thesis

Jean cocteau ; le desir a la lettre

Defense date:

Jan. 1, 1996

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Institution:

Paris 7

Disciplines:

Directors:

Abstract EN:

Jean cocteau hardly finds his place in the literary pantheon. His colleagues readily accuse him of deception; however, out of any mode, the youth continues loving him. His ability for keeping up a truant pleasure amounts to a hapax. That paradox, which is unavoidable but unclassifiable, becomes a symptom. Translated into freudian language, this lacanian title - the desire to the letter -would become : the stroke of wit and its relation with the unconscious. The stroke of wit (wits) is the letter where freud repeatedly locates the desire : the sequence of significants, in their relation with sexuality, denouced the unconscious ; the analysis of dream showed the rhetorical work ; finally the declination of the expression of phantasm revealed the grammar of impulse. Freud interpreted the unconscious ; lacan followed the desire to the letter. The analysis of cocteau's writings allows one to observe how, by changing his expression, he changed his position. In consequence the deception he is accused of turns out to proceed from the use of the "semblance" that is organizing a possible "sublimation" we define it as the writing of the uninscribable of the sexual relation. The trace of which denounces instantaneously the phantasm that ruled it. The "literal" analysis of his writings lays bare the tear of the "littoral" that they concealed, i. E. The dead end of knowledge for an individual trapped in his enjoyment. Just like joyce, the individual cocteau supported himself by writing but probably went beyond that position.

Abstract FR:

Jean cocteau trouve difficilement sa place dans le pantheon litteraire. Ses pairs crient volontiers a l'imposture mais, hors mode, la jeunesse continue de l'aimer. Sa capacite a entretenir un plaisir buissonnier constitue un hapax. Inevitable mais inclassable, ce paradoxe fait symptome. En freudien, ce titre lacanien - le desir a la lettre - se dirait - le mot d'esprit et son rapport avec l'inconscient. Ce witz, "ce trait", est la lettre ou freud, a diverses reprises, localise le desir : le defile des signifiants dans leur rapport avec la sexualite denoncerent l'inconscient ; l'analyse du reve demontra le travail rhetorique ; enfin la declinaison de l'enonce du fantasme revela la grammaire de la pulsion. Freud lut l'inconscient, lacan suivit le desir a la lettre. L'analyse des ecrits de cocteau permet de reperer comment en changeant d'expression, il changea de position. L'imposture, dont on le taxe, s'avere, des lors, provenir de l'utilisation du "semblant" organisant une possible "sublimation". Nous la definissons comme l'ecriture de l'ininscriptible du rapport sexuel, dont la trace denonce instantanement le fantasme qui y presida. L'analyse litterale de ses ecrits denude la dechirure du littoral qu'ils masquaient. Le littoral, soit l'impasse du savoir pour un sujet piege dans sa jouissance. A l'instar de joyce, le sujet cocteau se soutint par l'ecriture, mais probablement depassa cette position ponctuant une oeuvre tentaculaire, "requiem" temoignerait du passage. Degagee de la jouissance, l'ecriture jouant du voile rhetorique, renvoie le lecteur a son desir. La critique litteraire echoue a rendre compte d'une oeuvre capable de partir de l'imposture de la position du sujet pour aboutir a la denonciation de l'imposture inherente a la lettre qui le soutient.