ABSTRACT
The stepladder was introduced by Lacan in his first lecture on Joyce. That little household item which allows one access to the book on the highest shelf or, for that matter, to the jar of preserves, lends itself as a metaphor for all the instruments of self-promotion, all the stepping stones of ambition. Lacan's formulation points to a subjective choice, the choice of not passing either by way of the body or by way of the 'stepladder of castration' that characterises the saint. In general, the symptom is both a product of language and a 'body event'. But strictly speaking, this is not the case for Joyce, who retains only the symptom's logical consistency, given that his symptomatic jouissance of the letter elevates lalangue to language without passing through the Imaginary of the body.
