Slavoj Žižek’s Dialectical Materialist Marxism Robert Adam Crich Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cardiff University 2015 Declarations This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… Summary This thesis offers a systematic account of Žižek’s dialectical materialist Marxism that follows the development of his work from his initial Lacanian critique of Marxism and Stalinist totalitarianism, to his attempt to develop a new form of Communist politics including a conception of a Communist utopia. The core and overarching argument of this thesis is that Žižek develops his positions in response to three challenges that he confronts after the limitations of his previous radical democratic politics become evident. These are: an alternative to traditional Marxism and liberal democracy that continues to protect against repeating the errors of the former; an analysis of late-capitalism at libidinal, political and economic levels to explain new forms of ideology, the limitations of liberal democratic politics, and the continuing role of capitalism and class in our contemporary world; and, the reformulation of the Lacanian category of the Real in order to overcome the deadlock of the opposition between das Ding and lack and the political conservatism it produces. In the analysis of Žižek’s response to these challenges, I examine the tension that emerges between the Lacanian and Marxist dimensions of Žižek’s dialectical materialism and how he manages this tension in order to avoid returning to the problems associated with traditional Marxism. ABBREVIATIONS...................................................................................................................................................III CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 1.1. DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM...........................................................................................................................1 1.2. WHY IS A CRITICAL EXPLORATION OF ŽIŽEK'S DIALECTICAL MATERIALIST MARXISM IMPORTANT?..........3 1.3. THE ŽIŽEKIAN FIELD.......................................................................................................................................5 1.4. AIMS AND METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................................9 1.5. "MARXISM"...................................................................................................................................................11 1.6. PLAN OF THE THESIS.....................................................................................................................................15 POLITICAL AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS.....................................................................................20 CHAPTER 2: ŽIŽEK'S LACANIAN CRITIQUE OF MARXISM AND STALINISM.................................21 2.1. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................................21 2.2. "REALLY EXISTING SOCIALISM" AS A UNIVERSITY DISCOURSE..................................................................22 2.2.1. The Malevolent Truth of Knowledge....................................................................................................24 2.2.2. The Cynical Mode of Subjectivity.........................................................................................................29 2.2.3. The Political Psychoses of Stalinism....................................................................................................32 2.3. THE PARTY AS FETISH, THE SUBJECT AS PERVERT......................................................................................37 2.4. MARX'S FANTASY.........................................................................................................................................41 CHAPTER 3: ŽIŽEKIAN RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND ITS DISCONTENTS.......................................49 3.1. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................................49 3.2. ŽIŽEKIAN RADICAL DEMOCRACY.................................................................................................................51 3.2.1. The Totalitarian Temptation and the Democratic Imaginary..............................................................54 3.3. THE TROUBLE WITH DEMOCRACY...............................................................................................................59 3.3.1. The Theoretical Issues With Radical Democracy From a Lacanian Perspective................................60 3.3.2. Really Existing Democracy and its Discontents...................................................................................63 3.4. CONCLUSION: ŽIŽEK'S THEORETICAL AND POLITICAL DEADLOCKS............................................................66 DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM.......................................................................................................................70 CHAPTER 4: ŽIŽEK’S DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM.............................................................................71 4.1. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................................71 4.2. LEARNING THE LESSONS OF MARXISM PAST...............................................................................................73 4.2.1. Dialectics without the Other: Hegel through Lacan............................................................................74 4.3. THE DIALECTICAL MATERIALIST AS ANALYST............................................................................................76 4.4. TOTALITY AND ITS FAILURES........................................................................................................................81 4.4.1. Socio-Political Symptoms.....................................................................................................................82 4.4.2. Vanishing Mediators............................................................................................................................83 4.4.3. The Law and its Obscene Undersides..................................................................................................85 4.4.4. The Infinite Judgement.........................................................................................................................86 4.5. BREAKING THE THEORETICAL DEADLOCK I: TRANSFORMATION, THE REAL, HISTORICITY........................89 4.6. CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................................98 CHAPTER 5: THE POLITICS OF TRUTH.....................................................................................................101 5.1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................101 5.2. THE EVENT OF THE NOT-ALL: ŽIŽEK AND BADIOU...................................................................................103 5.2.1. Truth and Materialism........................................................................................................................106 5.2.2. The Event and The Subject.................................................................................................................109 5.3. THE ACT......................................................................................................................................................111 5.4. SUBTRACTION.............................................................................................................................................114 5.4.1. Active Nihilism and Purification........................................................................................................119 5.4.2. Breaking the Theoretical Deadlock II: Between the Democratic and Totalitarian Political Subject121 5.5. THE TENSION AT THE HEART OF A MARXIST-LACANIAN DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM............................125