Zizek on Ideology and the Relationship Between Ideology and "The Real"
Zizek on Ideology and the Relationship
Between Ideology and “The Real”
`
CMNS 410
Professor Rick Gruneau
December 13, 2011
Zizek on Ideology and the Relationship Between Ideology and “The Real”
Slavoj Zizek is one of the leading theorists on ideology since the 1990’s and his conceptions of the real versus the symbolic versus the imagined are of particular importance when dissecting the question ‘what is ideology?’ Zizek’s critique of ideology and attempt to unpack it’s inner workings is fascinating, he is a powerful intellectual who aims to expose the ”fake” workings of society. In this paper I will outline Zizek’s definition and approach to the study of ideology, paying particular attention to the relationships he draws between ideology and “the real,” as opposed to “the imagined” and “the symbolic”.
Zizek opens the book Mapping Ideology (1994) with the introduction “The Spectre of Ideology”, where he defines and openly criticizes the idea of ideology and its illusory personality. First he presents us with the idea that ideology is a sort of matrix, “a generative matrix that regulates the relationship between visible and non-visible, imaginable and non-imaginable, as well as changes in that relationship” (italics mine, p.1). He further explains not everything that seems to be ideological, necessarily is, claiming that unless there is a link to power relations in the social realm he does not consider something to be ideological. He points out that sometimes what we consider to be ideological in fact is not; but also how at other times, things which we may not perceive to be ideological, actually maintain a very strong ideological orientation. He states that the “starting point of the critique of ideology has to be the full acknowledgment of the fact that it is easily possible to lie in the guise of truth” – ideology that is – and this is an important realization for it dispels a common misconception we have of ideology, especially here in the west that,
Between Ideology and “The Real”
`
CMNS 410
Professor Rick Gruneau
December 13, 2011
Zizek on Ideology and the Relationship Between Ideology and “The Real”
Slavoj Zizek is one of the leading theorists on ideology since the 1990’s and his conceptions of the real versus the symbolic versus the imagined are of particular importance when dissecting the question ‘what is ideology?’ Zizek’s critique of ideology and attempt to unpack it’s inner workings is fascinating, he is a powerful intellectual who aims to expose the ”fake” workings of society. In this paper I will outline Zizek’s definition and approach to the study of ideology, paying particular attention to the relationships he draws between ideology and “the real,” as opposed to “the imagined” and “the symbolic”.
Zizek opens the book Mapping Ideology (1994) with the introduction “The Spectre of Ideology”, where he defines and openly criticizes the idea of ideology and its illusory personality. First he presents us with the idea that ideology is a sort of matrix, “a generative matrix that regulates the relationship between visible and non-visible, imaginable and non-imaginable, as well as changes in that relationship” (italics mine, p.1). He further explains not everything that seems to be ideological, necessarily is, claiming that unless there is a link to power relations in the social realm he does not consider something to be ideological. He points out that sometimes what we consider to be ideological in fact is not; but also how at other times, things which we may not perceive to be ideological, actually maintain a very strong ideological orientation. He states that the “starting point of the critique of ideology has to be the full acknowledgment of the fact that it is easily possible to lie in the guise of truth” – ideology that is – and this is an important realization for it dispels a common misconception we have of ideology, especially here in the west that,
References: Gerofsky, S. (2010). The impossibility of 'real-life ' word problems (according to Bakhtin, Lacan, Zizek and Baudrillard). Discourse: Studies In The Cultural Politics Of Education, 31(1), 61-73.doi:10.1080/01596300903465427 Lucaites, J., & Biesecker, B. A. (1998). Rhetorical Studies and the 'New Psychoanalysis: What 's the Real Problem? Or Framing the Problem of the Real. Quarterly Journal Of Speech, 84(2), 222. Stavrakakis, Y. (1997). Ambiguous ideology and the Lacanian twist. Journal of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, 8, 117-30. Žižek, S. (1994a). The spectre of ideology. In S. Žižek (Ed.), Mapping ideology (pp. 1-33). London & New York: Verso.