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Taking seriously Jacques Lacan's claim that 'the unconscious is
politics', this volume proposes a new understanding of political
power, interrogating the assumption that contemporary capitalism
functions by tapping into forms of unconscious enjoyment, rather
than providing transcendental conditions for the articulation of
political meanings and desires. Whether we're aware of it or not,
political communication today targets the audience's libidinal
response through political and institutional language: in policies,
speeches, tweets, social media appearances, gestures and images.
Yet does this mean that current power structures no longer need
symbolic or ideological frameworks? The authors in this volume
think not. Far from demonstrating a shift to a post-ideological
age, they argue instead that such methods inaugurate an altogether
novel approach to political power. Written by leading scholars from
around the world, including Roberto Esposito and Slavoj Zizek, each
chapter reflects on contemporary power and inspires consideration
of new political potentialities, which our focus on politics in
transcendental rather than immanent terms has thus far obscured. In
so doing, Capitalism and the New Political Unconscious provides an
original and forceful exploration of the centrality of both
psychoanalytic theory and the philosophy of immanence to an
alternative understanding of the political.
States of Crisis and Post-Capitalist Scenarios engages with the
crisis of our capitalist world, with a view to explaining its
origins, unravelling its symptoms, and demystifying the anodyne
corrective solutions so far proposed. At the same time, it endorses
the necessity for utopian interventions aimed at drastically
rethinking our social order. Organised around the themes of economy
and politics; critical theory; and culture in order to offer an
impressive range of thematic perspectives and critical angles, the
book delves into the most pressing of today's quandaries by
combining stringent critical analysis with creative foresight. A
rigorous examination of the current crisis of late-capitalist
society, States of Crisis and Post-Capitalist Scenarios develops
paradigms that promise to rekindle the desire to move beyond
capitalism towards a different social order. As such, it will
appeal to scholars and students across the humanities and social
sciences with particular interests in social and political theory,
contemporary philosophy and the crises faced by the current
capitalist order.
Between Urban Topographies and Political Spaces: Threshold
Experiences uses the term "threshold" as a means to understand the
relationship between Self and Other, as well as relationships
between different cultures. The concept of "threshold" defines the
relationship between inside and outside not in oppositional terms,
but as complementaries. This book discusses the cultural and social
"border areas" of modernity, which are to be understood not as
"zones" in a territorial sense, but as "spaces in between" in which
different languages and cultures operate. The essays in Between
Urban Topographies and Political Spaces identify the dimension in
urban topographies and political spaces where we are able to locate
paradigmatic experiences of thresholds. Because these spaces are
characterized by contradictions, conflicts, and aporias, we propose
to rethink those hermeneutic categories that imply a sharp
opposition between inside and outside. This means that the
theoretical definition of threshold put forward in these
essays-whether applied to history, philosophy, law, art, or
cultural studies-embodies new juridical and political stances.
Critical Theory and Film brings together critical theory and film
to enhance the critical potential of both. The book focuses on the
Frankfurt School, most notably the works of Adorno and Horkheimer,
as well as associated thinkers.It seeks to demonstrate that cinema
can help critical theory repoliticize culture and society and
affirm the theoretical and political impact of cinematic knowledge.
After discussing how the Frankfurt School saw cinema as an
instrument of capitalism use to promote the cultural and political
regimentation of the masses, Vighi then proceeds to demonstrate
that critical theory can in fact suggest a different verdict on the
progressive potential of cinema. Each chapter focuses on a key
critical theory concept that is explained and redefined through
film analysis to unravel the hidden presuppositions and most
radical consequences of critical theory. A unique contribution to
the literature, this volume in the Critical Theory and Contemporary
Society series offer an innovative reading of film as a critical
tool, drawing on the latest developments in Lacanian theory.
On Zizek's Dialectics explores the theoretical and practical
potential of the psychoanalytic method deployed by Slavoj Zizek by
investigating its epistemological implications within our
contemporary capitalist universe. The book begins by evaluating
Zizek's account of the capitalist ideology of enjoyment through the
analysis of Lacan's critique of Marx's surplus-value. If the
originality of Zizek's wager lies in the claim that enjoyment
secretly sustains our ideological space, can we think of
surplus-jouissance in a way that not only unmasks the ruse of
capitalism but also adumbrates the construction of an alternative
social space? The answer to this question is developed in the
second part of the book. Arguing that the transformative potential
of Zizek's epistemology needs to be fully unravelled if it is to
avoid the risk of congealing into mere academic exercise, Fabio
Vighi attempts to politicise Zizek's groundbreaking critical method
by calling upon the necessity to translate its emphasis on the
indigestible surplus of knowledge into the drive to think the new.
Under the current conditions, this creative moment can no longer be
delayed.
States of Crisis and Post-Capitalist Scenarios engages with the
crisis of our capitalist world, with a view to explaining its
origins, unravelling its symptoms, and demystifying the anodyne
corrective solutions so far proposed. At the same time, it endorses
the necessity for utopian interventions aimed at drastically
rethinking our social order. Organised around the themes of economy
and politics, critical theory, and culture in order to offer an
impressive range of thematic perspectives and critical angles, the
book delves into the most pressing of today's quandaries by
combining stringent critical analysis with creative foresight. A
rigorous examination of the current crisis of late-capitalist
society, States of Crisis and Post-Capitalist Scenarios develops
paradigms that promise to rekindle the desire to move beyond
capitalism towards a different social order. As such, it will
appeal to scholars and students across the humanities and social
sciences with particular interests in social and political theory,
contemporary philosophy and the crises faced by the current
capitalist order.
This volume reassesses the nature of the current global economic
crisis and its implication for the 21st century, through the unique
lens of Marx's theory of the value-form as the unconscious matrix
of modern society. Going beyond orthodox Marxist and postmodernist
accounts, the author offers fresh new readings of Marx, Benjamin,
Foucault, and Zizek. Here he argues that capitalism has not only
entered its greatest crisis since WWII, but has in fact reached its
historical limit and is in terminal decline. In this light, the
book seeks to answer how a rerun of Keynesian regulations could
possibly resolve the crisis. It also inquires as to whether a Green
New Deal might succeed when the gap between work to be had and work
to be done widens, and what alternatives neo-Marxian approaches
offer considering the failure of Marxism in the 20th century. This
far-reaching, critical examination of the crisis not only builds on
critical theory, but also offers new readings of key theorists that
will appeal to anyone interested in political theory, critical
theory, and political economy.
'Traumatic Encounters' addresses the question of the relationship
between psychoanalysis and film in a thoroughly original way,
bringing together Lacanian theory and Italian cinema as a means to
unravel the deepest kernel of repressed knowledge around which film
narratives are constructed. The primary theoretical reference of
the book is the Real, the most under-represented of the three
Lacanian categories (Symbolic, Imaginary and Real), which
designates the traumatic dimension of reality that cannot be
integrated in the order of language and communication. Exploring
the relationship between film and its unconscious underside, the
author argues that only by locating the elusive "traces of the
cinematic Real" can a given film narrative be reconstructed in its
entirety. Like the Lacanian subject, film here appears as
fundamentally split between a traumatic dimension beyond
signification (the Real), and awareness of its fragile symbolic
status.
Always stylistically innovative, thematically defiant and driven by
a strong political agenda, Italian cinema lends itself particularly
well to a critical investigation aimed at radicalising the impact
of psychoanalysis on film. In doing exactly that, the book
deliberately avoids the standard cultural and historical approaches
to film. Instead, it moves freely amongst some of the most widely
celebrated - as well as lesser-known - Italian films of the
post-war period, discussing the ways in which they tackle such
themes as desire, fantasy, sexuality, violence and the law, to
mention but a few. The main focus is on the work of those directors
who most effectively engage with the divisive nature of the moving
image: Antonioni, Pasolini and Rossellini. In addition, the book
provides ample and insightful references to films by Visconti,
Bertolucci, Bellocchio, Moretti, Petri, Fellini, Ferreri, and many
more.
Critical Theory and Film brings together critical theory and film
to enhance the critical potential of both. The book focuses on the
Frankfurt School, most notably the works of Adorno and Horkheimer,
as well as associated thinkers. It seeks to demonstrate that cinema
can help critical theory repoliticize culture and society and
affirm the theoretical and political impact of cinematic knowledge.
After discussing how the Frankfurt School saw cinema as an
instrument of capitalism use to promote the cultural and political
regimentation of the masses, Vighi then proceeds to demonstrate
that critical theory can in fact suggest a different verdict on the
progressive potential of cinema. Each chapter focuses on a key
critical theory concept that is explained and redefined through
film analysis to unravel the hidden presuppositions and most
radical consequences of critical theory. A unique contribution to
the literature, this volume in the Critical Theory and Contemporary
Society series offer an innovative reading of film as a critical
tool, drawing on the latest developments in Lacanian theory.
"On Zižek's Dialectics" explores the theoretical and practical
potential of the psychoanalytic method deployed by Slavoj Zižek by
investigating its epistemological implications within our
contemporary capitalist universe. The book begins by evaluating
Zizek's account of the capitalist ideology of enjoyment through the
analysis of Lacan's critique of Marx's surplus-value. If the
originality of Zižek's wager lies in the claim that enjoyment
secretly sustains our ideological space, can we think of
surplus-"jouissance" in a way that not only unmasks the ruse of
capitalism but also adumbrates the construction of an alternative
social space?
The answer to this question is developed in the second part of the
book. Arguing that the transformative potential of Zizek's
epistemology needs to be fully unravelled if it is to avoid the
risk of congealing into mere academic exercise, Fabio Vighi
attempts to politicise Zižek's groundbreaking critical method by
calling upon the necessity to translate its emphasis on the
"indigestible" surplus of knowledge into the drive to think the
new. Under the current conditions, this creative moment can no
longer be delayed.
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