Between Schelling and Marx: The Hegel of Slavoj Žižek
A Review of Less than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism by Slavoj Žižek
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Giorgio Cesarale in
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In Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism, Slavoj Žižek presents the results of his long meditation on the meaning and ultimate implications of Hegelian philosophy. In this review-article, I will first examine the stages of Žižek’s transformation of Hegelianism, and then analyse the main themes brought up in Less than Nothing. The development of a ‘polemological’ interpretation of the Hegelian concepts of ‘reconciliation’ and ‘absolute’ leads Žižek to emphasise the role of negativity and antagonism in the process of constitution of reality and subject as part of reality itself. This implies a reinterpretation of dialectical materialism: reality is not something that simply precedes the subject, but which contains just multiplicities of multiplicities, and thus the Void itself. Žižek’s assertion that the ultimate reality is the Void itself then renders unavoidable the critique of Hegelian Marxism based on the centrality of the category of alienation. The last part of the review-article surveys, instead, how Žižek’s re-reading of Hegel affects his relation with Marx and also examines the role played by ‘contradiction’ in his theoretical proposal.
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Anderson Perry Considerations on Western Marxism 1976 London NLB
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Bowie Andrew Hammer Espen ‘German Idealism’s Contested Heritage’ German Idealism: Contemporary Perspectives 2007 London Routledge
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Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich di Giovanni George Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Basic Outline. Part I: Science of Logic 2010 Cambridge Cambridge University Press [1813–16]
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Jameson Fredric Postmodernism: or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism 1992 London Verso
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Jameson Fredric Valences of the Dialectic 2009 London Verso
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Jameson Fredric The Hegel Variations: On the Phenomenology of Spirit 2010 London Verso
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Kant Immanuel Pluhar Werner S. Critique of Pure Reason 1996 Indianapolis Hackett [1781]
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Lyotard Jean-François Bennington Geoff & Massumi Brian The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge 1984 Manchester Manchester University Press
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Marx Karl Nicolaus Martin Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy 1973 Harmondsworth Penguin [1939/41]
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Marx Karl Fowkes Ben Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume One 1976 Harmondsworth Penguin [1867]
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Sartre Jean-Paul Sheridan-Smith Alan Critique of Dialectical Reason 2004 Volume I London Verso [1960]
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Siep Ludwig Pippin R.B. Review of Hegel’s Practical Philosophy Hegel-Studien 2009 44 223 230
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Žižek Slavoj Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology 1993 Durham, NC. Duke University Press
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Žižek Slavoj The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology 1999 London Verso
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Žižek Slavoj The Sublime Object of Ideology 2009 London Verso [1989]
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Žižek Slavoj Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism 2012 London Verso
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3
See Sartre 2004, pp. 30–1.
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5
See Lyotard 1984, pp. 77–80, and Jameson 1992, pp. 32–8.
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6
Žižek 2009, p. 236.
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8
Kant 1996, p. 72.
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9
Žižek 1999, p. 45.
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11
Žižek 1999, p. 102.
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12
Žižek 1993, p. 132.
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14
Jameson 2010, pp. 1–4.
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15
Jameson 2010, pp. 130–1.
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16
Jameson 2010, p. 131.
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17
Jameson 2009, pp. 68–9.
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18
Jameson 2009, p. 68.
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19
Jameson 2009, pp. 57–9.
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20
Jameson 2009, p. 4.
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21
Jameson 2010, p. 119.
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24
Marx 1976, pp. 230–1.
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25
Marx 1973, p. 296.
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26
Marx 1973, p. 297.
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28
Hegel 2010, p. 386.
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Between Schelling and Marx: The Hegel of Slavoj Žižek
A Review of Less than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism by Slavoj Žižek
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Giorgio Cesarale in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
In Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism, Slavoj Žižek presents the results of his long meditation on the meaning and ultimate implications of Hegelian philosophy. In this review-article, I will first examine the stages of Žižek’s transformation of Hegelianism, and then analyse the main themes brought up in Less than Nothing. The development of a ‘polemological’ interpretation of the Hegelian concepts of ‘reconciliation’ and ‘absolute’ leads Žižek to emphasise the role of negativity and antagonism in the process of constitution of reality and subject as part of reality itself. This implies a reinterpretation of dialectical materialism: reality is not something that simply precedes the subject, but which contains just multiplicities of multiplicities, and thus the Void itself. Žižek’s assertion that the ultimate reality is the Void itself then renders unavoidable the critique of Hegelian Marxism based on the centrality of the category of alienation. The last part of the review-article surveys, instead, how Žižek’s re-reading of Hegel affects his relation with Marx and also examines the role played by ‘contradiction’ in his theoretical proposal.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2570 | 247 | 19 |
| Full Text Views | 299 | 19 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 298 | 54 | 4 |
