Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Psycoanalysis: the unconscious in the process of writing El libro mudo

Abstract

Starting at the hypothesis from Ioana Zlotescu (1987) and Navarro Domínguez (2003), we aim to track potential early interactions between Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Freud’s psychoanalysis. Next, our study focuses on the subsequent development of a very personal theory of the unconscious during the writing process of El libro mudo that took place in Paris between 1909 and 1910. Here, we address the existence of an original topic that removes the subject in a singular way and approaches some of Lacan’s theories like the concept of the Real as the outside of the symbolic. Finally, we briefly explore the influence of the theory in the literary practice, identifying El libro mudo as a text of jouissance as proposed by Roland Barthes in The pleasure of the text. Thus, our work contributes to the recognition of Ramón’s writing as highly modern literature, both in its practice and its theory.