Lacan’s Veil: Ekphrasis between Access and Occlusion

Lacan’s veil, as discussed in his fourth seminar on object relations about absence and desire, represents an interesting model through which to understand description in general and especially the elevated kind (often about works of art) known as ekphrasis. Professor Jaś Elsner will focus in particular on issues of love and especially Enobarbus’ famous speech (‘the barge she sat in’) in Antony and Cleopatra as well as the very rich range of responses to it in English literature and art, from Shakespeare’s own Cymbeline, via Alma-Tadema and T.S. Eliot’s A Game of Chess in The Wasteland to the late Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.

Register here to attend. A light reception will follow the event.

Pictured above: Detail from “Woman Reading a Letter” by Gabriël Metsu. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Questions about the event?
Email: englishevents@ucla.edu