Psychoanalysis and Ideological Criticism in Readings of Monstrous Figures

Session Submission Type: Panel Discussion

Abstract

Papers on this panel discuss the relations between disfiguration and the Law of language. Do monstrous figures function as an "obscene underbelly" that secures the Symbolic order, but must be disavowed by it? Alternatively, do monsters mark the possibility of resistance, circulating within the Symbolic order without being fully determined by it? Papers will use the monstrous figure as a lever for ideological criticism, questioning whether monstrosity secures or disrupts the Symbolic Law.

Sub Unit

• Critical and Cultural Studies Division

Respondent

• Thomas S. Frentz, Univ of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Session Organizer

• Megan K Foley, University of Iowa