First interlude: a contingent irruption

The second section begins with the Lacanian concept of the Real and its relation to the Symbolic. It will start by arguing that the work on film noir of Marc Vernet can be understood in terms of different articulations of that relationship. Beginning with a reading of Vernet’s essay, “The Filmic Transaction”, I will propose that his examination of noir narrative structure can be reconsidered as an expression of Lacan’s theory of trauma as tuché and automaton that is set out in Seminar XI: as the symbolic machinery that works in response to the intrusion of some traumatic event, which cannot be directly symbolised but nonetheless has a powerful effect on the shape of this symbolic structure. I will defend Vernet against the critique of Alain Silver to show that Vernet offers an intelligent study of noir that can serve as a point of departure for a Lacanian theory of film noir narrative.