Difference between revisions of "The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters"

From No Subject - Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis
Jump to: navigation, search
 
(5 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{| style="width:100%; border:1px solid #aaa;text-align:left; line-height:2.0em; padding-left:10px;"
+
{{BBSZ}}
|width="100%"| [[Slavoj Žižek|Žižek, Slavoj]]. ''The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters''. London and New York: Verso. 1996.
 
|}
 
  
 +
=====Book Description=====
 +
[[Image:The.Indivisible.Remainder.jpg|300px|right]]
  
[[Image:IndivisibleRemainder.jpg |right|frame]]
+
The feature which distinguishes the great works of materialist thought, from Lucretius’ ''De rerum natura'' through ''Capital'' to the writings of Lacan, is their unfinished character: again and again they tackle their chosen problem. Schelling’s ''Weltalter'' drafts belong to this same series, with their repeated attempt at the formulation of the ‘beginning of the world,’ of the passage from the pre-symbolic pulsation of the Real to the universe of logos.
  
 +
F.W.J. Schelling, the German idealist who for too long dwelled in the shadow of Kant and Hegel, was the first to formulate the post-idealist motifs of finitude, contingency and temporality. His unique work announces Marx's critique of speculative idealism, as well as the properly Freudian notion of drive, of a blind compulsion to repeat which can never be sublated in the ideal medium of language.
  
=Review by [http://www.lacan.com/zizekchro2.htm Tony Myers]=
+
''The Indivisible Remainder'' begins with a detailed examination of the two works in which Schelling's speculative audacity reached its peak: his essay on human freedom and his drafts on the “Ages of the World.” After reconstituting their line of argumentation, Slavoj Zizek confronts Schelling with Hegel, and concludes by throwing a Schellingian light on some “related matters”: the consequences of the computerization of daily life for sexual experience; cynicism as today's predominant form of ideology; the epistemological deadlocks of quantum physics.
This book forms part of a larger project for Žižek to reinvigorate
 
the reputation of German Idealism which, for him, constitutes the
 
bedrock of all philosophy.  
 
  
His particular hope with this monograph is that he enhances the perception of Schelling's Ages of the World as 'one of the seminal works of materialism', divining in it a forerunner to the works of Marx and Lacan among others.  
+
Although the book is packed with examples from politics and popular culture — the unmistakable token of Zizek’s style — from Speed and ''Groundhog Day'' to ''Forrest Gump'', it signals a major shift towards a systematic concern with the basic questions of philosophy and the roots of the crisis of our late-capitalist universe, centred around the enigma of modern subjectivity.
  
The first part of the book endeavours to explain the Ages of the World, while the second part compares the reception of Schelling's work with the reception of Hegel's work using Lacan as the key to both.  
+
=====Product Details=====
 
+
{| style="width:100%; border:1px solid #aaa;text-align:left; line-height:2.0em; padding-left:10px;"
As can be imagined from his brief description, the first two parts of this volume make a complex and demanding read.  
+
|width="100%"| [[Slavoj Žižek|Zizek, Slavoj]]. '''''[[The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters]]'''''. London; New York: Verso, March 1996, Hardcover, 256 pages, Language: English, ISBN: 1859849598. <small>Buy it at [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859849598/nosubject-20/ Amazon.com], [http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859849598/nosub07-20/ Amazon.ca], [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859849598/nosub-21/ Amazon.de], [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859849598/nosubjencyofl-21/ Amazon.co.uk] or [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859849598/nosub04-21/ Amazon.fr]</small> or Verso. December 1996, Paperback, 248 pages, Language: English, ISBN: 1859840949. <small>Buy it at [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859840949/nosubject-20/ Amazon.com], [http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859840949/nosub07-20/ Amazon.ca], [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859840949/nosub-21/ Amazon.de], [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859840949/nosubjencyofl-21/ Amazon.co.uk] or [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859840949/nosub04-21/ Amazon.fr].</small>
 
+
|}
The third part of the book (the 'related matters' of the title) is only relatively more accessible, but contains interesting discussions of both cyberspace and quantum physics which prefigure some of Žižek's later work.
 
  
{{Footer Books Slavoj Žižek}}
+
{{CBBSZ}}
[[Category:Slavoj Žižek]]
 
[[Category:Works by Slavoj Žižek]]
 
[[Category:Works]]
 
[[Category:Books]]
 
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
 

Latest revision as of 00:05, 15 June 2007

Books by Slavoj Žižek

Book Description
The.Indivisible.Remainder.jpg

The feature which distinguishes the great works of materialist thought, from Lucretius’ De rerum natura through Capital to the writings of Lacan, is their unfinished character: again and again they tackle their chosen problem. Schelling’s Weltalter drafts belong to this same series, with their repeated attempt at the formulation of the ‘beginning of the world,’ of the passage from the pre-symbolic pulsation of the Real to the universe of logos.

F.W.J. Schelling, the German idealist who for too long dwelled in the shadow of Kant and Hegel, was the first to formulate the post-idealist motifs of finitude, contingency and temporality. His unique work announces Marx's critique of speculative idealism, as well as the properly Freudian notion of drive, of a blind compulsion to repeat which can never be sublated in the ideal medium of language.

The Indivisible Remainder begins with a detailed examination of the two works in which Schelling's speculative audacity reached its peak: his essay on human freedom and his drafts on the “Ages of the World.” After reconstituting their line of argumentation, Slavoj Zizek confronts Schelling with Hegel, and concludes by throwing a Schellingian light on some “related matters”: the consequences of the computerization of daily life for sexual experience; cynicism as today's predominant form of ideology; the epistemological deadlocks of quantum physics.

Although the book is packed with examples from politics and popular culture — the unmistakable token of Zizek’s style — from Speed and Groundhog Day to Forrest Gump, it signals a major shift towards a systematic concern with the basic questions of philosophy and the roots of the crisis of our late-capitalist universe, centred around the enigma of modern subjectivity.

Product Details
Zizek, Slavoj. The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters. London; New York: Verso, March 1996, Hardcover, 256 pages, Language: English, ISBN: 1859849598. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr or Verso. December 1996, Paperback, 248 pages, Language: English, ISBN: 1859840949. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.