Bartleby and the contingency: knowing-doing- with the impossible

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5902/1984644430745

Keywords:

Education, Impossible, Contingency.

Abstract

This essay proposes a reflection based on the literary narrative Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, written in 1853 by Herman Melville. The aim is to operate with the notions of contingency and knowing- doing-with the impossible within the education field. It is based on the Freudian assumption that educating is one of the professions that operates with the impossible, and establishes a dialog with the reading of Giorgio Agamben, who locates in Melville’s classic the expression of the absolute contingency. This text proposes that Bartleby, when supporting a place of resistance where the impossibility is understood as pure potency, promotes a cut and establishes a space, so that something that was not given a priori may emerge. Thus, it is thought that the character provides clues to invent ways of a knowing-doing- with the impossible that may interest to education. By means of Herman Melville’s literary narrative, articulated around “I would rather not”, it evidences coordinates of an ethical constellation for a knowing-doing- with the impossible within the education field.

Author Biographies

Janniny Gautério Kierniew, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul

Psicóloga; mestre em Educação pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; especialista em Intervenção Psicanalítica na Clínica da Infância e Adolescência (UFRGS) e integrante do Núcleo de Pesquisa em Psicanálise, Educação e Cultura (NUPPEC).

Simone Zanon Moschen, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul

Professora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicanálise: Clínica e Cultura da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Pós-doutora em Psicanálise pela UERJ, Coordenadora do Núcleo de Pesquisa em Psicanálise, Educação e Cultura (NUPPEC/UFRGS) e Bolsista Produtividade do CNPq.

References

AGAMBEN, Giorgio. Bartleby, ou da contingência. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2015.

ARISTÓTELES. Organon. Tradução, prefácio e notas de Pinharanda Gomes. Lisboa: Guimarães Editores, 1985.

BABO, Maria Augusta. A lógica da in-diferença: Bartleby/Bernardo Soares. In BABO, Maria Augusta. (Org.). I Would Prefer Not To. Em torno de Bartleby. Córdova: UnYLeYa, 2013. n. p.

DELEUZE, Gilles. Bartleby, ou a fórmula. In DELEUZE, Gilles. Crítica e clínica. São Paulo: Editora 34, 1997, p. 80-103.

FREUD, Sigmund. Análise terminável e interminável. In: FREUD, Sigmund. Edição standard brasileira das obras completas de Sigmund Freud, v. XVIII. Rio de Janeiro: Imago, 1996, p. 231-275.

FREUD, Sigmund. Prólogo a Juventude abandonada de August Aichhorn. In: FREUD, Sigmund. Obras completas, v. 16. Tradução de Paulo César de Souza. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2011, p. 347-350.

LACAN, Jacques. O seminário: livro 23, O sinthoma (1975-1976). Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2007.

MARCOS, Maria Lúcia. O valor da interrupção. In MARCOS, Maria Lúcia. (Org.). I would prefer not to. Em torno de Bartleby. Córdova: UnYLeYa, 2013. Não paginado.

MELVILLE, Herman. Bartleby, o escrevente: uma história de Wall Street. In: AGAMBEN, Giorgio. Bartleby, ou da contingencia. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2015, p. 57-105.

VOLTOLINI, Rinaldo. Educação e psicanálise. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2011.

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Published

2019-11-20

How to Cite

Kierniew, J. G., & Moschen, S. Z. (2019). Bartleby and the contingency: knowing-doing- with the impossible. Education, 44, e90/ 1–19. https://doi.org/10.5902/1984644430745

Issue

Educação, v. 44, 2019 – Publicação contínua

Section

Continuous Demand

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