The Case of Gegensinn

This seminar is a continuation of the one given in the fall semester of 2021 titled The Case of Gegensinn. We will be reading through the final section of the paper presented by Aria Lotfalian. This paper develops a reading of J.C.Milner's article "Antithetical Senses and Indiscernible Names" and demonstrates, first and foremost, that the discourse on gegensinn is itself implicated in the very structure of gegensinn.

This final section (section 2) addresses Milner’s critique of E. Benveniste’s rejection of the notion of gegensinn. We will begin this semester with a brief overview of the results of last semester’s reading of section 1 and a general outline of the overall argument of section 2. In brief, this last section aims to show that the structure of signification necessitates in-distinction, which is generative of gegensinn, and which manifests itself in the discourse on gegensinn in three modes: as no sense (Benveniste), as 0-sense (Abel), and as ab-sense (Freud).

The prerequisite readings for this semester (texts will be posted on the virtual classroom):

1. Sections 3-5 of J. C. Milner’s “Antithetical senses and Indiscernible names”
2. Section 2 of A. Lotfalian’s paper
3. Benveniste’s “Remarks on the function of language in the Freudian discovery” (1956)
4. Benveniste’s “Semiology of language [la langue]” (1969) [particularly for section 2.2.c of Aria’s paper]