I will be presenting a short research-based performance
style lecture on June 13 at Manchester Metropolitan University entitled:
The Rael/Real of Psychogeography: Urban walking as a method of
ameliorating castration anxiety in Genesis’ The
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
It is for anyone interested in psychogeography,
psychoanalysis, popular culture, cultural theory and/or progressive rock.
The lecture will be about 20 minutes long and there will be
time for questions afterwards. All welcome.
ABSTRACT:
Rael is not real, but he is a popular culture representation
of a real individual who is a stranger in a new city. As a recent immigrant to
New York, Rael has to negotiate the alien space that has suddenly become his
home. Part hero, part graffiti artist, part urban explorer, we witness our
protagonist traversing the physical landscape of the city and that of his own
psyche.
This paper explores the Lacanian concepts of castration
anxiety, lack, the Other, and the real, in the context of the album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Genesis,
1974). It examines the anxiety displayed in the character of the story and his
attempts to work through this by using the landscape of the city as a vehicle
for his own self-therapy.
By analysing Rael’s behaviour in the story, Richardson
demonstrates that by taking a psychogeographic approach to the physical space
of the city, and the abstract space of his own mind, Rael manages to work his
way through the aesthetics of living in New York, as a foreigner, by facing his
own troubled past.
TIME: June 13th 5.30-6.30
VENUE: Geoffrey Manton Building (Room GM LT4), Manchester
Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University
Please see link to map here:
I look forward to seeing you there.
Tina Richardson
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