On Zizek's dialectics
Subtitle: surplus, subtraction, sublimation
By: Fabio Vighi.
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 2010
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780826464439
Subjects: Žižek, Slavoj; Political science -- Philosophy
Description: On Žižek's Dialectics explores the theoretical and practical potential of the psychoanalytic method deployed by Slavoj Žižek by investigating its epistemological implications within our contemporary capitalist universe. The book begins by evaluating Zizek's account of the capitalist ideology of enjoyment through the analysis of Lacan's critique of Marx's surplus-value. If the originality of Žižek's wager lies in the claim that enjoyment secretly sustains our ideological space, can we think of surplus-jouissance in a way that not only unmasks the ruse of capitalism but also adumbrates the construction of an alternative social space? The answer to this question is developed in the second part of the book. Arguing that the transformative potential of Zizek's epistemology needs to be fully unravelled if it is to avoid the risk of congealing into mere academic exercise, Fabio Vighi attempts to politicise Žižek's groundbreaking critical method by calling upon the necessity to translate its emphasis on the "indigestible" surplus of knowledge into the drive to think the new. Under the current conditions, this creative moment can no longer be delayed.
Table of contents: title: Not only as value, but also as surplus; title: The will to enjoyment; title: Jouissance at arms length; title: From surplus-value to surplus-jouissance; title: The unbearable lightness of being the proletariat; title: Karatani's wager; title: On shame and subversion; title: From subject to politics; title: Democracy under duress; title: Dialectical materialism as parallax; title: Vicissitudes of subtraction; title: The invisible rabbit inside the hat; title: Though this be madness, yet there is method in it?