Abstract

As a part of an attempt to account for the status of Marxism today, this paper explores Slavoj Žižek’s Theory of the Act. Given that, to a point, this theory constitutes a neutralization of certain postmodernist challenges, the paper presents its materialistic-ontological assumptions and genealogically restores its most important conceptual components. It also questions the link between Žižek’s Theory of the Act and the communist Idea and partially elucidates the differences between Žižek’s stance and the post-Marxism of authors such as Ernesto Laclau and Alain Badiou. The hypothesis that guides this work is that even though it is not part of the paradigm of historical materialism, Žižek’s Theory of the Act essentially represents a reinvigoration of Marxist theory and a strengthening of the political-emancipatory practice that the times in which we live require