LRS Invitation to Guest Lecture on Law&Literature
Maria Aristodemou , Senior Lecturer in Law, Birkbeck University of London DOES THE LETTER OF THE LAW ALWAYS ARRIVE AT ITS DESTINATION? Thursday 30 April , 1-3 p.m. (1.00 sandwich lunch, 1.30 talk) MacRobert 302 Abstract This lecture uses Balzac's short story "A Study in Feminine Psychology" as a springboard from which to explore what position the letter of the law occupies in a subject's psychic space. Through this tale of a mis-addressed declaration of love, the paper examines how the law and the signifier arrest the subject, and what freedom, if any, the subject has to manoeuvre around this position. Are subjects condemned, as Balzac seems to suggest in this tragi-comic tale, to never fully find, let alone assume, their own satisfying place "before the law"? Or that they can never do so without some embarrassment and/or pain? Further, if the letter of the law always arrives at its destination, if the subject is always arrested by the signi