Olivia Fox – Can I Say Who I Am
 
THE LETTER 54 Autumn 2013, pages 81-91.
 
That one might be saying this second, remains forgotten behind what is said’ is a phrase emphasised and repeated in L’Etourdit.  This paper suggests that, although the above quote is written in 1972 and late in Lacan’s career, he may have laid down the fundamentals for it  in a much earlier  paper ‘The Function  and Field of Speech and Language’, written in 1953.  Lacan’s writings tell us that the speaking subject who uses language to convey a meaning or sentiment, reveals itself as a subject not equivalent to the one speaking as I, but as a subject which can be detected in the very words or signifiers themselves. An examination of the intricacies of ‘full speech’ and ‘empty speech’ in Lacan’s 1953 paper was thought necessary by the author to establish if it is possible ‘to say who I am’.