Sunday, January 30, 2005
(7:03 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Žižek continued
Jodi Dean continues her discussion of Žižek (here are two other parts). She describes her goal as follows:That's it for now. My goal in these two short pieces has been to try to systematize some of Žižek's thinking on the Party, to demonstrate that there is a consistent line of argumentation throughout his work. And, I'm doing this because there is a sense among some philosophers and political theorists that Žižek isn't serious, that he is an extreme pseudo-theorist. I disagree and so want to trace out the underlying system in a way that might be convincing to his critics. In addition to systematizing some of his other concepts (I have articles on his notions of law and democracy), I will also be working out potential repercussions or extensions of his ideas. That is, I want to argue to political theorists that Žižek is useful in thinking about the present.Certainly it's been a few years since Žižek has produced anything of the quality of For they know now what they do, Tarrying with the Negative, or The Ticklish Subject -- and certainly one could argue that it's a damn shame that his status as academic superstar (and his apparent addiction thereto) did not correspond with the period of his best work, such that some critics who have only read one of his later books have decided that he can safely be dismissed (admittedly with some justification, depending on the book in question).
