textual matters.
This approach already raises a question worth addressing from the onset, one which concerns its contextualization. Expressed in terms of Part I, the answer is had by reflecting on how Lacan's very use of the matheme effectively bears witness to his agreement with the original Husserlian break from psychologism, which establishes an independent and objective realm of logic. Part II will demonstrate that his articulation of sexual difference in strict logical terms provides an even stronger reason for placing his late project in the scientific tradition; indeed, such an articulation aligns his thought with those of Frege and Bertrand Russell, two of the founding fathers of analytic philosophy. Thus the choice here to make direct use of the formulae of sexuation to demonstrate the proposed thesis at once positions the present study within the scientific tradition as well. Yet more to the point, this logical object of study seems to inspire its own movement towards it so that what results is a textual approach, which itself proceeds in a logical and structured manner. This fact alone seems to cast a vote in favor of those scholars seeking to reestablish a general methodological approach against those who would instead eschew all use of method. While there is certainly something to be said for the efforts of Betti, Hirsch, Apel and Habermas to turn back the clock after the turn away from method began in earnest with Gadamer over half a century ago, the development here of a methodology grounded in the formulae of sexuation clearly departs from their own revival of hermeneutical tools to appropriate meaning. Instead, the approach in play here fully acknowledges Gadamer's insight into how any conscious use of method loses the meaning of the text, yet since the present aim is to ultimately suspend meaning this insight is enthusiastically embraced as a positive prospect. Contra-Gadamer, this is a case where the subject can have his cake and eat it too, for truth is seen to proceed (only) by way of method. Needless to say this approach favors the Husserlian brand of phenomenology, since, in contrast to the Heideggerian, it harbors a systematic method of inquiry and one which places the accent more with sense than with meaning. However, this should not imply that epistemology is to be simply championed over ontology, for Heidegger is held to be correct in arguing for the ontological a priori to any epistemological endeavor. Ricoeur's self-appointed task to reverse the historical trajectory of the past century so as to regain the epistemological question is therefore itself to be reversed, although the ontology that is thereby unearthed is hardly Heideggerian. For in seeking a suspension point to meaning, what the non-hermeneutical phenomenological approach finds instead is a being whose singular existence is entirely without essence and which in no way strikes an equivalency between sense and meaning but is, rather, a bit of nonsense.
Chapter 6 is in many ways a preparatory chapter which primarily seeks to demonstrate the relevance of the formulae of sexuation to textual theory. However, since these formulae are difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, a significant amount of space is devoted simply to their explication. The scope of this difficulty is initially managed by way of an account of Lacan's original derivation of the formulae from established schools of classical and modern logic. Section 6.1 accordingly begins with a discussion of the logical system of Aristotle, which functions as the historical basis for the formulae of sexuation. This provides an opportunity to inquire into whether the classical Aristotelian logical square could itself serve to articulate the hermeneutical circle. Section 6.2 offers an account of Lacan's revision of Aristotle with the conceptual tools of modern logic to arrive at his own logical square, a set of four logical propositions identical to the formulae of sexuation. Section 6.3 continues to suggest applications of the Lacanian logical square to rudimentary textual practices while intimating that doing so is a subversive practice.
Chapter 7 takes the groundwork already laid and adds additional structure to set the formulae into motion. This is necessary since the static analysis of the previous chapter is inadequate to capture the rotation of the hermeneutical circle of meaning. Yet too much motion works against the overall thesis since what is ultimately sought is its suspension point. Thus the challenge is to show how this very motion is embodied in a singular point which it itself discloses. Section 7.1 introduces this overall trajectory by way of the logic of negation and the Kantian table of nothings. Section 7.2 integrates the four discourses into the Lacanian logical square which effectively places the formulae into motion. This establishes both its relevance to the hermeneutical circle and the breakdown of the relation the subject strikes with meaning. Section 7.3 supplements the use of set theory in the previous chapter with the use of topology as per Lacan's L'étourdit. The overall contention here is that method is neither to be conceived as a tool to be consciously wielded nor something to be altogether abandoned. Rather, it is held that by actively following the topological cuts and sutures which are the specific manipulations of sexuated space, the subject not only gains an appreciation for the sexual nature of meaning but is additionally led to its suspension point.
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