The parallax view / Slavoj Zizek.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Žižek, Slavoj.

Series:

Short circuits.

Short circuits

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

ix, 433 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Annotation The Parallax Viewis Slavoj Zizek's most substantial theoretical work to appear in many years; Zizek himself describes it as his magnum opus. Parallax can be defined as the apparent displacement of an object, caused by a change in observational position. Zizek is interested in the "parallax gap" separating two points between which no synthesis or mediation is possible, linked by an "impossible short circuit" of levels that can never meet. From this consideration of parallax, Zizek begins a rehabilitation of dialectical materialism. Modes of parallax can be seen in different domains of today's theory, from the wave-particle duality in quantum physics to the parallax of the unconscious in Freudian psychoanalysis between interpretations of the formation of the unconscious and theories of drives. In The Parallax View, Zizek, with his usual astonishing erudition, focuses on three main modes of parallax: the ontological difference, the ultimate parallax that conditions our very access to reality; the scientific parallax, the irreducible gap between the phenomenal experience of reality and its scientific explanation, which reaches its apogee in today's brain sciences (according to which "nobody is home" in the skull, just stacks of brain meat--a condition Zizek calls "the unbearable lightness of being no one"); and the political parallax, the social antagonism that allows for no common ground. Between his discussions of these three modes, Zizek offers interludes that deal with more specific topics--including an ethical act in a novel by Henry James and anti-anti-Semitism. The Parallax Viewnot only expands Zizek's Lacanian-Hegelian approach to new domains (notably cognitive brain sciences) but also provides the systematic exposition of the conceptual framework that underlies his entire work. Philosophical and theological analysis, detailed readings of literature, cinema, and music coexist with lively anecdotes and obscene jokes.

Contents:

Introduction : Dialectical materialism at the gates. The stellar parallax : the traps of ontological difference : The subject, this "inwardly circumcised Jew"

Building blocks for a materialist theology. Interlude 1 : Kate's choice, or, the materialism of Henry James. The solar parallax : the unbearable lightness of being no one : The unbearable heaviness of being divine shit. Interlude 2 : Objet petit a in social links, or, the impasse of anti-anti-semitism. The lunar parallax : toward a politics of subtraction : From surplus-value to surplus-power

The obscene knot of ideology, and how to untie it.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-429) and index.

ISBN:

0-262-26518-4

1-282-09774-1

9786612097744

0-262-28664-5

1-4237-8722-6

OCLC:

70273081