"Despair, Despair, Despair... Spare!" : Affect In Lacanian Theory And Practice

On my first visit to Canterbury I came uninvited as one of Henry II's Barons in Jean Anouilh's Beckett, to murder the saintly archbishop of that name. I am very happy to be here again, this time at your invitation, and I want to assure you that my mission on this occasion is not to do a hatchet job on affect in the name of some intellectualist overlord who might wish to treat it as a troublesome priest that the analytic kingdom would be well rid of.…