The Universal Exception

by Zizek, Slavoj; Butler, Rex; Stephens, Scott

• ISBN13: 9781472570079
• ISBN10: 1472570073
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-12-18
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Slavoj Žižek is one of the world's foremost cultural commentators: a prolific writer and thinker, whose adventurous, unorthodox and wide-ranging writings have won him a unique place as one of the most high profile thinkers of our time. The Universal Exception brings together some of Žižek's most vivid writings on politics. Bringing together high theory, popular culture and passionate engagement with politics, Žižek here brings us startlingly new perspectives on such topics as multiculturalism, capitalism and Bill Gates, the revolutionary potential of Stalinism, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.

Including a glossary of key terms, the Bloomsbury Revelations edition also includes a new preface by the author.

Author Biography

Slavoj Žižek is one of the world's leading contemporary cultural critics and a hugely prolific author. He is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and Visiting Professor at the New School for Social Research, New York, USA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface to the Paperback Edition
Editors' Introduction: Slavoj Zizek's 'Third Way'
Section I: The Absent 'Second Way'
1. Eastern European Liberalism and Its Discontents
2. Why We All Love to Hate Haider
3. Heiner Muller Out of Joint
Section II: Really Existing Socialism
4. Why Are Laibach and the Neue Slowenische Kunst Not Fascists?
5. The Fetish of the Party
6. Georg Lukacs as the Philosopher of Leninism
7. Prolegomena to a Theory of Kolkhoz Musicals
8. Attempts to Escape the Logic of Capitalism
Section III: Really Existing Capitalism
9. Multiculturalism, or, The Cultural Logic of Multinational Capitalism
10. A Leftist Plea for 'Eurocentrism'
11. A Plea for 'Passive Aggressivity'
12. The Three Faces of Bill Gates
13. The Prospects of Radical Politics Today
Section IV: What Is (Not) To Be Done?
14. Against the Double Blackmail
15. Welcome to the Desert of the Real
16. The Iraq War - Where is the True Danger?
17. Some Politically Incorrect Reflections on Violence in France and Related Matters
Author's Afterword: Where Do We Stand Today?
Glossary
Index