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An abiding concern in Žižek's writings is with the social miracle and with staking out the space(s) for the miraculous within the contemporary world. But are social miracles possible in today's world? Can they even be imagined? If so, what would such miracles consist of and how might we connect with them in terms of developing a positive transfigurative politics? This paper represents an engagement with the central arguments that Žižek develops in his recent work, In Defense of Lost Causes. In particular it investigates the highly controversial claim that democracy itself has become an enemy of the people.

This article represents an intervention in the debate over ontology and epistemology conducted recently in Politics. Taking a post-structuralist stance it seeks to reformulate the nature of the relationship between the ontological and the epistemological and to demonstrate that this has important consequences for the way in which the question of politics is approached. Adapted from the source document.

This article represents an intervention in the debate over ontology and epistemology conducted recently in Politics. Taking a post-structuralist stance it seeks to reformulate the nature of the relationship between the ontological and the epistemological and to demonstrate that this has important consequences for the way in which the question of politics is approached.

Is it possible to speak of the political in any singular or universal fashion? If not, what possibilities might exist for developing the senses of politics and the political? This paper argues that Žižek's thought provides an alternative approach to engaging with these questions that cannot be assimilated in any obvious way to postmodern, deconstructionist and/or postmarxist perspectives. In particular it argues that Žižek's approach is linked to a specific conceptualisation of materialism - one that is paradoxically derived from Hegel – and which underscores the way in which the logic(s) of the political tend to be cut and articulated in paradigmatic fashion

Der Beitrag untersucht die Konsequenzen des Zugangs von Lacan für ein neues Verständnis von Ideologie und Realität, wobei die Arbeiten von Zizek im Mittelpunkt des Interesses stehen. Er fragt nach der These vom "Diebstahl des Genießens" in der Nationalismusanalyse und konkretisiert diese Fragestellung am Beispiel Großbritanniens. Die Perspektive von Lacan und Zizek wird in zwei Hinsichten vervollständigt: (1) Zizek neigt dazu, eine zu starke Trennlinie zwischen seiner Position und der Derridaschen Dekonstruktion zu ziehen, sodass eine positive Wechselwirkung und gegenseitige Befruchtung verhindert wird. (2) Wenn Zizek auf das Terrain des Politischen verweist, tendiert er zu einer hegelianisch-dialektischen Theoretisierung und unterbewertet dadurch die historisch-diskursiven Möglichkeiten und das Potenzial radikalerer Formen von hegemonialer Intervention und Widerstand. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass es möglich ist, den Gegensatz von Psychoanalyse und Dekonstruktion zu überwinden und die Einsichten beider Ansätze zu kombinieren. (ICE2)

This article focuses on the recent work of Slavoj Žižek and his extensive critique of poststructuralism and deconstruction from a Lacanian perspective. In this context, it examines Žižek's provocative approach to questions of social reality, ideology and nationalism, and explores the potential of such an approach for an analysis of crucial themes in British political culture. In addition, the article investigates the nature of the encounter between psychoanalysis and deconstruction — and especially where explicit referral is made to the terrain of politics — with a view to breaking the apparent deadlock that has emerged. Through the development of a post-Marxist critique, it is argued that an alternative perspective can be formulated which combines the insights of both psychoanalysis and deconstruction and, at the same time, is able to transcend the limitations of each.