Pleasure Transfer (Women and Six Arguments on Causality)

Author: Slavoj ?i?ek (Slovenia), translated by Hu Daping and others
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The rise of "irrational" violence in the wars of former Yugoslavia and late capitalist society provides the theoretical and political context for ?i?ek's new book. In this work, he employs Lacanian psychoanalysis as the foundation for revitalizing Marxist ideological theory. In , ?i?ek begins with a Lacanian interpretation of the role of psychoanalysis in the Frankfurt School and the concept of "repressive sublimation," analyzing the structural function of violence in late capitalist society. Subsequently, he provides a detailed analysis of the way the superego operates in today's ideological mechanisms. In the second part, ?i?ek traces the evolution of the image of women in modern art and ideology and attempts to save certain writers deemed irredeemably reactionary by progressive thought. The two parts of the book are linked by the elusive status of pleasure and its "great transfer" between the political and cultural spheres. Thus, they resemble the two surfaces of a M?bius strip: when walking far enough along one surface, one suddenly finds oneself on the other side. ?i?ek's ideological analysis connects violence with female pleasure, while his examination of the status of women's discourse sparks highly significant debates on the theme of power relations.