| Slavoj Zizek: Philosopher (Ljubljana, 1949). One of the most active philosophical thinkers of our time. His critical theory assimilates the principles of Marxism, which he unusually filters through Lacanian psychoanalysis. Zizek is a prolific essayist, introducing the general reader to philosophy in texts in which he explains traditional thinking by way of examples from popular culture, such as commercial cinema or opera. His early work (The Sublime Object of Ideology and For They Know Not What They Do) is extremely critical of the philosophy of postmodernism and the renunciation of authentic discourse as an ideological imposture. In parallel, Zizek has sought to reinstate key figures from the legacy of Marxism (Repeating Lenin) in order to return to a politics with revolutionary roots (Love without mercy. Towards a politics of truth). His numerous books also include: The Ticklish Subject: the Absent Centre of Political Ontology (Verso, 1999), The Fragile Absolute: or, why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for? (Verso, 2000), Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism?: Five Interventions in the (mis)use of a notion (Verso, 2002), The Parallax View, The MIT Press, 2006, and, more recently, Violence: Six Sideways Reflections (Picador, 2008). |