Flag Mask

Research Statement: The Poem explores psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's conception of discourse as a Moebius strip revealing the "inner side" of the subject in the very moments of public utterance. The theme is traceable back to Rousseau ("our true self is not entirely in us"), if not earlier, and is here engaged in consideration of the actual words uttered in parliament house on the specific day of the author's visit by two prominent conservative politicians, one the current leader of the party. The possibility that conservativism is a kind of poorly repressed congeries of racism, violence and mysogyny emerges from the subjects' very own words. At the same time the poem's reference to "Obariginal" and "Parliamental privilege" raises questions as to just what kind of discursive work popular representatives have since Rousseau's era been called upon to enact.