On Zizek's Dialectics: Surplus, Subtraction, Sublimation(Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy)

On Žižek's Dialectics explores the theoretical and practical potential of the psychoanalytic method deployed by Slavoj Žižek 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 Žižek'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 Žižek'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.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: The enjoyment of capitalism: surplus-jouissance and work 1. The will to enjoyment 2. Jouissance at arm's length 3. From surplus-value to surplus-jouissance 4. The unbearable lightness of being the proletariat 5. Shame, subversion, and manual labour 6. Karatani's wager   Excursus 1: Georges Bataille's potlach and the splendour of rags Excursus 2: Silvio Berlusconi's enjoyment and related obscenities Part II: The surplus of thought: epistemology and dialectics 7. From subject to a political subject 8. Democracy under duress 9. Dialectical materialism as parallax 10. The vicissitudes of subtraction 11. The invisible rabbit inside the hat 12. 'Though this be madness, yet there is method in it' Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Fabio Vighi is Professor of Critical Theory and Italian at Cardiff University, UK. His previous titles include: Critical Theory and the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism, co-authored with Heiko Feldner (Bloomsbury, 2015) and Between Urban Topographies and Political Spaces: Threshold Experiences (2014), co-edited with Alexis Nuselovici and Mauro Ponzi.

Review :
"In the guise of providing a commentary on the political implications of Slavoj Žižek's philosophy, Vighi has made clear the precise contours of the link between theory and practice in an utterly original fashion. His book marks a major milestone in the history of thinking about politics." - Todd McGowan, University of Vermont, USA, author of The Real Gaze: Film Theory After Lacan "After completing Vighi's book on me, I felt a unique mixture of pleasure and anxiety, as if a double is haunting me, understanding me better than I understand myself, and noticing not only what I try to achieve, but also the weak spots in my theoretical edifice. Not to mention the fact that Vighi's book also stands on its own as a supreme example of a dialectical theory of ideology. Anyone who wants to understand how ideology functions in today's "post-ideological" era should follow closely Vighi's work!" - Slavoj Žižek "This is a wonderful book not only on Žižek and his dialectics, but also about what the latter can inspire in terms of a further and most stunning reflection upon real, and really interesting, encounters between psychoanalysis and Marxism as generic name for emancipatory politics." - Alenka Zupancic, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia ... accessible and enjoyable.