Gaze and Voice as Love Objects

From No Subject - Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis
Jump to: navigation, search

Žižek, S. and Salecl, R. (eds) (1996) Gaze and Voice as Love Objects, Durham: Duke University Press.

This fascinating collection of essays (mainly written by Žižek's co-conspirators in the Slovenian school of Lacan) contains two contri- butions from Žižek. The first article discusses the gaze and the voice (and indeed just about everything else). The second article focuses on Wagner and proceeds from the basic Lacanian thesis that 'there is no sexual relationship' because there is a constitutive antagonism in the relationship between man and woman. Love is the lure or mirage which endeavours to conceal this antagonism. As these are some of Lacan's most difficult ideas to grasp, this volume (particularly Mladen Dolar's two essays) provides a very useful supplement to their discussion in Žižek's monographs.