Lacan through Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy: From "Modernist Myths" to Modernism as Myth

In their 1973 work Le titre de la letter, Jean-Luc Nancy and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe offer a rigorous critique of Lacanian theory based on a close reading of his 1957 text “The Agency of the Letter.” In response to his critics, Lacan underlined both the strengths and weaknesses of their analysis. This paper explores the significance of Lacan’s comments by re-reading Nancy and Lacoue-Labarthe’s text in light of recent developments in psychoanalytic theory. The aim is to draw out the implications of this exchange for a renewed dialogue between deconstruction and psychoanalysis by proposing a radically new concept of myth.