First published in 1989,The Sublime Object of Ideologywas }i~ek's breakthrough work, and is still regarded by many as his masterpiece. It was an iconoclastic reinvention of ideology critique that introduced the English-speaking world to }i~ek's scorching brand of cultural and philosophical commentary and the multifaceted ways in which he explained it. Tying together concepts from aesthetics, psychoanalytic theory, cultural studies and the philosophy of belief, it changed the face of contemporary commentary and remains the underpinning of much of his subsequent thinking.
This compelling guide introduces all of the influential thinkers and foundational concepts which }i~ek draws on to create this seminal work. Grounding the text's many and varied references in the work of Peter Sloterdijk, Saul Kripke, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Immanuel Kant and G.W.F. Hegel, amongst others, helps students who are encountering this mercurial writer for the first time to understand the philosophical context of his early explorations. Each of }i~ek's key arguments are unpacked and laid out, alongside an invaluable account of howThe Sublime Object of Ideologyimpacted the critical terrain on which it landed.
Rafael Winkleris a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the author of
Philosophy of Finitude(Bloomsbury, 2018) and editor of
Phenomenology and Naturalism(2017) and
Identity and Difference: Contemporary Debates on the Self(2016).
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Part I: Context
The Habermas-Foucault debate, and Althusser
Laclau and Mouffe; Antagonism and the Real of the Drive
Part II: Overview of Themes
Part III: Reading of the text
1.1 What is Money?
1.2 Exchange; Alfred Sohn-Rethel
1.3 Cynical consciousness; Peter Sloterdijk
1.4 Belief and Ideology
1.5 Althusser; Interpellation and Misrecogn
![}i~ek's The Sublime Object of Ideology: A Readers Guide [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/2/0/1/2_7204802.jpg "}i~ek's The Sublime Object of Ideology: A Readers Guide [Hardcover]")