Books by Slavoj Zizek

Book SynopsisA brilliant dissection and reconstruction of the three major faith-based systems of belief in the world today - Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

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Book SynopsisThe latest book from the most dangerous philosopher in the West (New Republic) considers the new dangers and radical possibilities set in motion by advances in Big Tech.In recent years, techno-scientific progress has started to utterly transform our world--changing it almost beyond recognition. In this extraordinary new book, renowned philosopher Slavoj Žižek turns to look at the brave new world of Big Tech, revealing how, with each new wave of innovation, we find ourselves moving closer and closer to a bizarrely literal realization of Marx's prediction that all that is solid melts into air. With the automation of work, the virtualization of money, the dissipation of class communities, and the rise of immaterial, intellectual labor, the global capitalist edifice is beginning to crumble, more quickly than ever before--and it is now on the verge of vanishing entirely.But what will come next? Against a backdrop of constant socio-technological upheaval, how could any kind of authentic change take place? In such a context, Žižek argues, there can be no great social triumph--because lasting revolution has already come into the scene, like a thief in broad daylight, stealing into sight right before our very eyes. What we must do now is wake up and see it. Urgent as ever, Like a Thief in Broad Daylight illuminates the new dangers as well as the radical possibilities thrown up by today's technological and scientific advances, and their electrifying implications for us all.

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Book SynopsisIn a characteristically explosive barrage, Ljubljana’s most famous philosopher takes a passionate stance on the war in Ukraine, surveys the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and delivers detonations into a range of contemporary issues, from sexual politics in India to the prospects for a new Cold War. Ever attentive to moments where the bizarre and the epic join forces, among the questions Žižek considers here are: Is the giant orgy, planned to take place in Ukraine in the event of a Russian nuclear attack, really all that morbid? And what should society do, whether on the big screen or the battlefield, in preparation for the end of the world?Agree with him or not, Žižek rarely fails to provoke in a productive fashion. By examining matters through a lens that is bold and original, and often joyfully outlandish, Žižek helps us to better grasp a world in which, increasingly, the dominant motif is one of madness.Trade Review“[The] master of the counterintuitive observation.”—The New Yorker “The most dangerous philosopher in the West.”—The New Republic “Few thinkers illustrate the contradictions of contemporary capitalism better than Slavoj Žižek.”—New York Review of Books

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Book SynopsisThere should no longer be any doubt: global capitalism is fast approaching its terminal crisis. But if the end of capitalism seems to many like the end of the world, how is it possible for Western society to face up to the end times? In a major new analysis of our global situation, Zizek argues that our collective responses to economic Armageddon correspond to the stages of grief: ideological denial, explosions of anger and attempts at bargaining, followed by depression and withdrawal. For this edition, Zizek has written a long afterword that leaves almost no subject untouched, from WikiLeaks to the nature of the Chinese Communist Party.Trade ReviewThe most dangerous philosopher in the West. -- Adam Kirsch * The New Republic *Fierce brilliance ... scintillating. -- Steven Poole * The Guardian *Zizek is to today what Jacques Derrida was to the 80s: the thinker of choice for Europe's young intellectual vanguard. * The Observer *Such passion, in a man whose work forms a shaky, cartoon rope-bridge between the minutiae of popular culture and the big abstract problems of existence, is invigorating, entertaining and expanding enquiring minds around the world. -- Helen Brown * Daily Telegraph *Zizek weaves together psychoanalytic and historical materialist theories with great panache. -- Ashley Dawson * Social Text *

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Book SynopsisBillions of dollars were hastily poured into the global banking system in a frantic attempt at financial stabilisation. So why has it not been possible to bring the same forces to bear in addressing world poverty and environmental crisis? In this take-no-prisoners analysis, Slavoj Zizek frames the moral failures of the modern world in terms of the epoch-making events of the first decade of this century. What he finds is the old one-two punch of history: the jab of tragedy, the right hook of farce. In the attacks of 9/11 and the global credit crunch, liberalism dies twice: as a political doctrine and as an economic theory. The election of Donald Trump only confirms the bankruptcy of a liberal order on its last legs. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce is a call for the left to reinvent itself in the light of our desperate historical situation. The time for liberal, moralistic blackmail is over.Trade ReviewZizek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation. * New Yorker *One of the most innovative and exciting contemporary thinkers of the left. * Times Literary Supplement *Few thinkers illustrate the contradictions of contemporary capitalism better than Slavoj Zizek ... one of the world's best-known public intellectuals. -- John Gray * New York Review of Books *A gifted speaker-tumultuous, emphatic, direct-he writes as he speaks. -- Jonathan Rée * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisLenin's originality and importance as a revolutionary leader is most often associated with the seizure of power in 1917. But, Zizek argues in his new study and collection of original texts, Lenin's true greatness can be better grasped in the very last couple of years of his political life. Russia had survived foreign invasion, embargo and a terrifying civil war, as well as internal revolts such as at Kronstadt in 1921. But the new state was exhausted, isolated and disorientated in the face of the world revolution that seemed to be receding. New paths had to be sought, almost from scratch, for the Soviet state to survive and imagine some alternative route to the future. With his characteristic brio and provocative insight, Zizek suggests that Lenin's courage as a thinker can be found in his willingness to face this reality of retreat lucidly and frontally.Trade ReviewScience & Society -- Alan Shandro

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Book SynopsisFor a long time, the term 'ideology' was in disrepute, having become associated with such unfashionable notions as fundamental truth and the eternal verities. The tide has turned, and recent years have seen a revival of interest in the questions that ideology poses to social and cultural theory, and to political practice. Mapping Ideology is a comprehensive reader covering the most important contemporary writing on the subject. Including Slavoj Zizek's study of the development of the concept from Marx to the present, assessments of the contributions of Lukács and the Frankfurt School by Terry Eagleton, Peter Dews and Seyla Benhabib, and essays by Adorno, Lacan and Althusser, Mapping Ideology is an invaluable guide to the most dynamic field in cultural theory.

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Book SynopsisProbably the most famous living philosopher, Slavoj Žižek explores the concept of 'event', in the second in this new series of easily digestible philosophyWhat is really happening when something happens?In the second in a new series of accessible, commute-length books of original thought, Slavoj Žižek, one of the world's greatest living philosophers, examines the new and highly-contested concept of Event. An Event can be an occurrence that shatters ordinary life, a radical political rupture, a transformation of reality, a religious belief, the rise of a new art form, or an intense experience such as falling in love. Taking us on a trip which stops at different definitions of Event, Žižek addresses fundamental questions such as: are all things connected? How much are we agents of our own fates? Which conditions must be met for us to perceive something as really existing? In a world that's constantly changing, is anything new really happening? Drawing on references from Plato to arthouse cinema, the Big Bang to Buddhism, Event is a journey into philosophy at its most exciting and elementary.Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, Lacanian psychoanalyst, and Communist political activist. He is the author of numerous books on dialectical materialism, critique of ideology and art. His main work is Less Than Nothing, a study on the actuality of Hegelian dialectics.Trade ReviewHis prose is irrepressible, sometimes bonkers but never boring * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisSlavoj ?i?ek es quizá el filósofo más famoso de la actualidad, en buena medida debido a que su pensamiento es imposible de encasillar, no sólo por la impresionante multitud de disciplinas y referencias culturales que engloba y conecta, sino por la originalidad e irreverencia con que a menudo lo hace. En Acontecimiento, ?i?ek toma un concepto que damos por sentado, el diario acontecer de millones de sucesos, situaciones, pensamientos, emociones, etc., y nos muestra que el hecho de que algo acontezca, por ejemplo el mundo, no es tan trivial ni evidente como quizá nos parezca, ni tampoco lo es el orden a partir del cual se acomoda y se ordena.Con su habitual capacidad para darle la vuelta a ideas claras y arraigadas en nuestra cultura ?muestra, por ejemplo, a partir de Melancolía, de Lars Von Trier, que la idea del fin del mundo puede ser liberadora y creativa, o que las personas en estado de autismo absoluto, lejos de representar un estado de pensamiento cero, representan un estado de pensamiento puro, que a fuerza de estar encerradas en sí mismas no alcanzan siquiera a tener algo específico en lo que pensar?, ?i?ek señala que todo acontecer es azaroso, y que por tanto todo tipo de orden es una configuración específica, igual de arbitraria que cualquier otra, sin ningún valor en sí, más que como paliativo para tratar de orientar y dar sentido a las vidas de los miles de millones de personas que viven bajo su dominio.

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Book SynopsisDos pensadores controvertidos, Alain Badiou y Slavoj Zizek, debaten aquí en torno a una pregunta tan atemporal como apremiante: Debe inmiscuirse el filósofo en los sucesos actuales? En esta cuestión está en juego nada menos que la filosofía misma, porque según Badiou, ella no puede ser sino intromisión, compromiso, siempre que quiera escapara a la rigidez academicista. Es extraña y nueva, y sin embargo habla en nombre de todos. Así la muestra Badiou, con una teoría de la universalidad que debería ser entendida como resumen de su filosofía.Zizek plantea un enfoque similar: el filósofo debe intervenir, pero de una manera distinta de la esperada. Aun cuando no pueda orientar en lo ateniente al abordaje de las cuestiones controvertidas de la actualidad, puede mostrar que han sido mal formuladas. Hay que modificar los conceptos de los debates: esta es la consigna de Zizek, y de ese modo llega a una filosofía entendida como anormalidad y exceso.

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Book SynopsisA menudo, el tópico de la espectacularización de la sociedad contemporánea por medio de la proliferación de tecnologías de la comunicación lleva a olvidar la densidad del rarefacto éter ideológico que nos rodea. Simétricamente, en ocasiones, las críticas economicistas de la desigualdad en la era de la globalización bordean el espiritismo sociológico, en la medida en que carecen de la interlocución de un sujeto político que pueda recibir y asumir como propia la alternativa que proponen. Los ensayos de , y que componen este libro se mueven a caballo entre ambos extremos. Indagan en la textura simbólica de nuestro tiempo rastreando la vivencia imaginaria de las grandes ordenaciones políticas y económicas a través de los medios de comunicación de masas. Frente a la mera queja por la estetización de la vida pública, plantean el análisis de los mecanismos de construcción ideológica que vertebran la relación de los sujetos políticos con su realidad histórica."El tema propuesto no puede ser

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Book SynopsisEncuadernación: RústicaJamas me prestaste una tetera.Te la devolvi intactaLa tetera ya estaba rota cuando me la prestasteCon este viejo chiste identifica Zizek el discurso del Gobierno norteamericano justificando la invasión de Irak: Irak tiene armas de destrucción masiva. Aunque no las tenga, colabora con los terroristas de Al Qaeda. Y aunque no colabore con ellos, su dictador es una amenaza para la seguridad mundial.Incisivo, penetrante, pluridisciplinar, Zizek propone lecturas socio-politicas inesperadas ( Quizas esta guerra entre Estados Unidos e Irak ha sido la primera guerra entre nuevos muros del siglo XXI), denuncia la aparición de los nuevos muros del siglo XXI, traza paralelismos radicalmente originales entre la narrativa politica del momento y la tragedia griega y llama a sus lectores a una revolución capaz de redefinir las reglas y los contornos del orden existente capaz en suma de Practicar la utopia.

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