Interrogating the Real

by Slavoj Žižek, Rex Butler (Editor), Scott Stephens (Editor)

Interrogating the Real is the first volume of the collected writings of Slavoj Žižek--undoubtedly one of the world's leading contemporary cultural commentators. Drawing upon the full range of his prolific output, the articles here cover psychoanalysis, philosophy, and popular culture. These essays not only reflect the remarkable breadth and depth of Žižek's interest in politics, culture, and philosophy, but also showcase his sometimes controversial, but always entertaining style. Over the course of the collection, a full and clear sense of Ž iž ekian philosophy emerges. At the same time, Žižek's witty and accessible approach to his subject matter remains constant throughout, and his choice of exemplars from pop culture ensures that this is a consistently fresh and surprising body of work. Thematically organized, the book includes a new preface by Ž iž ek himself, as well as an introduction by the editors and a helpful glossary. This collection, along with the second volume--The Universal Exception--is an excellent introduction to the work of one of the most inspiring, provocative, and entertaining cultural critics at work today.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychoanalysis, Theory, 21st Century, Essays, Psychology

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovene sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic.

He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia). He received a Doctor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and studied psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII with Jacques-Alain Miller and François Regnault. In 1990 he was a candidate with the party Liberal Democracy of Slovenia for Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia (an auxiliary institution, abolished in 1992).

Since 2005, Žižek has been a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Žižek is well known for his use of the works of 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in a new reading of popular culture. He writes on many topics including the Iraq War, fundamentalism, capitalism, tolerance, political correctness, globalization, subjectivity, human rights, Lenin, myth, cyberspace, postmodernism, multiculturalism, post-marxism, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País he jokingly described himself as an "orthodox Lacanian Stalinist". In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he described himself as a "Marxist" and a "Communist."

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

So to pursue a rather tasteless metaphor, Hegel was not a sublimated shit-eater, as the usual description of the dialectical process would have us believe.

This sprawling collection of essays is really predicated on a sophisticated facility with both Hegel and Lacan. I am afraid I don't meet that standard

There are pieces on Derrida and on opera, particularly Wagner, and those were rather enjoyable. The others were a summer long slog. The political aspects covered were exclusively abstract. The embrace/disdain of Derrida's eternally deferred democracy is intriguing, I wish there were opportunities to posit this discussion further.

[Vik · Rating 4 out of 5]

People say that Immanuel Kant's philosophy is most complicated. To me, it is- in some sense- true but I think to give Kant a reputation of "most complicated", one needs to be unaware of Slavoj Žižek.

Žižek's rare and dangerous combination of Hegelian philosophy and Lacanian psychoanalysis, which is near-impossible to comprehend. Sometimes he is truly stupid and sometimes brilliantly amazing.

My own personal judgement is that anyone, who claims he or she understands Žižek in totality, is full of shit and lying :p

[Dhandayutha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second book of zizek.I got an overview of many of his ideas.I cannot say i deeply understand zizek.One important reason to read him is zizek help me to comprehend the ideas of important philosophers.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an anthology of essays from the eighties to the near-present. It can be described as "intellectual drug literature." I think I'm starting to understand the "Hegelean dialectical shift." Lacan's "object petit a" still eludes me. Why I feel compelled to read about such things is another mystery.

[Max]

A surprise find in Hong Kong. The intro by the editors to this compilation of the world's funniest cultural critic is downright terrible. I'm still not sure who this Lacan person was, or what the deal is with this 'real' thing that he says does not exist and is thus terribly important, but god damn if I ever read funnier jokes about Stalin.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

for those unfamiliar with Slavoj Zizek, this is as good a book as any to serve as an introduction to his thinking. it is something of a compilation of articles that have by and large been published elsewhere, but the collection does a good job of bringing together a number of shorter pieces that are mostly designed to explicate a single key concept, or engage a single question. thus, this book does a better job than some of his others at explaining the key concepts that Zizek borrows from Lacan, the German idealists, and a few others. the essays in this book are a bit more focussed than Zizek can be in some of his other books, making this a useful reference point for beginners approaching Zizek's thought.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it embarrasses me to admit this, I don't have the broader knowledge of the philosophy references in this book and so wasn't able to contextualize much of what I read. It was a pleasure from page to page, but this aspect can fool you into forgetting that this is an advanced book on its topics. I look forward to getting deeper with this author and thinker.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through the collection of essays do repeat themselves, i.e. in examples, this and its counterpoint, The Universal Exception, are nice introductions to the works of Zizek.

[Mischke]

Reading this anthology, rereading, stewing over the glossary, all in the hopes of getting a deeper understanding of this abstruse, yet, invigorating thinker.

[Paulo Sunao Shintate Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma fantástica coletânea de ensaios de Zizek :-)

Soubera eu do glossário ao final, tê-lo-ia lido umas cinco vezes para entender "significante-mestre", "universalidade concreta", "saber absoluto", "pulsão", ...

Profundos textos que abordam desde a sexualidade até a condenação não pelo que não fez, mas pelas circunstâncias ...

Para ler e reler e refletir :-)

[Isabella Souto Maior]

Que desafio ler esse livro. Talvez tenha assimilado o que, 30% da obra? Não entendo o suficiente de Lacan e Zizek deixou isso ~ bem ~ claro pra mim. Mas gostei muito. Com certeza pretendo reler futuramente, quando tiver mais repertório.

[Saachi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this for a paper and now consider it read—

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed

[Alex Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of Zizek's books that are less well known are kind of transistional periods for him. He writes books the way I write on tumblr, to digest information and to posture so as to try it out. If the pose doesn't work, he discards it later on to try something else.

With this tight but small book, it becomes apparent that Zizek is after the non-changing invariance that is found in all thought, reason and experience. Through the figures of his most favorite philosophers, Zizek does two things. To show us the applicability of these concepts. And to explicate these ideas. The explication part is easy, because it's right in our face 24/7. The applicability is more difficult. What are we to do with the organization these ideas create for us? Perhaps this is unanswerable, as Zizek himself doesn't seem to know what to do with his own ideas. So many of these articles are poses, self-wrapping thoughts that reiterate themselves. Sometimes self titled like "beyond discourse analysis" or "hair of the dog that bit you" we get his explication of that theme through a particular theoretical angle. In his most theoretical however, we see the bare parts of the theory eventually spread out, that this maximal difference within this concept is signified, and so these two positions remain, unsynthesizable.

Later on, I believe, Zizek will realize that the Real of Lacan is breakable into two parts, the first being the Real that is unswallowable by the symbolic (so as to be expressed through pathological difference that is the characteristic of a symbolic that is always applied). The second being the pure code that is pure symbolic self-reference but lacking any way for anyone from the outside to gain access to its inner sanctum of difference. In a very real sense, this book, as I suppose all if not most of Zizek's books, goes ahead to indulge in their philosophical rhetoric as a literal application of the first (because what else would you apply, but this philosophy?) to lead us into the heart of the second, where we have Lacanian mathemes that are left in their solemn ratios without alteration.

We are introduced to a concept, and then left holding it without any direction as to how to use it, what to do with it. Zizek is leaving us his reading glasses.

Perhaps that is the fun of Zizek. That he leads us on these journeys that act like light comedies, taking us to various different areas the way Family Guy or South Park might. Defamiliarizing familiar cultural references enough to reconfigure them in an amusing and strangely upside down deployment that shows us how their logic works backwards to resemble what they always were: purely logical organizations that take in nonsense to create nonsense. In the end these (re)organizations changing nothing about our world yet giving us insight into the way arguments by extension continually intrude in our lifeworld. This parrots the the way market brands, as material orderings, will some day arise to only quietly disappear into the void of capitalist intention, the way we visit one philosophy to briefly see who we are through them.

I would say this is an above average book of Zizek's. It could work as an introduction as well, if you are interested.

[Nevine · Rating 4 out of 5]

the thing about zizek is that although his use of pop culture figures makes u feel that he is plausible yet he borrows alot of ideas from lacan, the german philosophy and others assuming u already know them this is when u hit the wall of ur own ignorance thus u get to dig deeper with the ideas and notions presented to get hold of it and end up learning more then only zizek's as he opens up a wider range of ideas to pursue ... he is witty he is funny .. a pleasure to read and even more pleasure to watch, his videos are all over and can serve as a nice introduction to his ideas.

[Jed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this was good, but it's clear the book was a collection of essays rather than a coherent work which was planned in advance. The content gets pretty repetitive, especially late in the book with the identical anecdotes and same points made. There were a couple of cases where entire paragraphs appeared twice. This is more a critique of the editing than the text itself.

It's not a bad place to start with Zizek's though. It helps to have a familiarity with Freud, Lacan, and German Idealism. Once you have the complaints about a lack of clarity evaporate quickly.

[Alex Zakharov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baudrillard is a beacon of clarity compared to this guy... but still a fun read. Incessant references to current culture provide the reader with a minimal illusion that you are actually following whatever point Zizek is trying to obfuscate.

If you are interested in Zizek I would probably start off with one of his documentaries instead. I really liked this one for example http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419142/

[mahatmanto]

ini dibeli karena komporan temen dari kosovo: sarah maliqi.
belum sempet dibaca udah dikomentarin macem-macem oleh undi, orang yang selalu mendahului saya dalam membaca!

[Keane · Rating 4 out of 5]

zizek-y

[David Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book, but don't expect Zizek to stick to the point.

[Melissa Engberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many philosophers does it take for Žižek to write a book? ALL OF THEM. Žižek's idea's are bold (when they are coherent), but I've never been overly impressed by him. Sorry, fanboys.

[Amy]

Can't bring myself to get started for some reason. Probably all the psychoanalysis.