English Renaissance literature and contemporary theory : sublime objects of theology /

Cefalu (Lafayette College) proposes a three-way dialogue between early modern lyric poetry (with a focus on John Donne, Richard Crashaw, John Milton, and Thomas Traherne), Christian theology, and Lacanian psychoanalysis. In praising the book, Julia Reinhard Lupton remarks that it pursues the ethical emphasis of Lacanian theory as found in "the masterful work of Slavoj Zizek and other members of the Slovenian school." Unfortunately, those unschooled in the coterie jargon of Lacanian studies will soon be shipwrecked on unfamiliar conceptual shores; reduced to beachcombing for rare moments of comprehension, such readers may ponder how Lupton defines "masterful." Cefalu conceals much that might be enlightening in thickets of sesquipedalian terminology arranged in sentences that seem to curve back on themselves to create paradoxes of dubious intellectual or spiritual value. He writes, for example, "In Slovenian-Lacanian terms, 'batter my heart' figures less the jouissance of drives than the jouissance of the Other: As Zizek notes, 'this difference is often described as the threshold of symbolic castration: while desire of the Other (genetivus subjectivus and objectivus) can thrive only insofar as the Other remains an undecipherable abyss, the Other's jouissance indicates its suffocating overproximity.'" Summing Up: Not recommended. R. A. Stritmatter Coppin State University