Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Desire, the Lacanian Cogito; 2. Desire and Sexual Difference; 3. Beyond Desire: Love, Mystic Jouissance and The Sinthome; 4. Lacan, Literary Theory and Criticism; 5. Shakespeare's Theatre of Desire; 6. John Donne's Hymns to Love, Desire and Jouissance; 7. Joyce's Wakean Sinthome; 8. The Function of the Specular Image and the Littoral in John Ashbery's Poetry; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
In contemporary academic literary studies, Lacan is often considered impenetrably obscure, due to the unavailability of his late works, insufficient articulation of his methodologies and sometimes stereotypical use of Lacanian concepts in literary theory. This study aims to explain Lacanian thought and apply it to the study of literary texts.