Tainted Texts: Plagiarism and Self-Exploitation in Perlmann’s Silence

As a novel addressing scientific misconduct, Pascal Mercier’s Perlmann’s Silence notably revolves around plagiarism (the P in FFP), but the broader normative and discursive ambiance of academic existence comes into view as well. Mercier’s novel will be read as a collision between various modes of discourse, mutually exposed to one another, challenging and questioning one another. Four modes of discourse will be distinguished, in accordance with Jacques Lacan’s theorem of the four discourses: the discourse of the Master, of the university, of the hysteric and of the analyst. Subsequently, it will be indicated how these four discourses navigate the discursive landscape determined by three “axes” or dimensions of inquiry, as distinguished by Lacan’s contemporary Michel Foucault, namely knowledge, power and the Self (Foucault 1984; Zwart 2008c, 2016c). In university discourse, the focus is on knowledge (the epistemological dimension): on the ways in which plagiarism reflects transformations in the knowledge production process. The discourses of the Master and the hysteric revolve around inter-generational and global inequalities in academic research (the power dimension). And the discourse of the analyst focusses on the ethical dimension of the Self: the ways in which academics manage or fail to constitute themselves as responsible subjects vis-à-vis integrity challenges emerging in contemporary research practices.