Slavoj Žižek, The Plague of Fantasies

Kelsey Wood (University of Arkansas at Little Rock)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Cultural Studies
Psychoanalysis

Dates

First circulation or publication 1997

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Commentary / criticism

Resources

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If we subtract fantasy from reality, then reality itself loses its consistency and disintegrates. To choose between “either accepting reality or choosing fantasy” is wrong: if we really want to change or escape our social reality, the first thing to do is change our fantasies that make us fit this reality. (Slavoj Žižek)

One of Žižek’s most sustained engagements with Lacanian psychoanalytic theory is The Plague of Fantasies (1997). In Plague, Žižek analyzes the flood of pseudo-concrete images that bombard contemporary subjects. By analyzing postmodern culture in light of Lacanian concepts like fantasy, the unconscious, the Name of the Father, symbolic castration, objet petit a, desire, gaze, fetishism, and the Real of jouissance, Žižek formulates an incisive critique of

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2670 words

Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "The Plague of Fantasies". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 May 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23504, accessed 23 November 2024.]