[Reader-list] Žižek, Rancière, Foucault, Bourdieu…

[Navayana Publishing]

Navayana presents

Slavoj Žižek

Navayana is delighted to present “the Elvis of cultural theory”, the
academic “rock star”—Slavoj Žižek. The author of over 40 books, many of them
top sellers, the Slovenian Marxist philosopher and cultural critic will tour
India from 2 to 9 Jan 2010 on the occasion of the launch of his latest work,
First as Tragedy, Then as Farce—a bravura analysis of the current global
crisis. His books deal with topics ranging from philosophy and Freudian and
Lacanian psychoanalysis, to theology, film, opera and radical politics. He
was a candidate for, and nearly won, the Presidency of Slovenia in the first
democratic elections after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1990. According to
a profile in the New Yorker, Slovenia has a “reputation disproportionately
large for its size due to the work of Slavoj Žižek.”

In the first Navayana annual lecture series, Žižek shall deliver two talks
in Delhi (4 and 5 Jan), and one each in Hyderabad (7 Jan) and Kochi (9 Jan).
Besides, there shall be screenings of films on and by him, and discussions
of his work as pre-event shows. In Kerala, the Malayalam translation of
Žižek’s classic, The Sublime Object of Ideology, will be launched during his
visit.

First as Tragedy, Then as Farce
Paperback   B Format   156 pages   Rs 200

“The title of this book is intended as an elementary IQ test for the reader:
if the first association it generates is the vulgar anti-communist cliché
—“You are right—today, after the tragedy of twentieth-century
totalitarianism, all the talk about a return to communism can only be
farcical!”—then I sincerely advise you to stop here. Indeed, the book should
be forcibly confiscated from you, since it deals with an entirely different
tragedy and farce, namely, the two events which mark the beginning and the
end of the first decade of the twenty-first century: the attacks of
September 11, 2001 and the financial meltdown of 2008. We should note the
similarity of President Bush’s language in his addresses to the American
people after 9/11 and after the financial collapse: they sounded very much
like two versions of the same speech. Both times Bush evoked the threat to
the American way of life and the need to take fast and decisive action to
cope with the danger. Both times he called for the partial suspension of
American values (guarantees of individual freedom, market capitalism) in
order to save these very same values. From whence comes this similarity?”

Slavoj Žižek declares: “You’ve had your anti-communist fun, and you are
pardoned for it—time to get serious once again!”



The Žižek India Tour Schedule


24 Dec 2009. 3 p.m. Screenings
The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, in 3 parts. 150 mins

Followed by “Žižek!”, 71 mins.
Sarai-CSDS. 29 Rajpur Road, Civil Lines, Delhi



2 Jan 2010. 7 p.m. Screening
Žižek! A feature documentary directed by Astra Taylor, 71 mins.
Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

4 Jan 2010. 5 p.m. Lecture
“Ideology in the Post-ideological World: The Case of Hollywood”
Sarai-CSDS. 29 Rajpur Road, Civil Lines, Delhi

5 Jan 2010. 7 p.m. Lecture
“Tragedy and Farce”
Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi



7 Jan 2010. 11 a.m. Lecture
“Capitalism and Particular Life-Worlds: In Defense of Universalism”
ICSSR Auditorium, English & Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad



9 Jan 2010. 5 p.m. Lecture and Panel Discussion
“Whither Left?”
Town Hall, Kochi.





The Žižek Media Kit

Watch Žižek on BBC News Hardtalk, 24 Nov 2009:
http://versouk.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/bbc-news-hardtalk-slavoj-zizek-communism-a-total-failure/

Profile in New Yorker: http://www.lacan.com/ziny.htm

Terry Eagleton on Žižek in Times Literary Supplement:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3800980.ece

A key to the key ideas of Žižek: http://www.lacan.com/zizekchro1.htm

A comprehensive Bibliography of Žižek:
http://www.lacan.com/bibliographyzi.htm

Brief summaries of his key books: http://www.lacan.com/zizekchro2.htm

 Žižek! The Movie (to be screened at India Habitat Centre on 2 Jan 2009):
http://www.zizekthemovie.com/

The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (to be screened at Sarai, CSDS, 24 Dec 2009):
http://www.thepervertsguide.com/press.html

To download pictures of Žižek, click here:
http://zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=zizek&mode=downloads


Along with Žižek’s title (First as Tragedy, Then as Farce), under the Other
Headings series Navayana launches affordable South Asian editions of Jacques
Rancière’s The Future of the Image (Rs 200), Michel Foucault’s Abnormal:
Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–75 (Rs 490), and Pierre Bourdieu’s
Political Interventions: Social Science and Political Action (Rs 490).

For details and further information on the Žižek tour contact S. Anand at
anand at navayana.org

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