Zizek and the Media

Slavoj Zizek reaches the parts of the media that other theorists cannot. With sources ranging from Thomas Aquinas to Quentin Tarantino and Desperate Housewives to Dostoyevsky, Zizek mixes high theory with low culture more engagingly than any other thinker alive today. His prolific output includes such media friendly content as a TV series (The Pervert's Guide to Cinema) a documentary movie (Zizek!) and a wealth of YouTube clips. A celebrity academic, he walks the media talk. Zizek and the Media provides a systematic and approachable introduction to the main concepts and themes of Zizek's work, and their particular implications for the study of the media. The book: Describes the radical nature of Zizek's media politics Uses Zizekian insights to expose the profound intellectual limitations of conventional approaches to the media Explores the psychoanalytical and philosophical roots of Zizek's work Provides the reader with Zizekian tools to uncover the hidden ideologies of everyday media content; Explains the ultimate seriousness that underlies his numerous jokes. As likely to discuss Homer's Springfield as Ithaca, Zizek is shown to be the ideal guide for today's mediascape.

Preface: The Dog’s Bollocks . . . at the Media Dinner Party viii Acknowledgements xiii Introduction: ‘The Marx Brother’, ‘The Elvis of Cultural Theory’, and Other Media Cliches 1 1 The Mediated Imp of the Perverse 6 2 ?i?ek’s Tickling Shtick 34 3 Big (Br)Other: Psychoanalysing the Media 63 4 Understanding Media: The Sublime Objectification of Ideology 91 5 The Media’s Violence 120 6 The Joker’s Little Shop of Ideological Horrors 149 Conclusion: Don’t Just Do It: Negative Dialectics in the Age of Nike 176 Notes 183 Bibliography 189 Index 202