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* drama (e.g. the discussions of Shakespeare's Hamlet in Lacan, <ref>{{1958-9}}</ref>, and of [[Sophocles]]' [[Antigone in ]] <ref>{{S7}}, chs Chs. 19-21</ref>) and * poetry (e.g. the discussion of Booz endormi by Victor Hugo in <ref>{{S3, }} p. 218- 25; {{S4, }} p. 377-8; {{E, }} p. 156-8; {{S8, }} p. 158-9).

===Visual Arts===However, [[Lacan ]] also discusses the [[art|visual arts]], devoting several lectures in his [[Seminar XI|1964 ]] [[seminar ]] to discussing [[art|painting]], particularly [[art|anamorphotic art (Sll, chs ]].<ref>{{S11}} Chs. 7-9, where he discusses [[Holbein]]'s [[The Ambassadors]]; see also {{S7, }} p. 139-42).

==Differencesbetween Freud and Lacan==There are, nevertheless, significant differences between the ways in which [[Freud ]] and [[Lacan ]] approach [[work|works of art]].

Though Lacan does speak about [[sublimation]], unlike [[Freud ]] he does not believe that it is possible or even desirable for psychoanalysts [[psychoanalyst]]s to say anything about the [[psychology ]] of the [[art|artist ]] on the basis of an examination of a [[art|work of art (see ]].<ref>See his critical remarks on '"[[art|psychobiography']]"; {{Ec, }} 740-1). </ref>

Just because the most fundamental [[complex ]] ([[Oedipuscomplex|Oedipus]]) in [[psychoanalytic theory ]] is taken from a [[art|literary work]], [[Lacan ]] says, does not mean that [[psychoanalysis ]] has anything to say about [[Sophocles (]].<ref>{{L}} "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Lituraterre]]," ''Littérature'', no. 3, 1971: . p. 3).</ref>

[[Lacan]]'s exclusion of the [[art|artist ]] from his discussions of [[art|works of art ]] means that his readings [[interpretation|reading]]s of [[art|literary texts ]] are not concerned to reconstruct the [[author]]'s intentions[[intention]]s.

In his suspension of the question of authorial [[author]]ial [[consciousness|intent]], [[Lacan ]] is not merely aligning himself with the [[structuralism|structuralist movement ]] (after all, authorial [[author]]ial [[consciousness|intent ]] had been bracketed by [[art|New Criticism ]] long before the [[structuralism|structuralists ]] appeared on the [[scene]]), but is rather illustrating the way in which the [[analyst ]] should proceed when [[free association|listening ]] to and [[interpretation|interpreting ]] the [[discourse ]] of the [[analysand]].

The [[analyst ]] must, in other words, treat the [[analysand]]'s [[discourse ]] as a [[art|text]]:

<blockquote>You must start from the text, start by treating it, as Freud does and as he recommends, as Holy Writ. The author, the scribe, is only a pen-pusher, and he comes second. . . . Similarly, when it comes to our patients, please give more attention to the text than to the psychology of the author - the entire orientation of my teaching is that.<ref>{{S2}} p.153</ref></blockquote>

[[Lacan]]'s discussions of [[art|literary texts ]] are thus not exercises in [[art|literary criticism ]] for its own sake, but performances designed to give his audience an idea of how they are to read the [[unconscious ]] of their patients[[patient]]s.

This method of reading is similar to those employed by [[structuralism|formalism ]] and [[structuralism]]; the [[signified ]] is neglected in favour of the [[signifier]], content is bracketed in favour of [[structure|formal structures]].<ref>(although Although [[Jacques Derrida ]] has argued that [[Lacan ]] does not in fact follow his own method; see [[Jacques Derrida|Derrida, Jacques]] 1975). "Le facteur de la vérité," in ''The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond'', trans. Alan Bass, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 413-96.</ref> ==More==Besides serving as models and by two of a method of reading, which Lacan recommends analysts to follow when reading the discourse of their patients, LacanDerrida's discussions of literary texts also aim to extract certain elements which serve as metaphors to illustrate some of his most important ideasfollowers.  For example<ref>Lacoue-Labarthe, in his reading of PoePhilippe, and Nancy, Jean-Luc. 1973. ''Le Titre de la lettre''s The Purloined Letter, [[Lacan]] points to the circulating [[letter]] as a metaphor for the determinative power of the signifierParis: Galilée.</ref>

=="Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism"==A new branch of so-called "[[art|psychoanalytic literary criticism]]" now claims to be inspired by [[Lacan]]'s approach to [[art|literary texts (e.g. Muller and Richardson, 1988, and Wright, 1984; other works dealing with Lacan and cultural theory are Davis, 1983; Felman, 1987; MacCannell, 1986)]].

However, while such projects are interesting in their own right, they do not usually approach literature in the same way as [[Lacan]].

That is, while [[art|psychoanalytic literary criticism ]] aims to say something about the texts studied, both aspects of [[Lacan]]'s approach (to illustrate a mode of [[interpretation|analytic interpretation]], and to illustrate [[psychoanalytic ]] [[:category:concepts|concepts]]) are concerned not with saying something about the texts themselves, but merely with using the texts to say something about [[psychoanalysis]].

Whereas some of [[Freud]]'s works are often taken to imply that [[psychoanalysis ]] is a [[metalanguage|metadiscourse]], a [[metalanguage|master narrative ]] providing a general lutmeneutic key that can unlock the hitherto unsolved secrets of [[art|literary works]], it is impossible to read [[Lacan]] as making any such claims.

For [[Lacan]], while psychoanalysis might be able to learn something about [[art|literature]], or use [[art|literary works ]] to illustrate certain of its [[treatment|methods ]] and [[:category:concepts|concepts]], it is doubtful whether [[art|literary criticism ]] can learn anything from [[psychoanalysis]].

Hence [[Lacan]] rejects the idea that a [[art|literary criticism ]] which makes use of [[psychoanalytic ]] [[:category:concepts |concepts]] could be called '"[[art|applied psychoanalysis']]", since "[p]sychoanalysis is only applied, in the proper sense of the term, as a treatment, and thus to a subject who speaks and listens."<ref>{{Ec}} p.747</ref>).