TOC

WHY ŽIŽEK? When ŽižeA shudders (we don't have to): popular culture and philosophy? Is this not the way to read Žižek? Subject of a biography: biography of a subject This book

KEY IDEAS Who are Žižek's influences and how do they affect his work? ŽižeA's influences: philosophy, politics and psychoanalysis Hegel Marx Lacan The Irnaginary The Symbolic The Real The philosopher of the Real

What is a subject and why is it so important? The cogito The cogito and the post-structuralists Madness: the vanishing roediator between nature and culture The birth of God: reading the cog ito via Schelling From subject to subjectivization

What is so terrible about postmodernity The postmodern risk society The disintegration of the big Other The postrnodern superego: enjoy! Keeping it real: the return of the Other The act

How can we distinguish reality from ideology? False consciousness and cynicism Belief machines The three modes of ideology The spectre that haunts reality

What is the relationship between men and women? The formulae of sexuation 'Woman does not exist' 'Woman is a syrnptorn of Man' 'There is no sexual relationship'

Why is racism always a fantasy? 'Che vuoi?': 'What do you want from rne?' LooAing through the fantasy window The ethnic fantasy The ethics of fantasy

AFTER ŽIŽEK The curse of Jacques: limitations on the influence of Žižek Leftism Universal criticism The retroactive ŽižeA