How Slavoj Became Žižek: The Digital Making of a Public Intellectual

250 Pages·2023·8.804 MB·English

by  Eliran Bar-El

How Slavoj Became ŽiŽek

How Slavoj
Became
Žižek
THe DigiTal making of
a PuBlic inTellecTual
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
eliran Bar- el
THe univerSiTy of cHicago PreSS
cHicago anD lonDon
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2023 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact
the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2023
Printed in the United States of America
32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82350- 8 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82352- 2 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82351- 5 (e- book)
DOI: https:// doi .org /10 .7208 /chicago /9780226823515 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bar-El, Eliran, author.
Title: How Slavoj became Žižek : the digital making of a public intellectual /
Eliran Bar-El.
Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022020466 | ISBN 9780226823508 (cloth) |
ISBN 9780226823522 (paperback) | ISBN 9780226823515 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Žižek, Slavoj. | Philosophers—Slovenia—Biography. |
BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies | PHILOSOPHY / Individual
Philosophers
Classification: LCC B4870.Z594 B37 2023 | DDC 199/4973.—dc23/
eng/20220615
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020466
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
The particular is for the most part of too trifling a value as compared
with the general: Individuals are sacrificed and abandoned.
g. w. f. Hegel
The philosopher is inscribed in the discourse of the master. He plays
the role of the fool within it. . . . The court fool has a role: that of
being the replacement of the truth.
j. lacan

Contents
List of Figures ix
Introduction 1
1 Slovenia between East and West:
The Origin of Superpositioning 25
2 If at First You Don’t Succeed:
The Emergence of Hegelacanese 66
3 Going Global: Narrating the (Traumatic) Present 103
4 The End of Žižek: Performing the
Sacrificial Intellectual 145
Conclusion 175
Acknowledgments 191
Notes 193
Index 235

Figures
0.1 The Sociological Study of Intellectuals 10
0.2 Model of the Movement of Intellectual Intervention
(in the Humanities) 21
1.1 Yugoslavia/Slovenia Timeline 26
1.2 Žižek’s Early Period Timeline 35
1.3 Razprave (Discussion) issue of Problemi, 1979 43
1.4 Parts of pages 3– 4 from the censored Punk Problemi
issue, 1982 48
2.1 Žižek’s Formative Intellectual Interventions,
1989– 2000 69
3.1 Žižek’s Mentions in English Books, 1982– 2008 119
3.2 Žižek in The Reality of the Virtual 130
3.3 Žižek in The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema 130
3.4 Žižek in Žižek! 131
3.5 Žižek’s Digital Interest over Region, 2004– 2019 134
3.6 Comics of Žižek and the 2008 Financial Crisis 140
3.7 Žižek’s Interest over Time, 2004– 2019 141
4.1 “The Collected Jokes of Slavoj Žižek” 147
4.2 Žižek in The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology 149
4.3 Visual Rendition of the Žižek- Chomsky Controversy,
2013 155