Lacan and Postfeminism

Jacques Lacan (1901 81), known as the French Freud , is the key figure of postmodern psychoanalysis, reviled by some critics and revered by others who see him as the most original psychoanalytic theorist since Freud. Postfeminism too is a disputed term. It can mean the mass media backlash against traditional feminism s struggle for women s equality, or, in an entirely different sense, the repositioning of feminism to confront the realities of entrenched patriarchy and women s marginalisation. What do Lacan and postfeminism have in common besides being misunderstood? The central issue is one of identity. Lacan led the battle against reducing identity to biological determinism, reclaiming an element of transaction for identity, independent of biological origins. The time has come to see what proper use feminism could make of an affirmative or positive identity. Lacan is crucial here, because, as well as finding an unassailable place for the feminine, he criticised positive identity without eliminating or deconstructing it altogether. Elizabeth Wright s illuminating essay endeavours to chart such a path with Lacan s assistance.