
The Sublime Object of Ideology
Slavoj Zizek(Author)
Verso Books (Publisher)
Published on 17. November 1989
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-86091-971-1 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
In this provocative and original work, Slavoj Zizek 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.
Zizek 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.
Zizek 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.
Reviews / Votes
a brilliant book ... . If Zizek is out of touch with contemporary philosophy, I am the bishop of Ulan Bator ... . Pedagogic clarity and a gift for entertainment are two of the many excellences. * Radical Philosophy * Slavoj Zizek, the Giant of Ljubljana, ... provides the best intellectual high since Anti-Oedipus * Voice Literary Supplement *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
297 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-86091-971-1 (9780860919711)
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Schweitzer Classification
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New editions

Slavoj Zizek
The Sublime Object of Ideology
Book
01/2009
2nd Edition
Verso Books
€20.00
Available immediately
Person
Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, and a sen-ior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include Living in the End Times, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, Less Than Nothing, six volumes of the Essential Zizek, and many more.