El siguiente artículo presenta un panorama más amplio de la filosofía de Slavoj Žižek, mostrando que es parte de un grupo más amplio que denominamos “Escuela eslovena”. Es así que el artículo está compuesto por dos partes. La primera dedicada a mostrar el contexto histórico de emergencia de la Escuela eslovena. La segunda parte sostiene dos tesis: 1) hay una Escuela eslovena como sujeto impersonal que implica que leer a uno de sus miembros hace más comprensible (...) a otro; y, 2) a pesar de que no encontramos conceptos propios de esta Escuela es posible encontrar rasgos, operaciones y lecturas en común entre ellos. (shrink)

En este artículo abordamos las nociones de libertad, historia y subjetividad, con el fin de aportar una contribución original a los estudios sobre la ideología. Nuestra metodología consistirá en cruzar el psicoanálisis freudiano-lacaniano y la teoría de la interpelación de Louis Althusser. En la introducción, comenzaremos exponiendo dos grandes críticas al psicoanálisis freudiano, una formulada por Jean-Paul Sartre, y la otra por Gilles Deleuze y Félix Guattari, arrojando así la luz sobre cómo el psicoanálisis podría representar (a pesar de esos (...) argumentos críticos), un campo de libertad en lugar de determinismo, y un dominio que es inherentemente histórico, en lugar de lo contrario. En la primera sección, examinaremos más de cerca las nociones de libertad, memoria e historia, avanzando una hipótesis preliminar según la cual, dentro del espacio simbólico, el pasado permanece abierto a los cambios, lo que hará posible tanto la ideología como la libertad. Además, veremos qué aspectos de la libertad podrían encontrarse dentro de la teoría althusseriana de la interpelación, y cómo el psicoanálisis lacaniano es compatible con ella o puede llevarnos más allá de sus limitaciones. En la segunda sección, veremos cómo puede haber un sujeto que precede a la subjetivación, y cómo la teoría del sujeto de Lacan que surge del resto traumático, sobrepasa el alcance de la teoría de la interpelación. La tercera sección abordará el núcleo pulsional-traumático del sujeto, tal como lo concibe Freud, no sólo como dimensión determinante del psiquismo individual, sino como condición estructural de la cultura. A través de estas consideraciones, mostraremos cómo el psicoanálisis puede proporcionar una explicación de los fundamentos de la ideología, al concebir el núcleo pulsional-traumático de la ley que reside en el Nombre-del-Padre. En la conclusión, veremos, a través de una serie de ejemplos, cómo la ideología aparece disfrazada de verdad, y por qué la comprensión psicoanalítica del inconsciente es necesaria para desenmascarar las ilusiones que produce. (shrink)

El presente ensayo se organiza al modo de un guion cinematográfico donde el protagonista conceptual es el fantasma. Se realiza una exposición de su abordaje filosófico en los trabajos de Slavoj Žižek enfatizando su relación con el goce y la ideología. El punto de partida es la famosa intuición del filósofo esloveno según la cual existe una analogía entre la concepción de la autonomía en el idealismo alemán y la concepción freudiana de la pulsión de muerte. A partir (...) de este argumento, análogo a una intriga de film noir, se pasa revista a la relación entre psicoanálisis y filosofía, así como a los análisis culturales propuestos por Žižek. (shrink)

A diferencia de la gran mayoría de autores que han aplicado la teoría lacaniana a la disciplina filosófica en las últimas décadas, el empleo que Slavoj Žižek ha hecho de ella no debería enmarcarse dentro de los horizontes establecidos por el post-estructuralismo, la posmodernidad o la deconstrucción en tanto que ataques contra los grandes discursos filosóficos de la metafísica y la modernidad, sino como un intento, bastante conservador en el fondo, de volver a situar la Filosofía como disciplina fundada (...) en la Verdad. Para lograrlo Žižek reconceptualiza la Verdad a partir de una nueva reelaboración hegeliano-lacaniana del materialismo dialéctico que desarrolla los planteamientos del primer Althusser de un modo divergente al realizado por Badiou. Este artículo expone las principales aportaciones realizadas por el filósofo esloveno al materialismo dialéctico, considerándolas como un abandono del materialismo histórico y un retorno al idealismo absoluto de Hegel. (shrink)

El siguiente trabajo se propone, en primer lugar, contraponer la lectura fi losófi ca de Ricoeur sobre la interpretación en psicoanálisis con algunos desarrollos clave de Freud y Lacan al respecto. Luego, se mostrará desde la obra del fi lósofo esloveno Slavoj Žižek cómo este concepto psicoanalítico puede ser utilizado dentro del marco de la crítica de las ideologías. De esta manera, se intentará determinar y fundamentar, al menos de manera aproximada, si la interpretación en psicoanálisis constituye una (...) exégesis o desciframiento del símbolo, o si la estructura del discurso analítico mismo exige otra concepción que no se agota en una hermenéutica. (shrink)

Resumen: El concepto “fantasía” es imperante en nuestra época, siendo -casi-, un concepto característico y descriptivo del sujeto posmoderno. Asimismo es un concepto crucial a la hora de entender a Žižek y su obra. En las siguientes paginas se realizará un recorrido en el texto “el acoso de las fantasías” y un intento en demostrar como este autor ha logrado traer consigo una nueva era del psicoanálisis lacaniano.

In this new book, Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly engage in a series of entertaining conversations which illustrate the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multiculturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. An excellent introduction to one of the most engaging and controversial cultural theorists writing today. Žižek is a Slovenian sociologist who trained as a Lacanian and uses Lacan to analyse popular culture and politics. Illustrates the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multi-culturalism, popular/cyber culture, (...) totalitarianism, ethics and politics. Provides a unique glimpse of Žižek’s humour and character and offers new material and fresh perspectives which will be of interest to followers of Žižek’s writings. (shrink)

¿Qué es el materialismo y cómo este opera en la praxis psicoanalítica? Esa es la pregunta a la cual este artículo intenta responder, para eso se realiza un breve recorrido histórico conceptual por algunas apuestas teórico-prácticas desde Freud, pasando por Lacan hasta pensadores contemporáneos. Se profundizó en algunas nociones de Slavoj Žižek, específicamente en su concepción materialista o lo que él mismo denomina «una refundación del materialismo dialéctico», donde se presenta una mezcla inconsciente no-toda. Es a propósito de (...) dicha perspectiva teórica que en este trabajo se ponen en tela de juicio algunos debates clínicos desde la filosofía y el psicoanálisis. (shrink)

_. _El concepto “Fantasía” se vuelve central a la hora de pensar o re-pensar en nuestra época, puede ser pensado como uno de los conceptos característicos y descriptivos del sujeto contemporáneo producto del devenir histórico-social. En las siguientes paginas se realizará una revisión bibliográfica acentuada en el libro _“el acoso de las fantasías”_ del intelectual Slavoj Zizek. El objetivo de la investigación es identificar algunos de los aportes teóricos-conceptuales que se han incorporado a los debates actuales del campo psicoanalítico. (...) En el transcurso de la revisión se pondrá en evidencia el resultado entre la mixtura de la filosofía, sociología y el psicoanálisis como mixtura necesaria a la hora de estudiar la coyuntura global del siglo XXI. (shrink)

In this new book, Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly engage in a series of entertaining conversations which illustrate the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multiculturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. An excellent introduction to one of the most engaging and controversial cultural theorists writing today. Žižek is a Slovenian sociologist who trained as a Lacanian and uses Lacan to analyse popular culture and politics. Illustrates the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multi-culturalism, popular/cyber culture, (...) totalitarianism, ethics and politics. Provides a unique glimpse of Žižek’s humour and character and offers new material and fresh perspectives which will be of interest to followers of Žižek’s writings. (shrink)

An essay by philosopher Slavoj Zizek, with an English translation of Schelling's beautiful and evocative "Ages of the World, " second draft.

The Cartesian cogito—the principle articulated by Descartes that "I think, therefore I am"—is often hailed as the precursor of modern science. At the same time, the cogito's agent, the ego, is sometimes feared as the agency of manipulative domination responsible for all present woes, from patriarchal oppression to ecological catastrophes. Without psychoanalyzing philosophy, _Cogito and the Unconscious_ explores the vicissitudes of the cogito and shows that psychoanalyses can render visible a constitutive madness within modern philosophy, the point at which "I (...) think, therefore I am" becomes obsessional neurosis characterized by "If I stop thinking, I will cease to exist." Noting that for Lacan the Cartesian construct is the same as the Freudian "subject of the unconscious," the contributors follow Lacan's plea for a psychoanalytic return to the cogito. Along the path of this return, they examine the ethical attitude that befits modern subjectivity, the inherent sexualization of modern subjectivity, the impasse in which the Cartesian project becomes involved given the enigmatic status of the human body, and the Cartesian subject's confrontation with its modern critics, including Althusser, Bataille, and Dennett. In a style that has become familiar to Žižek's readers, these essays bring together a strict conceptual analysis and an approach to a wide range of cultural and ideological phenomena—from the sadist paradoxes of Kant's moral philosophy to the universe of Ayn Rand's novels, from the question "Which, if any, is the sex of the cogito?" to the defense of the cogito against the onslaught of cognitive sciences. Challenging us to reconsider fundamental notions of human consciousness and modern subjectivity, this is a book whose very Lacanian orthodoxy makes it irreverently transgressive of predominant theoretical paradigms. _Cogito and the Unconscious_ will appeal to readers interested in philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, and theories of ideology. _Contributors. _Miran Bozovic, Mladen Dolar, Alain Grosrichard, Marc de Kessel, Robert Pfaller, Renata Salecl, Slavoj Žižek, Alenka Zupancic. (shrink)

Reviews : Slavoj Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology ; Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture.

En la última década, Slavoj Žižek ha llegado a convertirse en uno de los principales referentes de la filosofía política contemporánea. Su obra posee una gran capacidad para renovar argumentos filosóficos que la crítica había dado por agotados: la lucha de clases, el idealismo trascendental, la violencia revolucionaria, el materialismo dialéctico o la ideología. El objetivo de Žižek es disolver un conjunto de aporías que se presentan no como un desafío intelectual sino más bien como oclusión de las (...) condiciones de posibilidad del propio programa filosófico.La intervención de Žižek está explícitamente dirigida contra el punto muerto epistemológico y político característico de las postrimerías del corto siglo XX, una época caracterizada por tensiones no exentas de congruencia: globalización, postmodernidad, multiculturalismo, neoliberalismo…Este texto analiza algunos puntos clave de la filosofía política zizekiana, con especial atención a su teoría de la ideología, su crítica del sujeto y su rehabilitación del marxismo clásico. (shrink)

Jacques Lacan coined the term “subjective destitution” to describe the concluding moment of a psychoanalytic treatment. This concept can also usefully be applied to art and to politics. In art, subjective destitution can be defined as a passage from being-towardsdeath to undeadness, in other words to the position of the living dead – this passage takes place between Shostakovich’s 14th symphony and his final symphony, the 15th. In politics, subjective destitution designates the passage of a political subject to a (...) radical de-subjectivization, to becoming an object of a political cause. (shrink)

Two topics determine today's liberal tolerant attitude towards Others: the respect of Otherness and the obsessive fear of harassment: the Other is OK insofar as its presence is not intrusive, insofar as the Other is not really Other. The central human right in late-capitalist society, namely the right to be free from all harassment by the Other including the violent imposition of ethical norms, contrasts sharply with the violent imposition of divine Mosaic law – the Decalogue – from which the (...) idea of human rights ultimately derives. The underlying discursive shift can be analyzed with the help of Lacan: the discourse of the Master had been replaced by university discourse. While the Master's decision is per se violent, university discourse is enunciated from the position of neutral Knowledge. The truth of the university discourse is power: the constitutive lie of the university discourse is that it disavows its performative dimension, presenting what effectively amounts to a political decision based on power as a simple insight into the factual state of things. (shrink)

L’envers de la psychanalyse, Séminaire XVII sur les quatre discours, est la réponse de Lacan aux événements de 1968. Son postulat est bien résumé par son détournement du célèbre graffiti anti-structuraliste lu sur les murs de Paris en 1968 : « Les structures ne marchent pas dans les rues ! »..

L’envers de la psychanalyse, Séminaire XVII sur les quatre discours, est la réponse de Lacan aux événements de 1968. Son postulat est bien résumé par son détournement du célèbre graffiti anti-structuraliste lu sur les murs de Paris en 1968 : « Les structures ne marchent pas dans les rues! »...

Starting from the distinction between “ideal ego”, “ego-ideal” and “superego” structured from the Imaginary-Symbolic-Real triad made by Lacan, this study investigates how is possible to distinguish the a-sexual social space from the domain of libidinally-cathexed interactions. Through the analysis of Balibar’s, Miller’s, Schuster’s and Hägglund’s ideas, paths and strategies are defined to analyze the existing dynamics between symbolic power, law and superego. What emerges is the reconstruction of a new subjectivity which is capable, at the same time, to overcome (...) the jouissance-superego dynamic at the basis of Lacanian reflection and face the challenges of contemporary post-humanism. Therefore, what subject stands for is the inhuman core of being-human, what Hegel called selfrelating negativity, what Freud called death drive. The text proposes, in short, how the Subject is what is in a human being more than human, the immortality of the deathdrive which makes it a living dead, something that insists beyond the cycle of life and death. (shrink)

Na podlagi podrobne razlage »grafa želje«, kot ga je artikuliral J. Lacan, se skuša nakazati raven, ki uhaja obravnavanju ideologije v »strukturalizmu«: raven želje Drugega, ki izpričuje neko zev, nekonsistentnost Drugega in ideološke fantazme kot načina, kako se subjekt zaslepi za to nekonsistentnost Drugega.

The digital machinery that sustains video games not only directs and regulates the gamer's desire, it also »interpellates« the gamer into a specific mode of subjectivity: a pre-Oedipal not-yet-castrated subjectivity that floats in a kind of obscene immortality: when I am immersed into a game, I dwell in a universe of undeadness where no annihilation is definitive since, after every destruction, I can return to the beginning and start the game again... One should note here that this obscene immortality was (...) the stuff of fantasy long before cartoons – say, in the work of de Sade. The axiom of the philosophy of finitude is that one cannot escape finitude/mortality as the unsurpassable horizon of our existence; Lacan’s axiom is that, no matter how much one tries, one cannot escape immortality. But what if this choice is false? What if finitude and immortality, like lack and excess, also form a parallax couple, what if they are the same from a different point of view? What if immortality is an object that is a remainder/excess over finitude, what if finitude is an attempt to escape from the excess of immortality? (shrink)

Slavoj Zizek's critical engagement with Christian theology goes much further than his seminal The Fragile Absolute, or his The Puppet and the Dwarf, or even his discussion with noted theologian John Milbank in The Monstrosity of Christ. His reading of Christianity, utilising his signature elements of Lacanian psychoanalysis and Hegelian philosophy with modern philosophical currents, can be seen as a genuinely original contribution to the philosophy of religion. This book focuses on these aspects of Zizek's thought with either philosophy (...) and cultural theory, or Christian theology, serving as starting points of enquiry. Written by a panel of international contributors, each chapter teases out various strands of Zizek's thought concerning Christianity and religion and brings them into a wider conversation about the nature of faith. These essays show that far from being an outright rejection of Christian thought and intellectual heritage, Zizek's work could be seen as a perverse affirmation thereof. Thus, what he has to say should be of direct interest to Christian theology itself. Touching on thinkers such as Badiou, Lacan, Chesterton and Schelling, this collection is a dynamic reading and re-reading of Zizek's relationship to Christianity. As such, scholars of theology, the philosophy of religion and Zizek more generally will all find this book to be of great interest. (shrink)

Perhaps the most-read philosopher in the world at the time of this publication, Slavoj Žižek has written voluminously on an extraordinary number of topics—and has, along the way, engaged many different fields of inquiry and earned many critics. At bottom, however, is a post-structural philosophy which is provided as an alternative to the proposals of Jacques Derrida, with an emphatic deployment of the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. This critical chapter parses his work as it is relevant to (...) radical theology. (shrink)

Yugoslavia-to Slovenia -- Enlightenment-with Hegel -- Psychoanalysis-from Lacan -- Politics-repeating Marx -- Culture-acting out.

This article deals with the theme of subjectivity. One of the most pressing questions today is what theoretical and practical efforts should be made to avoid being a powerless tool in the hands of others and under what conditions one’s own “subjective opinion” becomes the real, reliable fulcrum as far as purposeful activity, free and reasonable goal-setting are concerned. The desire to derive subjectivity from individual, singular existence today forces a thinker as prominent as Slavoj Žižek to search for (...) its form as “purified from” ideological layers and the contingencies of life. In his search for such a form, he turns to the psychoanalytic tradition, to the work of Jacques Lacan and his attempts to formalize the structures of subjectivity in isolation from the universality that generates them as necessity. This abstract consideration of subjectivity leads him to recognize subjectivity as a “distorting factor” in view of the insurmountable rupture between being and thinking. Evald Ilyenkov takes a different approach to the question of active self-determination. He conceives of personality as universal—the traits of a person are formed in the course of interaction between individuals in the process of producing the means of life. The individual becomes a personality or an acting subject, appropriating the generic powers of humanity, while being included in a system that implies a human relationship to the thing and, through it, to another individual. (shrink)

Review of Slavoj Žižek, "Sex and the Failed Absolute".

In this new book, Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly engage in a series of entertaining conversations which illustrate the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multiculturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. An excellent introduction to one of the most engaging and controversial cultural theorists writing today. Žižek is a Slovenian sociologist who trained as a Lacanian and uses Lacan to analyse popular culture and politics. Illustrates the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multi-culturalism, popular/cyber culture, (...) totalitarianism, ethics and politics. Provides a unique glimpse of Žižek’s humour and character and offers new material and fresh perspectives which will be of interest to followers of Žižek’s writings. (shrink)

In the following paper I shall be developing a critical discussion of the contemporary interpretation of Hegel proposed by a Yugoslavian, and more specifically Slovenian, philosopher named Slavoj Zizek, whose principal theoretical allegiance is to the thought of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The very existence of this body of work raises many intriguing questions about the theoretical, cultural, and political context from which it has arisen. Why, for example, should the notoriously obscure and difficult thought of a (...) Parisian psychoanalyst be of such interest not just to Zizek, but indeed to a whole circle of Slovenian intellectuals? Furthermore, why should a Lacanian approach be considered the most promising way to unlock the?secret of Hegel?? And why should Zizek and his fellow thinkers insist on the convergence of the thought of Hegel and Lacan, even in defiance of many of Lacan's own pronouncements on the matter? In a sense, the answer to the first of these questions already provides the answers to the other two. It is necessary to bear in mind that, for the most part, Yugoslavian philosophical life since the Revolution has been dominated not by the creaking orthodoxies of Soviet-style dialectical materialism, but by the far more plausible and congenial positions of what has come to be known as the Praxis School. The Marxism of the Praxis School, whose tradition still lives on, in the form of the journal Praxis International, is much closer, indeed can be seen as part of the philosophical current known in the other half of Europe as?Western Marxism?. (shrink)

Obertura: En este artículo se presenta un trabajo de investigación situada, cuyo objetivo general consiste en aportar elementos para una propuesta curricular alternativa desde algunos planteamientos teórico-metodológicos elaborados por Slavoj Žižek. El trabajo se desarrolló en la sede central de la I. E. San Juan de Barragán, institución rural de carácter oficial cuyo proyecto educativo institucional tiene como pilares fundamentales: al estudiante como “centro del proceso educativo”; un modelo educativo de corte “humanista”; énfasis en una “educación para la autonomía”; (...) y un enfoque metodológico “flexible”, “activo” y “significativo”. Lo realmente paradójico, radica en la prioridad dada por directivos y docentes: al bajo rendimiento académico de los estudiantes en las pruebas externas ; al logro de estándares de calidad; al cumplimiento de expectativas de progreso; y al rendimiento en las evaluaciones de desempeños. Aunque en términos de la perspectiva crítica lacaniana, esta situación no debería resultar extraña ya que el marco de la política educativa neoliberal está orientada al logro de estándares de calidad, indicadores de eficiencia, evaluaciones de desempeño y expectativas de progreso. Como estrategia metodológica se hizo uso de la crítica ideológica la cual permitió identificar: a) las problemáticas cotidianas de la I. E. como síntomas o contradicciones del discurso curricular vigente; b) la manifestación de un currículo inadvertido pero reproducido en la práctica por los docentes; y c) al currículo oficial como discurso ideológico de las condiciones reales de existencia que tienen lugar dentro de la institución educativa. (shrink)

Slavoj Žižek is an extremely interesting philosopher of our time who translated the philosophy of Hegel, Marx and the psychology of Lacan into a formidable scholarship and activism. Importantly, his philosophy participates in Alain Badiou’s conviction that the function of philosophy is to corrupt the youth, to alienate them from the hegemonic ideologico-political order, to spread radical doubts, and enable them to think unconventionally, boldly think dangerously.

Reviews: William S. Lewis, Louis Althusser and the Traditions of French Marxism ; Louis Althusser, Philosophy of the Encounter: Later Writings, 1978—1987 ; Alain Badiou, Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy ; Alain Badiou, Metapolitics ; Slavoj Žižek, Lacan: The Silent Partners.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Diacritics 31.1 (2001) 73-90 [Access article in PDF] The Leader's Two BodiesSlavoj Zizek's Postmodern Political Theology Claudia Breger Over the course of the last decade, Slavoj Zizek and his "Slovenian Lacanian school" have gained renown in the Western theory market. Academics are fascinated not only by Zizek's performances as a speaker, his nondogmatic approach to issues of genre and (inter)mediality, 1 and the "literary" character of his theoretical (...) texts [Laclau, Preface xii], but also by the political turn given to psychoanalysis by the "Slovenian school." Already in his preface to Zizek's The Sublime Object of Ideology (1989), Ernesto Laclau wrote that this school's work made Lacanian theory "one of the principal reference points of the so-called 'Slovenia spring'—that is to say the democratization campaigns that have taken place in recent years" [xi]. More than ten years later—after a decade of authoritarian rule, war, and genocide in former Yugoslavia—recent revolutionary events in Serbia once more allow one to hope for a thorough democratization of the region. In a newspaper article evaluating the uprising, however, Zizek warned that these hopes might be premature: while Milosevic could find his new role as "a Serbian Jesus Christ," taking upon him all the "sins" committed by his people, Kostunica and his "democratic" nationalism might represent "nothing but Milosevic in the 'normal' version, without the excess" [Zizek, "Gewalt"]. 2Zizek was not alone in warning that the new government in Yugoslavia might not bring an end to Serbian nationalist politics. The pessimistic scenario Zizek evoked on this occasion, however, was not simply the result of his evaluation of the current political constellation in Serbia. Rather, the fantasy of the necessary return of the leader is connected to his political theory—a theory that does not allow for more optimistic scenarios of democratization and the diminution of nationalism in society. My reading of Zizek's work thus argues for a reevaluation of his theory in terms of its implicit authoritarian politics. The need for such a reevaluation is also suggested by Laclau toward the end of his recent exchange with Judith Butler and Zizek when he admits that "the more our discussions progressed, the more I realized that my sympathy for Zizek's politics was largely the result of a mirage" [Laclau, "Constructing Universality" 292]. Laclau now criticizes Zizek's radical Marxist rhetoric by suggesting that he "wants to do away with liberal democratic regimes" without specifying a political alternative [289], and describes Zizek's discourse as "schizophrenically split between a highly sophisticated Lacanian analysis and an insufficiently deconstructed traditional Marxism" [205]. On [End Page 73] the other hand, he also problematizes Zizek's "psychoanalytic discourse" as "not truly political" [289]. My argument primarily starts from this latter point: the antidemocratic—and, as I will argue, both antifeminist and anti-Semitic—moment of Zizek's theory is to be located not only in the way he performs Marxism, but also in the way he performs Lacanian psychoanalysis. While, in other words, Zizek's skepticism vis-à-vis democracy is obviously informed by, and inseparable from, Marxist critiques of "liberal," "representative" democracy, his failure to elaborate alternative visions of political change towards egalitarian and/or plural scenarios of society cannot be explained solely by his Marxist perspective. Rather, it is Zizek's reading of Lacanian psychoanalysis that does not allow for revisions of the Marxist paradigm toward, for example, a "radical democracy" as suggested by Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in their Hegemony and Socialist Strategy.In a chapter entitled "Formal Democracy and Its Discontents" in Looking Awry (1992), Zizek notes that "Lacan predicted a new rise of racism for the coming decades" as early as the 1960s [162]. 3 Zizek interprets this statement in the context of a "fundamental impasse of democracy" [162] created by the fact that the abstraction proper to democracy can never dissolve the "substantial ties"—of ethnicity, nation, and so on—that it negates [164]. 4 According to Zizek, "this constitutive paradox" has to be assumed: "The democratic attitude is always based upon a certain fetishistic... (shrink)

What do we know about Hegel? What do we know about Marx? What do we know about democracy and totalitarianism? Communism and psychoanalysis? What do we know that isn't a platitude that we've heard a thousand times - or a self-satisfied certainty? Through his brilliant reading of Hegel, Slavoj Zizek - one of the most provocative and widely-read thinkers of our time - upends our traditional understanding, dynamites every cliché and undermines every conviction in order to clear the ground (...) for new ways of answering these questions. When Lacan described Hegel as the ‘most sublime hysteric’, he was referring to the way that the hysteric asks questions because he experiences his own desire as if it were the Other's desire. In the dialectical process, the question asked of the Other is resolved through a reflexive turn in which the question begins to function as its own answer. We had made Hegel into the theorist of abstraction and reaction, but by reading Hegel with Lacan, Zizek unveils a Hegel of the concrete and of revolution - his own, and the one to come. This early and dazzlingly original work by Zizek offers a unique insight into the ideas which have since become hallmarks of his mature thought. It will be of great interest to anyone interested in critical theory, philosophy and contemporary social thought. (shrink)

The “formidably brilliant” Žižek considers sexuality, ontology, subjectivity, and Marxian critiques of political economy by way of Lacanian psychoanalysis. If the most interesting theoretical interventions emerge today from the interspaces between fields, then the foremost interspaceman is Slavoj Žižek. In Incontinence of the Void (the title is inspired by a sentence in Samuel Beckett's late masterpiece Ill Seen Ill Said), Žižek explores the empty spaces between philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the critique of political economy. He proceeds from the universal dimension (...) of philosophy to the particular dimension of sexuality to the singular dimension of the critique of political economy. The passage from one dimension to another is immanent: the ontological void is accessible only through the impasses of sexuation and the ongoing prospect of the abolition of sexuality, which is itself opened up by the technoscientific progress of global capitalism, in turn leading to the critique of political economy. Responding to his colleague and fellow Short Circuits author Alenka Zupančič's What Is Sex?, Žižek examines the notion of an excessive element in ontology that gives body to radical negativity, which becomes the antagonism of sexual difference. From the economico-philosophical perspective, Žižek extrapolates from ontological excess to Marxian surplus value to Lacan's surplus enjoyment. In true Žižekian fashion, Incontinence of the Void focuses on eternal topics while detouring freely into contemporary issuesfrom the Internet of Things to Danish TV series. (shrink)

This paper will argue that the work of Slavoj Žižek can be fruitfully understood as a response to mystical theology as it has been received in two strands of 20th century French thought—psychoanalysis and phenomenology—and that Žižek's work in turn offers intriguing possibilities for the re-figuring of mystical theology by feminist philosophy of religion. Twentieth century French psychoanalysis is dominated by the work of Jacques Lacan and by his students Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. All three of these (...) figures engage in significant ways with mystical theology—particularly with the works and figures of female mystics—as a crucial resource for theorising gender and subjectivity. A second strand of the 20th century French reception of mystical theology is the phenomenological tradition, specifically the work of Jacques Derrida. This paper will argue that, drawing on and challenging both of these elements of recent French engagement with mystical theology, Žižek's work offers a materialist ontology which seeks to locate transcendence within immanence and materiality, offering to feminist philosophy of religion the resources for re-thinking the relationship of the mystical to the material. (shrink)

This article examines Slavoj Žižek’s overall approach to the critique of ideology. His Hegelian-Lacanian approach to ideology criticism is addressed by looking at the historical shift from the problem of post-ideology to that of post-Truth. In the process, this article explains simply Žižek’s brand of ideology criticism.

En este artículo se pretende realizar un análisis del origen filosófico de uno de los puntos clave que cambiaron los cimientos de la metafísica moderna a partir de la aportación de la noción de filosofía de naturaleza de Schelling, que conlleva a abrir desde el idealismo alemán una concepción alternativa de las relaciones entre la finitud y el Absoluto a las llevadas a cabo por Fichte y Hegel. Su filosofía de la naturaleza inaugurará toda una corriente de pensamiento que (...) incluirá tanto gran parte de la filosofía de Spinoza como el discurrir estético del Sturm und Drang alemán. Posteriormente, y previa enorme reflexión del tótem ineludible de la filosofía crítica kantiana y ruptura con la fichteana, la importancia de su legado filosófico no hará más que crecer, ya que de la influencia sus escritos participarán, de manera más o menos explícita, pensadores como Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud o Heidegger, e incluso llegará hasta el siglo XXI de la mano de gran parte de los autores de la denominada época posmoderna, como Deleuze o Zizek entre otros. (shrink)

Tolerance, equality, and universal love are all strategies that veil the reality of the relationship between the Self and the Other. Whether in the writings of Slavoj Žižek, Arthur Miller, or Jacques Lacan, the definition of "reality", as they explain, is something hidden with all sorts of false claims about the "real". The real is ugly, and reality is just an illusion that conceals the ugly truth. Each of these writers establishes that the self is living in an (...) illusion that does not transcend the nature of itself in order to find out that the ugliness of what is really there. To Žižek, the concept of the "real" Other includes all his/her traumatic vulnerability, weakness, and imperfection. He argues in "Love Thy Neighbor, No Thanks!" that the access to the Real is possible, but threatening. By answering the question of "Who is the neighbor", Žižek refers to Lacan by stating that "the neighbor is the real". Loving the Other or the "neighbor", thus, is an experience of aggression and trauma. With the same line of thought, Arthur Miller deals with the paradox of the real in Death of a Salesman by portraying the life of Willy as having an illusion of himself as a successful business man that everybody respects but he's actually not that successful. Understanding Willy's background and life portrays the truth of what is the "real", for the reader understands that Willy is not what he claims to be. His "real" life is ugly, and he's just hallucinating that he's successful. This paper suggests that the concept of reality and illusion in the texts are explained by the use of dialogue which gave the characters a distinctive voice that acted as a persuasive force. I will explore how conversation is used effectively by the main characters in Death of a Salesman to suggest that the "real" is the "ugly". Also, I will illustrate the concept of reality vs. illusion in Death of a Salesman by drawing on Slavoj Žižek's "Love Thy Neighbor, No Thanks!" where he explains the "real" through the use of several examples. My aim is to acknowledge the persuasive force that lies behind the conversations illustrated by both authors in their texts, and to examine how this force is powerfully used in order to convince the reader of the reality of an object. This persuasive force was used as a key to communicate knowledge of certain concepts through certain techniques the authors used in their texts, which had an impact on the different definitions and notions. (shrink)

Que savons-nous de Lacan? Que savons-nous de Marx? Que savons-nous de Kant? Que savons-nous de la démocratie et du totalitarisme? De la bureaucratie et de la servitude? De la nécessité et de la contingence? De la représentation et des images? Du communisme et de la psychanalyse? De la déconstruction et de la philosophie analytique? Du Witz et du sérieux? Que savons-nous qui n’en soit pas un cliché mille fois rebattu – ou une conviction trop confortable? A travers une éblouissante (...) lecture de Hegel, qui en bouleverse de part en part la compréhension, Slavoj Zizek dynamite tous les clichés et met à mal toutes les convictions pour proposer de nouvelles manières de répondre à ces questions. Nous avions fait de Hegel le penseur de l’abstraction et de la réaction, Zizek en fait celui du concret et de la révolution - la sienne, et celle à venir. (shrink)

En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre los conceptos de fetichismo y lucha de clases en el particular marxismo de Slavoj Žižek. Žižek comprende el fetichismo marxiano a través del psicoanálisis y en el marco de la concepción de Marx de la religión en dos sentidos: como ideología y como fundamento. Esto le permite mostrar que el fetichismo y en general el hecho religioso, no es únicamente «falsa conciencia» sino que también funciona como el elemento constitutivo e insuperable (...) de lo real, lo que, a su vez permite repensar la lucha de clases. (shrink)

This essay focuses on the dialectics of The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. I argue both films translate into a dialectical encounter between cinema and performance. Each documentary’s filmic texture offers a look at the shifting ideologies of the screened stage and critical theory. Both films use Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek as intermediary figures between elusive psychoanalytic/materialist ideas and performance. The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema does it in a glossy, beautifully filmed documentary, (...) whereas The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology presents itself as its poor doppelganger. I propose here looking at the dialectical nature of both films through Žižek’s performances: one of them evincing presentness and one a terrifying void. I will argue that through this lack and through the dialectic between the two, ideologies of cinema and performance emerge. The dialectic of Žižek’s performances and Fiennes’ films reveals the relationship between materialism and Lacanian psychoanalytic thought as well as the relationship between performance and cinema. Performance and cinema are entangled and when encountered in the two documentaries they offer something new leading to, as Žižek would say when discussing The Matrix, “A third pill!”. (shrink)