Repetition and Subjectivity

A bold, systematic account of the role of repetition in shaping modern subjectivity for Kierkegaard, Freud, and Lacan.

Repetition and Subjectivity offers an in-depth exploration of the relationship between Kierkegaard’s concept of repetition and the psychoanalytic one. Starting from the thesis that what lies at the heart of repetition is an ontological principle of duality, Bara Kolenc introduces four matrices of repetition: deflation, reformation, inflation, and formation. The fourth—formation—underlies the modern subject. While the contours of this scheme can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, Kierkegaard is the first to have articulated it fully, paving the way for Freud and Lacan to outline its logic most clearly. Rich and rigorous, Repetition and Subjectivity provides a new foundation for understanding modern subjectivity. Newly examining a range of philosophical and psychoanalytic concepts, from the Greek anámnesis (remembering) to the death drive and jouissance, Kolenc reveals repetition to be not simply a phenomenon but rather a central mechanism in forming the subject’s relationship with reality.

Author Biography

Bara Kolenc is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana. She is the author of Figura dvojnika: Od komedije k psihozi and Ponavljanje in uprizoritev: Kierkegaard, psihoanaliza, gledališče, and coeditor, with Gregor Moder and Jurij Simoniti, of Master/s.