Two modes of love for the surface: Lacan, Nietzsche, and the uses of metaphor and irony

Abstract

This article aims to make a confrontation between Nietzsche and Lacan on the roles of metaphor and irony. The difference between these two thinkers about subjects like metaphor and irony concern different ways to understand the status of appearance and the problem of the distinction between essence and appearance. The way that the Lacanian clinic uses metaphors and irony can show us a dependence of ontology that is strange to Nietzschean tradition. This article is, then, the first step to a confrontation between Lacan and post-structuralism.