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==Jacques Lacan=====Ferdinand de Saussure===[[Lacan]]'s frequent references to the "[[Image:Kida_lletter]]" must be seen within the context of [[Saussure]]'s [[discussion]] of [[language]].gif In his ''[[Saussure|right|frameCourse in General Linguistics]]'', [[Saussure]] privileges [[speech|spoken]] [[language]] above [[writing|written]] [[language]], on the grounds that the former appears before the latter both in the [[time|history]] of [[human|humanity]] and in the [[life]] of the [[individual]]. [[Writing]] is conceived of as a mere secondhand [[representation]] of [[speech|spoken]] [[language]], and the [[signifier]] is conceived of as purely an acoustic [[image]] and not as a graphic one.<ref>[[Saussure|Saussure, Ferdinand de]]. 'Kid A In Alphabet Land Licks Another Larcenous Lurker - The Lecherous Letter!'[[Saussure|Course in General Linguistics]]'', 1916. Ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana.</ref>

A Letter Always Arrives At Its Destination - And Wherever You Go===Materiality===When [[Lacan]] takes up [[Saussure]]'s [[work]] in the 1950s, There You Are! Your Keys Are Always In The Last Place You Lookhe adapts it freely to his own purposes. He thus conceives of the [[letter]], Too! Fortnot as a mere graphic representation of a sound, Duhbut as the [[materialism|material basis]] of [[language]] itself.<blockquote>"By ''letter'' I designate that [[material]] support that [[Category:Kid A In Alphabet Landconcrete]]discourse borrows from language."<ref>{{E}} p. 147</ref></blockquote>

The [[letter]] is thus connected with the [[real]], a [[materialism|material substrate]] that underpins the [[symbolic order]]. The [[concept]] of [[materialism|materiality]] implies, for [[Lacan]], both the indivisibility and the [[idea]] of locality; the [[letter]] is therefore "the essentially localized [[structure]] of the signifier."<ref>{{E}} p. 153</ref> ===Meaning=def==The As an element of the [[real]], the [[letter refers ]] is [[meaning]]less in itself. [[Lacan]] illustrates this by referring to ancient [[Egyptian hieroglyphics]], which were indecipherable to Europeans for so long. Until Champollion was able to decipher [[them]] on the basis of the material substrateRosetta Stone, identical no one knew how to [[understand]] these enigmatic inscriptions, but it was nevertheless clear that they were organized into a signifying [[system]].<ref>{{S1}} p. 244-5; {{E}} p. 160</ref> In the printed charactersame way, that serves the [[signifier]] persists as a [[meaning]]less [[letter]] which makes the destiny of the vehicle for spoken or written language[[subject]] and which he must decipher. It represents  A [[good]] example of this is the two sides [[case]] of the signifier (metaphor and metonymy) [[Wolf Man]], in which [[Freud]] noted that the [[meaning]]less [[letter]] V reappeared under many guides in the creation [[Wolf Man]]'s life.<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|From the History of an Infantile Neurosis]]," 1918b [1914]. [[SE]] XVII, 3.</ref> As the example of meaning the [[Wolf Man]] demonstrates, the [[letter]] is essentially that which [[return]]s and [[repetition|repeats]] itself; it constantly insists in inscribing itself in the production [[subject]]'s life. ===Repetition===[[Lacan]] illustrates this [[repetition]] by reference to [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s story ''[[The Purloined Letter]]''.<ref>Poe, Edgar Allan. 1844. "The [[Purloined Letter]]," in ''Great Tales and Poems of dreamsEdgar Allan Poe'', New York: Pocket [[Library]], where 1951.</ref> Playing on the [[double]]-meaning of the term "[[letter]]", [[Lacan]] presents [[Poe]]'s account of a written document (a [[letter designates one ]]) which passes through various hands as a [[metaphor]] for the [[signifier]] which circulates between various [[subject]]s, assigning a peculiar [[position]] to whoever is possessed by it.<ref>{{L}} 1955a. "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Le séminaire sur 'La lettre volée']]", in [[Jacques Lacan]], ''[[Écrits]]'', [[Paris]]: Seuil, 1966, pp. 11-61 ["[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter']]", trans. Jeffrey Mehlman, ''Yale [[French]] Studies'', 48 (1972): 38-72.</ref> It is in this paper that [[Lacan]] proposes that "a letter always arrives at its destination."<ref>{{Ec}} p.41</ref> ===To the Letter===It is because of the terms [[role]] of the rebus. As [[letter]] in the [[unconscious]] that the [[analyst]] must focus not on the [[meaning]] or the localized structure [[signification]] of the signifier[[analysand]]'s [[discourse]], but purely on its [[formal]] properties; the [[analyst]] must read the letter[[analysand]]'s nature [[speech]] as if it were a [[text]], "taking it literally" (''prendre à la lettre''). =====Writing=====There is thus a close connection between the [[letter]] and [[writing]], a connection which [[Lacan]] explores in his [[seminar]] of 1972-3.<ref>{{S20}} pp. 29-38</ref> Although both the [[letter]] and [[writing]] are located in the [[order]] of the [[real]], exclusive and hence partake of sense or a [[meaning]]less quality, [[Lacan]] argues that the [[letter]] is that which one reads, as opposed to [[writing]], which is not to be read.<ref>{{S20}} p. Its function 29</ref> [[Writing]] is symbolic to also connected with the idea of [[formalization]] and the [[matheme]]s; [[Lacan]] thus speaks of his [[algebra]]ic [[symbol]]s as "[[letter]]s."<ref>{{S20}} p. 30</ref> [[Lacan]]'s concept of the extent that its absence determines [[letter]] is the automatism subject of repetitiona critique by [[Jacques Derrida]]<ref>[[Jacques Derrida|Derrida, Jacques]] 1975. "Le facteur de la vérité," in ''The letterPost Card: From [[Socrates]] to Freud and Beyond'', trans. Alan Bass, Chicago and [[London]]: [[University]] of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 413-96.</ref> and by two of [[Derrida]]'s followers.<ref>Lacoue-Labarthe, Philippe, and Nancy, Jean-Luc. 1973. ''Le Titre de la lettre'', Paris: Galilée.</ref>. [[Lacan]] refers to the latter work in his 1972-3 [[seminar]].<ref>{{S20}} p.62-6.</ref> ==See Also=={{See}}* [[Language]]* [[Materialism]]||* [[Meaning]]* [[Signifier]]||* [[Speech]]* [[Unconscious]]{{Also}} ==References==<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small"><references/></div>

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