Warkocze narracji
The braids of narration

Summary/Abstract: One of the most mysterious and least comprehensible elements of Jacques Lacan’s doctrine is the way he uses topological theory of knots and braids as a source of schemata representing psychological structures and processes. In my article I try to interpret this motif of Lacanian psychoanalysis by comparing it to the French narratology of the same time, represented by theories of Greimas, Bremond and Barthes. The schemata construed by narratologists turn out to bear topological resemblance to Lacanian ones. The key categories used for interpretation are also convergent. Therefore, the late works of Lacan, which are most often presented as a sign of his extremely individualist eccentricity, may be seen as being in a much more intense dialogue with its socio-cultural context than is usually said to be the case, and it is only through that context that its meaning may be adequately captured.

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