Abstract

The extensive influence of Jacques Lacan in the field of cultural studies can be explained in terms of a dilemma which this intellectual domain faced at its point of origin. In general, the rise of cultural studies signalled a move away from macro—social analysis towards an investigation of the social production and consumption of meanings. This chapter suggests that, with respect to Schelling’s philosophical intentions at least, can be read just as plausibly from a Merleau-Pontyan as from a Lacanian perspective. Indeed, it may turn out that Schelling’s thought can be viewed as an attempt to reconcile the conflicting intuitions which we find in Merleau-Ponty and Lacan. Schelling’s fundamental insight, on Slavoj Zizek’s account, is that “the Word, the contraction of the Self outside the Self, involves an irretrievable externalisation-alienation”. Essentially, Schelling’s insight is that there must be a common space of comparison, and thus of difference, as the condition of possibility of any duality.