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As myself in a Mirour: Langland Between Augustine and Lacan

As myself in a Mirour: Langland Between Augustine and Lacan

Lacan’s ideas on the ‘mirror stage’ and language draw upon Augustine and illumine L’s PPl. L’s Will sees in Piers his reflected image. Daringly, so does Christ himself. Lacan’s scepticism on language is essentially Augustinian. Similarly sceptical, Will tries to get behind discourse to the sacred reality that language only approaches asymptotically. The inner dream of Piers (B.16) fulfils Will’s quest with a violence that suggests Lacanian jouissance. Piers has this power because he is Christ’s human nature, the one universal to which Ockham had to concede extramental existence and ‘presence’ to its word. (DMM)