Tarrying with the Negative by Slavoj Zizek

Tarrying with the Negative by Slavoj Zizek

In the space of barely more than five years, with the publication of four pathbreaking books, Slavoj Žižek has earned the reputation of being one of the most arresting, insightful, and scandalous thinkers in recent memory. Perhaps more than any other single author, his writings have constituted the most compelling evidence available for recognizing Jacques Lacan as the preemient philosopher of our time. In Tarrying with the Negative, Žižek challenges the contemporary critique of ideology, and in doing so opens the way for a new understanding of social conflict, particularly the recent outbursts of nationalism and ethnic struggle. Are we, Žižek asks, confined to a postmodern universe in which truth is reduced to the contingent effect of various discursive practices and where our subjectivity is dispersed through a multitude of ideological positions? No is his answer, and the way out is a return to philosophy. This revisit to German Idealism allows Žižek to recast the critique of ideology as a tool for disclosing the dynamic of our society, a crucial aspect of which is the debate over nationalism, particularly as it has developed in the Balkans—Žižek's home. He brings the debate over nationalism into the sphere of contemporary cultural politics, breaking the impasse centered on nationalisms simultaneously fascistic and anticolonial aspirations. Provocatively, Žižek argues that what drives nationalistic and ethnic antagonism is a collectively driven refusal of our own enjoyment. Using examples from popular culture and high theory to illuminate each other—opera, film noir, capitalist universalism, religious and ethnic fundamentalism—this work testifies to the fact that, far more radically than the postmodern sophists, Kant and Hegel are our contemporaries.

"This new Zizek is as stunning as its predecessors, and breaks new philosophical groundNot only to Kant and Hegel illuminate Lacan (and vice versa), mass culture and politics illuminate all of them, along with a bonus in an astonishing excursus on opera."—Fredric Jameson
“Slavoj Žižek, the Giant of Ljubljana, . . . provides the best intellectual high since Anti-Oedipus.” -- Scott Malcolmson * Voice Literary Supplement *

Slavoj Žižek is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is the author of numerous books, including The Sublime Object of Ideology and Enjoy Your Symptom!.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780822313953
ISBN 10	0822313952
Title	Tarrying with the Negative
Author	Slavoj Zizek
Series	Post Contemporary Interventions
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Duke University Press
Year published	1993-10-19
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable