Review of The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading

Abstract

With its elaborate footnotes, overview, outline, and secondary sources, this volume enters the arena ofuseful academic introductions. Lacan's seminar, on "The Purloined Letter" published in the Ecrits (1966),translated into English in 1972, continues to receive much attention in the United States. This attention, especially from literary critics, arose out of Derrida's essay on Lacan's use of Poe's story. Bringing together Derrida's attack and related essays in one volume could serve as a useful pedagogical tool. Unfortunately, the actual excerpts are incomplete. Indeed, the editors encourage readers to seek out Derrida's complete article in The Post Card, and they do not include Lacan's four-part appendix to his Seminar, although they briefly discuss those interventions in the overview. The volume includes articles by Barbara Johnson, Irene Harvey, Jane Gallop, John Muller, and others. Indeed, since Lacan first gave his seminar in 1956 writers have repeatedly glossed what they take to be linguistic issues. What this volume does not add to contemporary discussions of Lacan's work concerns his