From: mmanzo-AT-sas.upenn.edu (Marco Manzo)
Subject: Re: The Knot
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 11:17:37 -0500 (EST)



Leah Sheppard wrote:

stuff deleted
> >> I get the Chora, Tel Quel stuff, but what on earth is a Borromeo knot and 
> >> why is Dr. Lagache in one???
> >
> >I know I've seen a reference to a Borromeo knot before, and I think it's 
> >a knot that can't be untied, but I can't find a reference to it at the 
> >moment. If it's what I think it is, then perhaps the "joke" is that 
> >Kristeva's language is so convoluted that her listeners get inextricably 
> >tied in knots trying to follow it--not as sophisticated a jest as I'd 
> >have expected from someone like Eco (whose own prose style is not exactly 
> >crystal clear!), but there you have it. Or not.
> 
> Yah, I definitely agree that Eco's just playing on words here.
> 
> A clue though: once again, my notes from my theory class are at home, 
> but someone somewhere came up with a Borromean knot that was a theory
> (wasn't Kristeva or Eco, maybe Foucault?  Derrida?) of consciousness.
> Imagine three 
> circles that all overlap (like the Olympic rings) so they're in a sort of 
> triangular arrangement.  One is the Imaginary, one is the Real and the third
> is something... that represents perception, I think.  The Imaginary is the
> unconscious/semiotic, the Real is the superego/Symbolic, and I can't remember 
> the third...  But the "knot" representation shows how they're inextricably 
> linked.  
> 
> I may be murdering this.  Anyone have a clue what I'm referring to?  If
> no one comes up with a way to clarify this over the weekend, I'll type my
> notes in when I can bring them to work Monday.
> 
> --LeaH

Jacques Lacan created the Borromean Knot to show the linking of the 
Symbolic, the Imaginary and the Real

See his _Ecrits_ as well as 
Anika LEMAIRE, _Jacques Lacan_ (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977);
also
Marcelle MARINI _Jacques Lacan_ (Paris: Belfond, 1986)

the latter two are much easier to read than Lacan's own writing on the 
knot.

With best wishes,
-- Marco

Marco A. Manzo----------------------------------mmanzo-AT-sas.upenn.edu
Department of Folklore and Folklife
The University of Pennsylvania	http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~mmanzo
Suite 370, 3440 Market Street  http://www.sas.upenn.edu/folklore/index.html	
Philadelphia, PA  19104-3325	
voice: 215.898.7352; fax: 215.573.2096	
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