Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:25:49.583Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Žižek

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2013

Julian Young
Affiliation:
Wake Forest University, North Carolina
Get access

Summary

Slavoj Žižek (1949–) is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. Although he is a provocative rather than systematic philosopher, it is nonetheless possible, I believe, to discern a relatively systematic account of tragedy running through his scattered observations. These, it seems to me, concern two familiar matters: the question of what tragedy is and the possibility of tragedy in the modern (or postmodern) world. Žižek’s discussions are almost entirely focused on Antigone, which, while betraying his engagement with Hegel, actually ties him even more strongly to the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901–81).

WHAT IS TRAGEDY?

Lacan’s discussion of tragedy – of, that is, Antigone – provides a useful point of entry into Žižek’s discussion. In his Ethics of Psychoanalysis, Lacan is at pains to distinguish himself from Hegel: contrary to a ‘thoroughly irresponsible’ suggestion that has achieved currency, he is not, he insists, a Hegelian, particularly not with respect to tragedy and above all not with respect to Antigone, where Hegel, he claims, is ‘at his weakest’. Where, he asks rhetorically, is any ‘reconciliation’ to be found in Antigone? (For an answer see pp. 121–3 above.)

Type
Chapter
Information
The Philosophy of Tragedy
From Plato to Žižek
, pp. 254 - 262
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Žižek
  • Julian Young, Wake Forest University, North Carolina
  • Book: The Philosophy of Tragedy
  • Online publication: 05 June 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139177238.016
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Žižek
  • Julian Young, Wake Forest University, North Carolina
  • Book: The Philosophy of Tragedy
  • Online publication: 05 June 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139177238.016
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Žižek
  • Julian Young, Wake Forest University, North Carolina
  • Book: The Philosophy of Tragedy
  • Online publication: 05 June 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139177238.016
Available formats
×