Film Noir doesn't exist: A Lacanian topology

The metacritical consideration of film noir seems to lead almost inevitably to the conclusion that the category, in a sense, does not exist. Rather than as a despairing realisation, this chapter takes such a conclusion as a point of departure for a new understanding of the construction of film noir, informed by Lacanian psychoanalytic theory. I suggest that the idea, “film noir doesn’t exist”, can be treated as analogous to Lacan’s statement that, “Woman doesn’t exist”, and that an approach to noir such as that of Marc Vernet can be understood in terms of the Lacanian concept of lalangue. This chapter stresses the importance of interpreting very carefully the version of set theory that Lacan employs in his discussion of feminine sexuation both for psychoanalysis and for the ontology of film noir.