In Zizek's long-awaited magnum opus, he theorizes the ""parallax gap"" in the ontological, the scientific, and the political-and rehabilitates dialectical materialism.
The Parallax View is 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 View not 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.
By:
Slavoj Žižek (Professor European Graduate School)
Series edited by:
Slavoj Zizek
Imprint: Massachusetts Inst of Tec
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 29mm
Weight: 612g
ISBN: 9780262512688
ISBN 10: 0262512688
Series: Short Circuits
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 13 February 2009
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
CONTENTS:Series Foreword ix Introduction: Dialectical Materialism at the GatesI The Stellar Parallax: The Traps of Ontological Difference 15 1 The Subject, This ''Inwardly Circumcised Jew''The Tickling Object. The Kantian Parallax. The Birth of (Hegelian) Concrete Universality out of the Spirit of (Kantian) Antinomies. The Master-Signifier and Its Vicissitudes. Soave sia il vento... The Parallax of the Critique of Political Economy. 16 2 Building Blocks for a Materialist TheologyA Boy Meets the Lady. Kierkegaard as a Hegelian. Die Versagung. The Traps of Pure Sacrifice. The Difficulty of Being a Kantian. The Comedy of Incarnation. Odradek as a Political Category. Too Much Life! 68 Interlude I: Kate's Choice, or, The Materialism of Henry James 124 II The Solar Parallax: The Unbearable Lightness of Being No One 145 3 The Unbearable Heaviness of Being Divine ShitBurned by the Sun. Pick Up Your Cave! Copernicus, Darwin, Freud and Many Others. Toward a New Science of Appearances. Resistances to Disenchantment. When the God Comes Around. The Desublimated Object of Post-Ideology. Danger? What Danger? 146 4 The Loop of Freedom''Positing the Presuppositions''. A Cognitivist Hegel? The False Opacity. Emotions Lie, or, Where Damasio is Wrong. Hegel, Marx, Denett. From Physics to Design? The Unconscious Act of Freedom. The Language of Seduction, the Seduction of Language. 200 Interlude 2: Objet Petit A in Social Links, or, The Impasses of Anti-Anti-Semitism 252 III The Lunar Parallax: Toward a Politics of Subtraction 271 5 From Surplus-Value to Surplus-PowerOntic Errance, Ontological Truth. Gelassenheit? No Thanks! Toward the Theory of the Stalinist Musical. The Biopolitical Parallax. The Historicity of the Four Discourses. Jouissance as a Political Category. Do We Still Live in a World? 272 6 The Obscene Knot of Ideology, and How to Untie ItThe Academic Rumspringa, or, the Parallax of Power and Resistance. Human Rights versus the Rights of the Inhuman. Violence Enframed. The Ignorance of the Chicken. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Fundamentalism? Over the Rainbow Coalition!... 330 Notes 387 Index
Sergei Krikalev is a Cosmonaut who has flown as a flight engineerand mission specialist on the MIR Space Station and joint UnitedStates/Russian Space Shuttle missions. For his flight experiencehe has been awarded the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union, theOrder of Lenin, the French title of L'Officer de la Legion de Honneur,and the new title of Hero of Russia. He was also awarded the NASASpace Flight Medal in 1994 and 1998.
Reviews for The Parallax View
In this huge, thrilling book, Slavoj Zizek enacts a dazzling display of philosophy as performance art, delighting in upsetting readers' expectations, inserting sly jokes, and castigating the 'boring' political analyses of just about everyone... Zizek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative. The Guardian A remarkable demonstration of continental philosophical and psychoanalytical pyrotechnics. More provocative ideas per page than normally found in whole books by the dull anglophone empiricists who find him so threatening. Paul A. Taylor Times Higher Education Frankly, a magnum opus is exactly what Zizekneeds right now... The Parallax View consolidates Zizek's work as a whole and decisively moves it forward. In These Times No one demonstrates the continued philosophical vitality of Marxism better than Slavoj Zizek. Tikkun Zizek has only to clap eyes on a received truth to feel the intolerable itch to deface it... Zizek is that rare breed of writer-one who is both lucid and esoteric. If he is sometimes hard to understand, it is because of the intricacy of his ideas, not because of a self-preening style. Terry Eagleton Artforum Zizek is one of the few living writers to combine theoretical rigor with compulsive readability, and his new volume provides perhaps the clearest elaboration of his theoretical framework thus far...This challenging book takes us on a roller-coaster ride whose every loop is a Mobius strip. Publishers Weekly Frankly, a magnum opus is exactly what Zizek needs right now... The Parallax View consolidates Zizek's work as a whole and decisively moves it forward. In These Times Zizek is one of the few living writers to combine theoretical rigor with compulsive readability, and his new volume provides perhaps the clearest elaboration of his theoretical framework thus far...This challenging book takes us on a roller-coaster ride whose every loop is a Mobius strip. Publishers Weekly
