Desire is not mere wanting. It holds the subject together in often-contradicting ways. And although it drives us, we are rarely aware of the specificity of its coordinates. Desire for Trans explores the multiplicity of forms a subject’s investment in trans-ness can take by asking: Who desires trans-ness and how? What are the mechanisms that keep sexual desire for trans-ness from becoming love? And what are the singular ways trans subjects are marked by desire? The symposium, organized by the Queer Analysis Research Group, aims to investigate not only trans and trans-attracted people as subjects and objects of desire but the function of trans-ness itself in the formation of subjectivity and the logic of desire:

“The body-symptom: thinking gender as an unconscious desire,” Silvia Lippi

Why is it so easy to fuck us and so difficult to love us?: The talk will articulate how clinical and lliterary encounters with trans-ness has changed the analyst’s conception of identity in psychoanalysis. Lippi will also envision how new social bonds might emerge through such encounters.

Silvia Lippi is a psychoanalyst. Trained as a philosopher, she holds a PhD in psychology (Université Paris-Diderot), she is a hospital psychologist at the Établissement Public de Santé Barthélémy Durand in Étampes, and she is a researcher associate at Université Paris-Nanterre. She is the author of Soeurs, Pour une psychanalyse féministe, Seuil, 2023 (with Patrice Maniglier), Rythme et mélancolie (Erès, 2019), Freud. La passione de l'ingovernabile (Feltrinelli, Milano, 2018), La décision du désir (Eres, 2013), Price Œdipe le Salon 2014, Transgressions. Bataille, Lacan (Eres, 2008). She co-edited the collective work Marx, Lacan: l'acte révolutionnaire, l'acte analytique (Eres, 2013). Her works have been translated in Italian and English (The decision of desire, University of Minnesota Press, 2020). In her articles and books, she has developed a psychoanalysis that is particularly attentive to psychotic experiences and the interpellations of contemporary minority groups.

“The Last Unicorn - Trans Lesbian Hyper Pop Remix,” Callaz and Luce deLire 

In the 1982 movie "The Last Unicorn", a witch puts a second horn on an incarcerated unicorn's forehead. She says that without the second horn, people wouldn't recognize the unicorn - and the witch couldn't charge money from them. In this lecture performance, we explore the unicorn trick in the cases of desire, gender transitions (into cis, trans, non-binary and other genders) and epistemic violence. We will meet Freud, Spivak, Wittig and Butler on the way. We suggest trans lesbianism as a way out of the cage. Burn the witch. Become the witch. Fly.

Bio

Luce deLire is a ship with eight sails and she lies down by the quay. As a philosopher, she publishes on the metaphysics of infinity but also on art, queer and trans theory, anti-racism, postcolonialism, and political theory. In her performances, she embodies figures of the collective imaginary. For more (including booking), see IG: @Luce_deLire and getaphilosopher.com

Callaz is a fussy assemblage of tunes and signals, a voice artist. Her live acts dance against I DON’T KNOW. Her music redirects collective fantasies towards pleasure as empowerment. ‘How can you fly when your wings come off? Swallow your pride. Let it flow. ‘Guilty pleasures? I decided to no longer have them.’

+ Special performance by Marco Borkent

This event is made possible with the support of the Faculty of Humanities Diversity Office, the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis  (ASCA), and the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA).

Students interested in receiving 1 credit via NICA: sign-up with d.semerene@uva.nl by March 10th at the latest. You are asked to read the texts below (email Diego Semerene for text access):

• Luce deLire, “Transsexuality at the Origin of Desire: Or, Schreber’s Satanic Handjob”
• Silvia Lippi, "Desire—­ Between Alterity and Decision" (Introduction of The Decision of Desire) 

The event is public and in-person only. It won’t be recorded. There is no need to sign up. For more info contact Diego Semerene: d.semerene@uva.nl