Slavoj Žižek

M. Hommelette's Wild Ride: Lamella as a Category of Shame

by Christine Evans

I Fought the Law & the Law One: Transgression, the Act, & Narratives of Aphanisis in Claude Chabrol's Story of Women

by Christine Evans

I'm in Love! I'm a Believer!: Structures of Belief in Jonathan Glazer's Birth

by Christine Evans

"Did Somebody Say 'Islamophobia'?: An Essay on the American Liberal Understanding of Park51 and the 911-Event"

by Laurie Rodrigues

Some of Badiou and Žižek’s most disquieting claims include their opposition to liberal multiculturalism, tolerance... more Some of Badiou and Žižek’s most disquieting claims include their opposition to liberal multiculturalism, tolerance discourses and particularist “ethics” concerned with respecting the “Other.” This has particular relevance to recent liberal media coverage of the hotly-debated “Islamic Cultural Center” slated to be built near the ground zero of 911 in Manhattan (the Park51 debate). In this article, I argue that the positions of Badiou and Žižek are valuable for examining the seemingly benign, “tolerant” position held by the American liberal Left that purports to be the sole logical, “moderate” stance to assume in this debate. However, this dangerous construction, offers a fallacious notion of choice: one has the “freedom” to choose either a Right or Left-side stance with respect to Park51; however, one risks condemnation if one chooses to stand with the Right. In this article, I will adapt and expand upon Badiou and Žižek’s converging viewpoints in order to fashion an examination of American liberalism’s media presence and its self-conception as the force of “good” within the post-911, “Ground Zero Mosque,” tolerance debates. Ultimately, I aim to show how the Left’s structure of thought within and around the Park51 contention betrays a fundamental infidelity to the 911-event. The proposed building of an Islamic cultural center near ground zero represents a new kind of problem that American, liberal media cannot meet head-on, I propose that we begin to question the central role of tolerating the Other within discourses concerning American “rights.”

"Did Somebody Say 'Islamophobia'?: An Essay on the American Liberal Understanding of Park51 and the 911-Event"

by Laurie Rodrigues

Some of Badiou and Žižek’s most disquieting claims include their opposition to liberal multiculturalism, tolerance... more Some of Badiou and Žižek’s most disquieting claims include their opposition to liberal multiculturalism, tolerance discourses and particularist “ethics” concerned with respecting the “Other.” This has particular relevance to recent liberal media coverage of the hotly-debated “Islamic Cultural Center” slated to be built near the ground zero of 911 in Manhattan (the Park51 debate). In this article, I argue that the positions of Badiou and Žižek are valuable for examining the seemingly benign, “tolerant” position held by the American liberal Left that purports to be the sole logical, “moderate” stance to assume in this debate. However, this dangerous construction, offers a fallacious notion of choice: one has the “freedom” to choose either a Right or Left-side stance with respect to Park51; however, one risks condemnation if one chooses to stand with the Right. In this article, I will adapt and expand upon Badiou and Žižek’s converging viewpoints in order to fashion an examination of American liberalism’s media presence and its self-conception as the force of “good” within the post-911, “Ground Zero Mosque,” tolerance debates. Ultimately, I aim to show how the Left’s structure of thought within and around the Park51 contention betrays a fundamental infidelity to the 911-event. The proposed building of an Islamic cultural center near ground zero represents a new kind of problem that American, liberal media cannot meet head-on, I propose that we begin to question the central role of tolerating the Other within discourses concerning American “rights.”

Den Uforudsigelige Revolution

by Niels Glæsner

A Danish essay reflecting on the unpredictability of revolutionary change and in particular the Tunesian uprising of december 2010 - Published in the antology "Alkvantor III - Revolutions"

La obscenidad del Sujeto hegeliano. La" noche del mundo" y la experiencia de la pulsión de muerte

by Luis Felip

Il n’y a pas de rapport sexuel: The Irresolvability of the Gadamer-Habermas Debate

by William J. Urban

class paper written Good Friday, April 6, 2012

K.Štefančić_I Take Pleasure In Your Displeasure

by Klaudio Štefančić

The text was published in Croatian art magazine Kontura (no. 88, 2006) and in Kristian Kožul's exhibition catalogue produced by Musem of Contemporary Art, Zagreb in 2006. Translated by Anita Kojundžić.

The art of Kristian Kožul brings up for discussion what is not talked of. Not only the idiosyncratic... more The art of Kristian Kožul brings up for discussion what is not talked of. Not only the idiosyncratic psychopathological experience of the individual citizen, not only the inter-individual, (sub)cultural experience of a member of a certain group, but also the collective experience of late, globalising capitalism in post-socialist Croatia. Kožul’s artistic strategy provokes in an equal measure discussion of the sensitive issues of bourgeois sexual identity and the tricky problems of the ruling ideologies of post-socialist society, such as nationalism and clericalism for example. If we recall Žižek’s concept of ideology, in which ideology is not false consciousness, an illusion of reality, but a constituent part of social reality, and reality itself, Kožul’s practice of the constant deideologisation of citizens is crucially necessary. After all, at the wellspring of the Surrealist movement we do not find only newly-revealed erotic pleasure but also politics – the politics of pleasure.

-S-h-a-k-e-s-p-e-a-r-e-: Authorial Self-Erasure in Macbeth

by Étienne Poulard

This unpublished article is based on a paper I gave at the ‘Medieval and Early Modern Authorship’ conference at the University of Geneva (June/July 2010).

'Macbeth' is Shakespeare’s most explicitly Jacobean play; and because of that, it is often treated as evidence of the... more 'Macbeth' is Shakespeare’s most explicitly Jacobean play; and because of that, it is often treated as evidence of the playwright’s unreserved dedication to the monarchy. However, the authorial mode of this play is far less determined than is sometimes suggested. The fact that 'Macbeth' can be read both as a legitimation and a criticism of King James’ regime suggests that the “author’s drift” resists univocal categorisation. This article examines the characteristic undecidability of Shakespeare’s authorship in 'Macbeth'. By informing each other, references to Baroque art and contemporary theory shed a new light on the play. Thus, Velázquez’s painting, Las Meninas, illustrates Michel Foucault’s suggestion that “visibility is a trap.” In turn, this cross-fertilisation helps us conceptualise the regime of authorial paranoia that characterises 'Macbeth' and introduces the possibility that Shakespeare maintained his freedom of expression by remaining invisible. Because the reasons for such a vanishing act and the dramatic strategies used by the playwright to achieve it remain unclear, the article sets out to investigate these issues.

The Fourth Estate in the USA and UK: Discourses of truth and power

by Jesse Hearns-Branaman

unpublished PhD thesis

This thesis examines the ways in which political journalists in the USA and UK talk about issues of truth and power as... more This thesis examines the ways in which political journalists in the USA and UK talk about issues of truth and power as it relates to journalism’s role as the Fourth Estate. The theoretical basis comes from a critique of the two major structures underpinning the Fourth Estate, that of epistemology (the study of truth) and ideology (broadly, the study of power and ideas). This involves unpacking and critically examining the ability of news media to convey ‘true’ information and the ideological formations in which the news media production practice is situated. The epistemological theories of Realism, Pragmatism, Antirealism and Hyperrealism will first be elucidated in an in-depth theoretical discussion, focusing on the contributions of Baudrillard. Four major theories of ideology, that of personal ideological bias, chaos, control, and ideology as fetishistic disavowal will be examined, this time focusing on the work of Žižek.
This theoretical discussion is complimented by an analysis of interview questions relating to epistemological concerns and to ideology. The empirical data consists of twenty interviews conducted with political correspondents in the USA and UK. A version of critical discourse analysis is used to examine the ways in which journalists talk about the issues raised by the questions, what is termed their ‘discursive strategies.’ The categories for analysis are grounded in the discursive strategies used by the journalists themselves, examined to elaborate not simply the explicit content, but the deeper implicit meanings inherent in the way they answer.
This provided both an original theoretical discussion and an original set of empirically-derived data. It also allows us to further understand the role of journalism as the Fourth Estate, the types of ‘truth’ it brings to us, the types of ideologies that underpin the news production process via news media professionals, and how the system is maintained despite its inherent contradictions.

El problema de la interpelación ideológica: la réplica de la escuela eslovena

by Luis Felip

Felip López-Espinosa, Luis (2012) "El problema de la interpelación ideológica: la réplica de la escuela eslovena," Décalages: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 3

Psychoanalysis and the Post-Political: An Interview with Slavoj Žižek

by Christopher Hanlon

"Advice to the Humanities scholar: Do some math!"

by William J. Urban

presentation delivered April 8, 2011

"Taylor’s ‘Sexuated’ Subjects"

by William J. Urban

class paper written December 18, 2009

"Who Needs Yalom When We Have Žižek?"

by William J. Urban

paper published in the International Journal of Zizek Studies, v.2, n.2 (2008)

"Commentary on Henry E. Allison’s 'Autonomy and Spontaneity in Kant’s Conception of the Self'"

by William J. Urban

class paper written February 24, 2010

"Žižek on Multiculturalism: Or why liberals love a good Tea Party"

by William J. Urban

class paper written April 30, 2010

"Freedom qua Spontaneity: The Lacanian Subject in the Critique of Pure Reason"

by William J. Urban

Major Research Paper written May 31, 2010

"The Subject of Freedom in Kant’s Practical Philosophy"

by William J. Urban

class paper written May 31, 2010