Slavoj Žižek
A Little Piece of the Real
Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy Series

Slavoj Zizek has emerged as the pre-eminent European cultural theorist of the last decade and has been described as the ultimate Marxist/Lacanian cultural studies scholar. His large and growing body of work has generated considerable controversy, yet his texts are not structured as standard academic tomes. In Slavoj Zizek: A Little Piece of the Real, Matthew Sharpe undertakes the difficult task of drawing out an evolving argument from all of Zizek's texts from 1989 to 2001, and reads them as the bearers of a single theoretical project, providing an authoritative, reliable, clearly written and well-structured account of Zizek's demanding body of work. From an exposition of Zizek's social and philosophical critical theory the book moves to a critical analysis of Zizek's theoretical project and its political implications. Sharpe concludes by suggesting that Zizek's work, however, raises as many questions as it answers; questions both about Zizek's theoretical system and to the wider new Left in today's world.

Contents: Foreword; Introduction: locating Zizek as critical theorist. Part I Zizek's Theory Of Ideology: On Zizek's expanded notion of ideology; Western (European) modernity and its discontents. Part II The Philosophical Grounds Of Zizek's Social Theory: Lack in the other; Zizek's ticklish subject. Part III Immanent Critique: Does Zizek have a critical social theory of contemporary capitalism?; Taking sides: what is left in Zizek? (The abyss of freedom?). Bibliography; Index.

Matthew Sharpe