According to Catherine Liu, a French psychoanalyst and a pop artist have more in common than one might think.
Liu, an author and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, spoke about the similarities between psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and American artist Andy Warhol Thursday night to a crowd of around 30, most of whom were graduate students, at the Kelly Writers House.
Lacan is a "psychoanalyst who challenged mainstream Freudians," Liu said. He achieved "pop-star status" in France as a "serious rival as heir to Freud."
Liu's speech focused on literary theory and art criticism.
The work of both Lacan and Warhol was very political, she said. Both also faced a lack of understanding of their ideas.
One of Warhol's novels was dismissed as "gibberish" by critics.
Similarly, the Ford Foundation refused to translate one of Lacan's novels to English because of political disagreements with his writing.
Lacan refused "to rework his writing to meet the standard of the foundation," Liu said.
Liu also mentioned that Lacan and Warhol were both "gadget lovers" who recognized that writing and speaking would be transformed by new technology.
In addition to reading from her paper, Liu showed a brief clip from Lacan's 1971 televised interview, "Television". She used the film to explain Lacan's view that TV creates a world in which "every man can have his specialization."
Audience members said they generally enjoyed Liu's talk.
Second-year graduate student Joseph Benatov said he attended because he is a "comparative literature student, so I'm interested in theory in general."
He added that he enjoyed the presentation, but that "it was a bit too long."
Liu's talk also attracted scholars from across the Atlantic. Robert D'Alonzo, a professor at a university in Cypress, came because he is a "scholar of literary psychoanalysis."
Liu "did an excellent presentation of linking together two figures one would not normally put in the same domain."
Liu said she enjoyed the opportunity to speak at Penn.
"It was a great -- an attentive and sympathetic audience," she said.
Thursday's event was sponsored by Slought Networks, Kelly Writers House, Comparative Literature and Theory and the French Institute for Culture and Technology at Penn.
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