The following text was published in Spanish as the opening article of a publication that would later become "Referencias en la obra de Lacan" ("References in Lacan’s work"), a series of journals that already has 36 published issues. The introduction to the first issue of the journal -written by its founder and director, Diana Etinger de Álvarez- is followed by our translation into English of the piece "Monsieur Fenouillard’s axiom".

For further information about the journal "Referencias en la obra de Lacan" please see:
http://www.comunidadrussell.com/default.asp?libreria/revistas/referencias.html

Introduction to "Referencias en la obra de Lacan".

For the analyst, the scholar or even the lay reader of Lacan, consulting the texts quoted in his Écrits and Seminars is an inescapable part of the fascinating exercise of working with the Lacanian theory.

Lacan draws on everything the cultural and scientific production of man has to offer, not only to provide examples or models, but also to build different parts of his theory; and it is often the case that the significance of a given reference may only be properly appraised after locating it. For a number of reasons, this search is no easy task in our country. The Central Library of the Freudian Field in Argentina has undertaken the task of collecting these texts, which are seldom impossible to locate and most often entail long and winding journeys.

Each reference is accompanied by a note that specifies its location in the works of Lacan. However, we have not always been able to locate all the places in which a given reference has been used. In some cases, we will include texts that are not quoted in Lacan’s work but are nevertheless indispensable to pinpoint certain concepts.

We thus hope to contribute to the study of Lacan’s work and, last but not least, we hope that this will provide the Central Library with resources that may foster its development. The search, organization and collection of the material for this issue were performed jointly by Verónica Carbone, Agueda Hernández, Clara Lichtensztain and Diana V. de Indart. Starting this collection was possible thanks to the economic support of colleagues and friends who sponsor the Library and whose trust we are indebted for.

Diana Etinger de Álvarez

Monsieur Fenouillard’s axiom [1]
by the staff of Referencias en la obra de Lacan: Diana Etinger de Alvarez, Verónica Carbone, Agueda Hernández, Clara Lichtensztain and Diana V. de Indart

Monsieur Fenouillard’s "axiom": "Once you’ve gone too far, there’s no limit&quoaM. Fenouillard. He says: "But you can’t apply Fenouillard’s celebrated axiom to woman: once you’ve gone too far, there’s still the limit-this must be kept in mind." [4]

M. Fenouillard is the "head" of the Fenouillard family, whose trips are the subject of "La Famille Fenouillard", a 19th-century cartoon that is still read by French children today. Its author, "Christophe", is in fact Colomb [5], a famous botanist whose textbook on Botany is currently used in French schools. (French edition: "La famille Fenouillard", Christophe, Preface by Marcel Pagnol, Librairie Armand Colin/Le Livre de Poche, Paris, 1965).