Alenka Zupančič: Is sex passé?

There is a lot going on around sex lately. Le sex bouge, the French would say, and it’s a real international movement. Psychoanalysis seems to be mostly caught between, on the one hand, conservative tendencies to resist this movement, to find and point out its faults and misconceptions, to reassert its own classical doctrinal claims, and, on the other hand, to try to keep up with “progress,” to keep up with the movement, and to attempt to adapt psychoanalytic teaching (and practice) accordingly. But it’s safe to say that psychoanalysis is by no means the avant-garde or a key player in this movement. And this is very different from the times when Freud developed his theory of sexuality, when he spoke about it in quite new and surprising ways, and also pointed out how it, sexuality, spoke in surprising ways. The lecture will focus on the question of what psychoanalysis still has to say in relation to sexuality, which could be of real and crucial importance in today's social context.

KMF, with contribution of ‘t Zal Wel Gaan, organizes an evening with professor Alenka Zupančič. Alenka Zupančič is a psychoanalyst, philosopher and film theorist. In 1997, she received her PhD. under the supervision of Alain Badiou and became one of the prominent members, together with Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar, of the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis. She currently heads the philosophy department of the Slovenian Academy of Arts & Science (SAZU) and is professor at the European Graduate School (EGS). Her research includes the relationship between sexuality and ontology, the Lacanian concept of the Real and critique of the theorie of the subject. Her most famous works includes “Ethics of the Real” (2000), “What Is Sex?” (2017), and recently: “Let Them Rot: Antigone’s Parallax” (2023).

The lecture will be divided into three parts. The first part will constitute the actual lecture by professor Alenka Zupančič on the question: Is sex passé? In the second part, we will give the chance to submit questions from the audience (i.e. you) to professor Zupančič. in the third part there will be room for live questions about the first part of the activity or about questions dealt with in the second part. All in all lasting 2 hours.

This event is free for everyone, but we have a limited capacity. In order to make sure that you can have a seat, we ask kindly to fill in this form by way of registration: https://forms.gle/R3a3df7LWq7SvECm9

Later, we will provide a form where you can leave your questions for the interactive part.

Location: Blandijnberg 2, AUD. Jan Broeckx Doors will be open at 19:00. The lecture will start at 19:30

This event will be held in English.

We are looking forward to welcoming you the 18th of April!

Kind regards KMF and ‘t Zal Wel Gaan