Abstract

Is it possible to speak of the political in any singular or universal fashion? If not, what possibilities might exist for developing the senses of politics and the political? This paper argues that Žižek’s thought provides an alternative approach to engaging with these questions that cannot be assimilated in any obvious way to postmodern, deconstructionist and/or postmarxist perspectives. In particular it argues that Žižek’s approach is linked to a specific conceptualisation of materialism - one that is paradoxically derived from Hegel – and which underscores the way in which the logic of the political tend to be cut and articulated in paradigmatic fashion