How Slavoj Became Žižek

How Slavoj Became Žižek
Title How Slavoj Became Žižek PDF eBook
Author Eliran Bar-El
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Pages 250
Release 2023-01-12
Genre Social Science
ISBN 0226823512

Download How Slavoj Became Žižek Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

An engrossing account of the meteoric rise of contemporary philosophy’s most contentious and prolific intellectual. ​ Slovenian philosopher bad boy Slavoj Žižek is one of the most famous intellectuals of our time, publishing at a breakneck speed and lecturing around the world. With his unmistakable speaking style and set of mannerisms that have made him ripe material for internet humor and meme culture, he is recognizable to a wide spectrum of fans and detractors. But how did an intellectual from a remote Eastern European country come to such popular notoriety? In How Slavoj Became Žižek, sociologist Eliran Bar-El plumbs the emergence, popularization, and development of this phenomenon called “Žižek.” Beginning with Žižek’s early years as a thinker and political figure in Slovenian civil society, Bar-El traces Žižek’s rise from Marxist philosopher to a political candidate to eventual intellectual celebrity as Žižek perfects his unique performative style and a rhetorical arsenal of “Hegelacanese.” Following 9/11, Žižek’s career as a global op-ed writer and TV commentator married his rhetoric with global events such as the War on Terror, the financial crisis of 2008, and the Arab Spring of 2011. Yet, at the same time, this mainstream popularity, as well as a series of politically incorrect views, almost entirely estranged the Slovenian from the normal workings of academia. Ultimately, this account shows how Žižek harnessed the power of the digital era in his own self-fashioning as a public intellectual.

How Slavoj Became Zizek

How Slavoj Became Zizek
Title How Slavoj Became Zizek PDF eBook
Author Eliran Bar-El
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Pages 0
Release 2025-05-12
Genre Social Science
ISBN 022684028X

Download How Slavoj Became Zizek Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

An engrossing account of the meteoric rise of contemporary philosophy’s most contentious and prolific intellectual. This revised edition corrects several erroneous and insufficient references in the first edition of this book. Slovenian philosopher bad boy Slavoj Žižek is one of the most famous intellectuals of our time, publishing at a breakneck speed and lecturing around the world. With his unmistakable speaking style and set of mannerisms that have made him ripe material for internet humor and meme culture, he is recognizable to a wide spectrum of fans and detractors. But how did an intellectual from a small Eastern European country come to such popular notoriety? In How Slavoj Became Žižek, sociologist Eliran Bar-El plumbs the emergence, popularization, and development of the phenomenon called “Žižek.” Beginning with Žižek’s early years as a thinker and political figure in Slovenian civil society, Bar-El traces Žižek’s rise from Marxist philosopher to political candidate to eventual intellectual celebrity, as Žižek perfected his unique performative style and a rhetorical arsenal of “Hegelacanese.” Following 9/11, Žižek’s career as a global op-ed writer and TV commentator married his rhetoric with global events such as the war on terror, the financial crisis of 2008, and the Arab Spring of 2011. Yet, at the same time, this mainstream popularity, as well as a series of politically incorrect views, almost entirely estranged the Slovenian from the normal workings of academia. Ultimately, this account shows how Žižek has harnessed the power of the digital era in his own self-fashioning as a public intellectual.

Philosophy in the Present

Philosophy in the Present
Title Philosophy in the Present PDF eBook
Author Alain Badiou
Publisher Polity
Pages 117
Release 2009-12-14
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 0745640974

Download Philosophy in the Present Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Two controversial thinkers discuss a timeless but nonetheless urgent question: should philosophy interfere in the world? Nothing less than philosophy is at stake because, according to Badiou, philosophy is nothing but interference and commitment and will not be restrained by academic discipline. Philosophy is strange and new, and yet speaks in the name of all - as Badiou shows with his theory of universality. Similarly, Zizek believes that the philosopher must intervene, contrary to all expectations, in the key issues of the time. He can offer no direction, but this only shows that the question has been posed incorrectly: it is valid to change the terms of the debate and settle on philosophy as abnormality and excess. At once an invitation to philosophy and an introduction to the thinking of two of the most topical and controversial philosophers writing today, this concise volume will be of great interest to students and general readers alike.

Absolute Recoil

Absolute Recoil
Title Absolute Recoil PDF eBook
Author Slavoj Zizek
Publisher Verso Books
Pages 449
Release 2014-10-07
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 1781686823

Download Absolute Recoil Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

A contemporary philosophical masterwork from “one of the world’s best-known public intellectuals ” (New York Review of Books) Philosophical materialism in all its forms – from scientific naturalism to Deleuzian New Materialism – has failed to meet the key theoretical and political challenges of the modern world. This is the burden of philosopher Slavoj Žižek’s argument in this pathbreaking and eclectic new work. Recent history has seen developments such as quantum physics and Freudian psychoanalysis, not to speak of the failure of twentieth-century communism, shake our understanding of existence. In the process, the dominant tradition in Western philosophy lost its moorings. To bring materialism up to date, Žižek – himself a committed materialist and communist – proposes a radical revision of our intellectual heritage. He argues that dialectical materialism is the only true philosophical inheritor of what Hegel designated the “speculative” approach in thought. Absolute Recoil is a startling reformulation of the basis and possibilities of contemporary philosophy. While focusing on how to overcome the transcendental approach without regressing to naïve, pre-Kantian realism, Žižek offers a series of excursions into today’s political, artistic, and ideological landscape, from Arnold Schoenberg’s music to the films of Ernst Lubitsch.

The Year of Dreaming Dangerously

The Year of Dreaming Dangerously
Title The Year of Dreaming Dangerously PDF eBook
Author Slavoj Zizek
Publisher Verso Books
Pages 143
Release 2012-10-09
Genre History
ISBN 1781680434

Download The Year of Dreaming Dangerously Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Call it the year of dreaming dangerously: 2011 caught the world off guard with a series of shattering events. While protesters in New York, Cairo, London, and Athens took to the streets in pursuit of emancipation, obscure destructive fantasies inspired the world’s racist populists in places as far apart as Hungary and Arizona, achieving a horrific consummation in the actions of mass murderer Anders Breivik. The subterranean work of dissatisfaction continues. Rage is building, and a new wave of revolts and disturbances will follow. Why? Because the events of 2011 augur a new political reality. These are limited, distorted—sometimes even perverted—fragments of a utopian future lying dormant in the present

Pandemic!

Pandemic!
Title Pandemic! PDF eBook
Author Slavoj Žižek
Publisher John Wiley & Sons
Pages 142
Release 2020-05-20
Genre Social Science
ISBN 150954612X

Download Pandemic! Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

As an unprecedented global pandemic sweeps the planet, who better than the supercharged Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek to uncover its deeper meanings, marvel at its mind-boggling paradoxes and speculate on the profundity of its consequences? We live in a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection. When governments renowned for ruthless cuts in public spending can suddenly conjure up trillions. When toilet paper becomes a commodity as precious as diamonds. And when, according to Žižek, a new form of communism – the outlines of which can already be seen in the very heartlands of neoliberalism – may be the only way of averting a descent into global barbarism. Written with his customary brio and love of analogies in popular culture (Quentin Tarantino and H. G. Wells sit next to Hegel and Marx), Žižek provides a concise and provocative snapshot of the crisis as it widens, engulfing us all.

On Belief

On Belief
Title On Belief PDF eBook
Author Slavoj Zizek
Publisher Routledge
Pages 177
Release 2003-09-02
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 113452272X

Download On Belief Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

What is the basis of belief in an era when globalization, multiculturalism and big business are the new religion? Slavoj Zizek, renowned philosopher and irrepressible cultural critic takes on all comers in this compelling and breathless new book. From 'cyberspace reason' to the paradox that is 'Western Buddhism', On Belief gets behind the contours of the way we normally think about belief, in particular Judaism and Christianity. Holding up the so-called authenticity of religious belief to critical light, Zizek draws on psychoanalysis, film and philosophy to reveal in startling fashion that nothing could be worse for believers than their beliefs turning out to be true.