Fantasm: The triumph of form (An essay on the democratic sublime)

This essay attempts to counter the dreariness of postmodern critique and cu lture by locating the vital force of phantasy, rhetoric, argument, hope, an d memory in contemporary public affairs. More particularly, it engages rece nt controversial about collective memory and the FDR memorial statue especi ally to generate a greater sensitivity to the fact that we are agents (and not just dupes) of history. The body, symbolic and material, is a con site for the history, theory, and practice of democracy, I argue, and ir the har d kernel of collective identification and division. Methodologically, the e ssay fuses Aristotle and Lacan 's ideas about phantasy as a perceptual devi ce, which gages and creates public and personal desire, as an analytic fram e for the study of public discourse.