Zizek and the Media: (Theory and Media)

Slavoj Zizek reaches the parts of the media that other theorists cannot. With sources ranging from Thomas Aquinas to Quentin Tarantino and Desperate Housewives to Dostoyevsky, Zizek mixes high theory with low culture more engagingly than any other thinker alive today. His prolific output includes such media friendly content as a TV series (The Pervert's Guide to Cinema) a documentary movie (Zizek!) and a wealth of YouTube clips. A celebrity academic, he walks the media talk. Zizek and the Media provides a systematic and approachable introduction to the main concepts and themes of Zizek's work, and their particular implications for the study of the media. The book: Describes the radical nature of Zizek's media politics Uses Zizekian insights to expose the profound intellectual limitations of conventional approaches to the media Explores the psychoanalytical and philosophical roots of Zizek's work Provides the reader with Zizekian tools to uncover the hidden ideologies of everyday media content; Explains the ultimate seriousness that underlies his numerous jokes. As likely to discuss Homer's Springfield as Ithaca, Zizek is shown to be the ideal guide for today's mediascape.

Table of Contents:
Preface: The Dog’s Bollocks . . . at the Media Dinner Party viii Acknowledgements xiii Introduction: ‘The Marx Brother’, ‘The Elvis of Cultural Theory’, and Other Media Cliches 1 1 The Mediated Imp of the Perverse 6 2 ?i?ek’s Tickling Shtick 34 3 Big (Br)Other: Psychoanalysing the Media 63 4 Understanding Media: The Sublime Objectification of Ideology 91 5 The Media’s Violence 120 6 The Joker’s Little Shop of Ideological Horrors 149 Conclusion: Don’t Just Do It: Negative Dialectics in the Age of Nike 176 Notes 183 Bibliography 189 Index 202

About the Author :
Paul A. Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Communications Theory at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds

Review :
"An eloquent and compelling insight into the worldview of ?i?ek and his contribution to the fields of medi and cultural analysis … It is nothing less than a myth-busting exposition of how, in the age of media saturation, we are directed to live and perceive." Media, Culture & Society "Ask not for whom theory waits, motionless - it waits for all of us in Paul Taylor's excellent Zizek and the Media." Media Education Research Journal "Taylor does a superb job of showing how electrifying and profound the media current that flows through Zizek's work really is." Joan Copjec, University at Buffalo "Paul Taylor's Zizek and the Media provides a thorough introduction to the paradoxes and subtleties of Slavoj Zizek's thought, and at the same time it articulates a compelling theory of how the contemporary media functions in unforeseen ways. Taylor's originality derives from his vigilant attention to forms. He is the first to explain fully how the idiosyncratic form in which Zizek presents his philosophy emerges out of its content. And in the process, he grasps what makes Zizek's such a penetrating critique of our media universe. Taylor's book goes beyond being a book about Zizek and becomes one that enacts Zizek's mode of thinking on its readers." Todd McGowan, University of Vermont "All jokes aside, this is a seriously serious book. Zizek is one of the most media-savvy of all contemporary philosophers, and medium in the form of the concrete universal is one of his most important concepts. Paul Taylor does a terrific job putting together these two sides of Zizek to produce a provocative parallax view." Rex Butler, University of Queensland