The Lacanian Subject at Leisure: Fantasy and Impossibility

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Leisure is routinely imagined as a domain of freedom, restoration, self-expression, and authenticity. This paper argues that such promises operate as fantasy structures that organize desire and enjoyment. Drawing on Lacan’s account of the split subject, fantasy, objet petit a, jouissance, and the Real, it examines post-digital leisure apparatuses as arrangements that turn anticipation, attainment, deflation, and renewed pursuit into a repeatable circuit. Through readings of TikTok, Peloton, Disney, and revenge travel, the paper shows how leisure makes fantasy operational through interfaces, metrics, rankings, itineraries, and experience designs. It also develops “fantasy literacy” as an orientation for analyzing and discussing leisure promise-structures, linking everyday disappointment to the social forms that keep enjoyment moving.