The Sublime Object of IdeologyIn this provocative and original work, Slavoj _i_ek takes a look at the question of human agency in a postmodern world. From the sinking of the Titanic to Hitchcock’s Rear Window, from the operas of Wagner to science fiction, from Alien to the Jewish Joke, the author’s acute analyses explore the ideological fantasies of wholeness and exclusion which make up human society. _i_ek takes issue with analysts of the postmodern condition from Habermas to Sloterdijk, showing that the idea of a ‘post-ideological’ world ignores the fact that ‘even if we do not take things seriously, we are still doing them’. Rejecting postmodernism’s unified world of surfaces, he traces a line of thought from Hegel to Althusser and Lacan, in which the human subject is split, divided by a deep antagonism which determines social reality and through which ideology operates. Linking key psychoanalytical and philosophical concepts to social phenomena such as totalitarianism and racism, the book explores the political significance of these fantasies of control. In so doing, The Sublime Object of Ideology represents a powerful contribution to a psychoanalytical theory of ideology, as well as offering persuasive interpretations of a number of contemporary cultural formations. |
Contents
How Did Marx Invent the Symptom? | 11 |
From Symptom to Sinthome | 55 |
Che Vuoi? | 87 |
You Only Die Twice | 131 |
Which Subject of the Real? | 153 |
Not Only as Substance but Also as Subject | 201 |
| 233 | |
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Common terms and phrases
alienation already analysis antagonism anti-Semitism appearance articulate basic believe commodity commodity fetishism conceived consciousness consists course crucial death death drive democracy desire determination dialectical dimension dream effect embodiment enjoyment entity essence example exist fact fantasy fetishism final formal function fundamental gesture Hegel Hegelian historical hysterical ideological illusion imaginary impossible interpellation interpretation jouissance Kant kernel kind Lacan Lacanian Lacanian theory lack language leftover Let us take logic MacGuffin Marx meaning mediation metalanguage misrecognition movement nature negative notion object objet petit obsessional opposite ourselves paradox perspective phallus phenomena pleasure principle positive post-structuralism post-structuralist precisely presupposes presuppositions production psychoanalysis pure question radical reference relationship retroactively rigid designator role signifier signifier's simply sinthome Slavoj Žižek society Stalinist structure subject presumed sublime substance surplus-value symbolic identification symbolic order symptom theoretical thesis Thing-in-itself things totalitarian traumatic truth unconscious universal void vuoi words Zhuang Zi