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'A modernist [[work ]] of art is by definition 'incomprehensible'; it functions as a shock, as the irruption of a [[trauma ]] which undermines the complacency of our daily routine and resists [[being ]] integrated. What [[postmodernism ]] does, however, is the very opposite: it [[objects ]] par excellence are products with mass appeal; the aim of the postmodernist [[treatment ]] is to estrange their initial homeliness: 'you [[think ]] what you see is a simple melodrama your granny would have no difficulty in following? Yet without taking into account the [[difference ]] between [[symptom ]] and ''sinthom''/the [[structure ]] of the Borromean [[knot]]/the fact that [[Woman ]] is one of the Names-of-the-[[Father ]] ... you've totally missed the point!' if there is an [[author ]] whose [[name ]] epitomises this interpretive [[pleasure ]] of 'estranging' the most banal [[content]], it is Alfred [[Hitchcock ]] (and - useless to deny it - this book partakes unrestrainedly in this [[madness]]).'

Hitchcock is placed on the [[analyst]]'s couch in this extraordinary volume of [[case ]] studies, as its contributors bring to bear an unrivalled enthusiasm and [[theoretical ]] sweep on the entire Hitchcock oeuvre, from [[Rear Window ]] to [[Psycho]], as an exemplar of '[[postmodern]]' defamiliarization. Starting from the premise that 'everything has [[meaning]]', the [[films]]' ostensible [[narrative ]] content and [[formal ]] procedures are analysed to reveal a rich proliferation of [[ideological ]] and [[psychic ]] mechanisms at work. But Hitchcock is here also a bait to [[lure ]] the reader into 'serious' [[Marxist ]] and [[Lacanian ]] considerations on the [[construction ]] of meaning. Timely, provocative and original, this is sure to become a landmark of Hitchcock studies.

|width="100%"| [[Everything You Always Wanted Yo Know About Lacan (But Were Afraid To Ask Hitchcock)]]. [[Slavoj Žižek]], Editor. [[London]]; New York: Verso, 1992. Paperback, 279 pages, [[Language]]: [[English]], ISBN: 0860915921. <small>Buy it at [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0860915921/nosubject-20/ Amazon.com], [http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0860915921/nosub07-20/ Amazon.ca], [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0860915921/nosub-21/ Amazon.de], [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0860915921/nosubjencyofl-21/ Amazon.co.uk] or [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/0860915921/nosub04-21/ Amazon.fr].</small>