How Slavoj Became Zizek
The Digital Making of a Public Intellectual
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How Slavoj Became Zizek
The Digital Making of a Public Intellectual
An engrossing account of the meteoric rise of contemporary philosophy’s most contentious and prolific intellectual.
Slovenian philosopher bad boy Slavoj Žižek is one of the most famous intellectuals of our time, publishing at a breakneck speed and lecturing around the world. With his unmistakable speaking style and set of mannerisms that have made him ripe material for internet humor and meme culture, he is recognizable to a wide spectrum of fans and detractors. But how did an intellectual from a remote Eastern European country come to such popular notoriety? In How Slavoj Became Žižek, sociologist Eliran Bar-El plumbs the emergence, popularization, and development of this phenomenon called “Žižek.”
Beginning with Žižek’s early years as a thinker and political figure in Slovenian civil society, Bar-El traces Žižek’s rise from Marxist philosopher to a political candidate to eventual intellectual celebrity as Žižek perfects his unique performative style and a rhetorical arsenal of “Hegelacanese.” Following 9/11, Žižek’s career as a global op-ed writer and TV commentator married his rhetoric with global events such as the War on Terror, the financial crisis of 2008, and the Arab Spring of 2011. Yet, at the same time, this mainstream popularity, as well as a series of politically incorrect views, almost entirely estranged the Slovenian from the normal workings of academia. Ultimately, this account shows how Žižek harnessed the power of the digital era in his own self-fashioning as a public intellectual.
Slovenian philosopher bad boy Slavoj Žižek is one of the most famous intellectuals of our time, publishing at a breakneck speed and lecturing around the world. With his unmistakable speaking style and set of mannerisms that have made him ripe material for internet humor and meme culture, he is recognizable to a wide spectrum of fans and detractors. But how did an intellectual from a remote Eastern European country come to such popular notoriety? In How Slavoj Became Žižek, sociologist Eliran Bar-El plumbs the emergence, popularization, and development of this phenomenon called “Žižek.”
Beginning with Žižek’s early years as a thinker and political figure in Slovenian civil society, Bar-El traces Žižek’s rise from Marxist philosopher to a political candidate to eventual intellectual celebrity as Žižek perfects his unique performative style and a rhetorical arsenal of “Hegelacanese.” Following 9/11, Žižek’s career as a global op-ed writer and TV commentator married his rhetoric with global events such as the War on Terror, the financial crisis of 2008, and the Arab Spring of 2011. Yet, at the same time, this mainstream popularity, as well as a series of politically incorrect views, almost entirely estranged the Slovenian from the normal workings of academia. Ultimately, this account shows how Žižek harnessed the power of the digital era in his own self-fashioning as a public intellectual.
256 pages | 20 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 2023
Sociology: History of Sociology, Theory and Sociology of Knowledge
Reviews
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Introduction
1 Slovenia between East and West: The Origin of Superpositioning
2 If at First You Don’t Succeed: The Emergence of Hegelacanese
3 Going Global: Narrating the (Traumatic) Present
4 The End of Žižek: Performing the Sacrificial Intellectual
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Introduction
1 Slovenia between East and West: The Origin of Superpositioning
2 If at First You Don’t Succeed: The Emergence of Hegelacanese
3 Going Global: Narrating the (Traumatic) Present
4 The End of Žižek: Performing the Sacrificial Intellectual
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
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