Category Archives: Reading Groups

Precisely 70 years ago, Jacques Lacan conducted his 4th seminar, La Relation d’Objet et les Structures Freudienne, criticizing the then prominent Object Relations school for its failure to encounter the definitive lack of the object. There are varieties of lacking the object – frustration, deprivation, castration – but lack itself is primary. Since objectal ontologies have multiplied in the interim, and ideologies of presence prevail, how are we to theorize absent objects, negative objects, and radical lack today?

InterCcECT resident Summer Lacanian Chris Breu joins us once again to facilitate a special session on the seminar. We’ll aim to read the whole first section, pages 3-84 – but those new to Lacan or working at summer speed should prioritize parts i, ii, and iii (ie through page 51).

Monday 29 June, 5pm, also at THE PUB, most excellent new third space with a print newspaper attached! 2150 W Armitage (Blue Line: Western; Armitage, Western, Damen, Milwaukee buses)

RSVP to interccect at gmail for PDFs (please do not use the wordpress comment function).

Now welcoming summer proposals for future events, including on a more frequent schedule or of the longer-term sort (nothing compares 2U, Hot Adorno Summer). And colleagues outside Chicago are of course warmly invited to visit anytime, or be like Saint Louis, Columbus, Knoxville, and Columbia, SC and start an InterCcECT satellite. Handbook and consult available upon request.

“Imaginary” has become a ubiquitous noun in the humanities and social sciences in recent decades. Even the law professors are in on the lingo. What is signified by the substantive, what kind of analysis does it enable, what kind of ideologies might it encode? A new essay by Yves Winter, “What is an Imaginary?” schematizes these questions.

Join us for discussion – and come ready to propose summer theory ambitions!

on our calendar: InterCcECT seminar on Lacan’s Seminar 4, with special guest Professor Chris Breu, 29 June “Lenin With Du Bois: Theorizing the Revolutionary Counter-Mood” Jonathan Flatley, 15 April UIC English (2028 University Hall), 3pm “Free Gifts” Alyssa Battistoni 4 May, U Chicago 3CT, 4pm

Even after a long, intense, Hot Adorno Summer, we still can’t let go. Hang on to Hegel with a session on Adorno’s Three Studies. We’ll tackle the third study, Skoteinos, or How to Read Hegel, for Thursday September 25th, at 4pm. Lincoln Park Public Library Large Meeting Room (1150 W Fullerton Ave).

RSVP to interccect at gmail for PDF.

The year’s slate is open! As theory nerds confront back-to-school, be in touch with proposals for events. InterCcECT hosts mini-seminars, field trips, book talks, works-in-progress sessions, and reading groups, as well as hitherto unimagined formats. Contact us to propose events.

On our calendar:

Oct 29: What’s Funny About Student Debt? A conversation with novelist Kashana Cauley about her excellent new book The Payback, with Anna Kornbluh and Jason Wozniak of The Debt Collective

It’s been a long hot humid haul, and the cool kids triumphantly conclude on Wednesday, 13 August, 4pm, in full festivity at Moody’s. Finish the book!

RSVP to interccect at gmail for PDF or to launch fall projects.

So we press on: join InterCcECT for the penultimate session on Adorno (reading Part Three, Section 2 — “World-Spirit and Natural History”), Thursday, 31 July, 4pm, at Moody’s again (libraries full alas).

RSVP to interccect at gmail for PDF or with other hot summer concepts.

So we press on: join InterCcECT for the next round of Adorno (reading Part Three: Structure of the Third Antinomy through the end), Wednesday, 16 July, 4pm, Chicago Public Library Lincoln Park location (our old standby, but in the “small meeting room” this time).

RSVP to interccect at gmail for PDF or with other hot summer concepts.

So we press on: join InterCcECT for the next round of Adorno (reading Part Three: Models but just through “Contemplation” ), Tuesday, 1 July, 4pm, Moody’s Pub, 5910 N Broadway. (NOTE this is not a library session due to unavailability all over, but Moody’s tends to be quiet outdoors.)

RSVP to interccect at gmail for PDF or with other hot summer concepts.

So we press on: join InterCcECT for the next round of Adorno (reading part two: negative dialectics, concepts and categories), Wednesday, 18 June, 4pm, Lincoln Belmont Public Library meeting room. PLEASE NOTE due to Juneteenth this session is NOT on a Thursday, and due to availability it is NOT at the regular LP library location.

RSVP to interccect at gmail for PDF or with other hot summer concepts.

So we press on: join InterCcECT for the next round of Adorno (reading part one: relationship to ontology), Thursday 5 June, 4pm, Lincoln Park Public Library large meeting room.

RSVP to interccect at gmail for PDF or with other hot summer concepts.