The idea of noir: fiction, signifier, genre

This chapter presents an extended discussion of The Maltese Falcon in terms of Lacan’s use of the theory of imaginary numbers to suggest a way in which Lacan’s much misunderstood deployment of the square root of minus one should be understood in terms of the imaginary function of signification. I explore how the imaginary status of the Falcon allows the film narrative to construct certain “fictions” that point to a rapport between the psychoanalytic theory of Lacan and the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. I then turn to the development of film noir since the 1970s in terms of repetition and the past. I explore noir as genre and suggest a new understanding of the development of Lacanian psychoanalysis while concomitantly presenting what should be considered a Lacanian theory of genre, which both illuminates and questions a concept and critical practice that is fundamental to any exploration of the cinema.