Jouissance

Worked through in 7 videos · 12 passages.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani defines jouissance first of all by its relation to time. It can reach an almost infinite intensity, but it is fleeting and evanescent, and this lack of duration is what distinguishes it from happiness1. It "is not conjugated in the imperfect tense": its seriousness is death and flight2. He places it among intensive magnitudes in Kant's sense3. On the historical and social level, he links it to the aristocratic master and the libertine4. He associates it with use value, and the king's favourite is its figure: the king enjoys what he has extorted, just as surplus value is extorted5 6. At the end of the eighteenth century, it stops being reserved for aristocrats7. He contrasts it with Rousseau's measured and austere jouissance, which he describes as sublimated libido8. In music, he sees its irruption in Fauré, Debussy and Ravel, which he links to deathly romanticism9.

Summary produced automatically from 12 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Series · 7 Feb 2021#14 Mozart once more

1:09:18Enjoyment can be of an almost infinite intensity, but it is fleeting and evanescent: it is its relation to time that distinguishes it from happiness.

Series · 2 Feb 2021#13 Mozart restored

1:16:02The libertines mark its apex; the novelty of the late eighteenth century is that it no longer belongs to aristocrats alone.
1:21:09A privilege of power, symbolized by the favorite, founded on millennia of extraction of surplus value.

Series · 11 Jan 2021#8 Happiness and unhappiness in music

37:27In the legato passage of the passepied, melody prevails over rhythm: another form of positive mood than gaiety.

Series · 11 Dec 2020#5 Happiness versus the death drive in music

1:02:52Of quasi-infinite intensity but fleeting, like joy; it differs from happiness by the absence of duration.
1:10:21Irruption of pleasure with Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, a relief from deathly romanticism.

Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.3 From Ulysses to Daedalus

7:07Vivid and intense, but short: it is not conjugated in the imperfect tense; its seriousness lies in death and flight.
14:38It belongs to the intensive magnitudes in Kant's sense.

Talks · 19 Jun 2016At the bistro (part 2)

4:29Rousseau's pleasure is a measured, austere pleasure, opposed to the aristocratic orgy; it is sublimated libido.
8:10The favorite's pleasure is analogous to the extortion of surplus value: the king takes pleasure in what he has extorted.

Series · 29 Jan 2016What is to be done? 1/3

23:02Category of the libertine, of the aristocratic master who rules by the sword.
25:53Enjoyment corresponds to use value; it is present as the king's woman in the first triangle and as happiness in the second.