Critical framing of Žižek’s work in his Balkan and Yugoslav context, as his repressed “maternal space,” in order to test overall validity of his so-called radical politicalpraxis iswhat distinguishesHomer’sbookfromallother books onŽižek. Dušan I. Bjeli´c author of Normalizing the Balkans. Geopolitics of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry (2011). Sean Homer shows the political value of a strict and profoundly antagonistic reading of Slavoj Žižek’s work, a reading that does not shy from a necessary degree of interpretative violence to open up fissures in a body of work that pre- tends to be a system. With the context as the Balkans and crucial conceptual leverage provided by Alain Badiou, this radical scholarly book elaborates a dis- tinctive argument in which violence is pitted against violence. Here we have a body of work as symptom laid bare, and through the course of the reading the reader can come to see more clearly how that symptom consists of a series of contradictions, speaks of a problem that it is not yet conscious of. Homer makes this symptom speak. Ian Parker, Psychoanalyst, Manchester, Professor of Management, University of Leicester, UK. This page intentionally left blank Ž Ž SLAVOJ I EK AND RADICAL POLITICS In this book, Sean Homer addresses Slavoj Žižek’s work in a specific political conjuncture, his political interventions in the Balkans. The charge of incon- sistency and contradiction is frequently leveled at Žižek’s politics, a charge he openly embraces in the name of “pragmatism.” Homer argues that his interven- tions in the Balkans expose the dangers of this pragmatism for the renewal of Leftist politics that he calls for. The book assesses Žižek’s political interventions insofar as they advance his self-proclaimed “ruthlessly radical” aims about chan- ging the world. Homer argues the Balkans can be seen as Žižek’s symptom, that element which does not fit into the system, but speaks its truth and reveals what the system cannot acknowledge about itself. In Part II Homer explores Žižek’s radicalism through his critique of Alain Badiou, arguing that Badiou’s “affirmationism” provides a firmer grounding for the renewal of the left than Žižek’s negative gesture analyzed in Part I. What distinguishes Žižek from the majority of the contemporary Left today is his valorization of violence; Homer tackles this issue head-on in relation to political violence in Greece. Finally, Homer defends the utopian impulse on the radical Left against its Lacanian critics. Sean Homer is Professor of Film and Literature at American University in Bulgaria. This page intentionally left blank Ž Ž SLAVOJ I EK AND RADICAL POLITICS Sean Homer Add Add Add AddAddAdd Add AddAdd AdAddd Firstpublished2016 byRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 andbyRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2016Taylor&Francis TherightofSeanHomertobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen assertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe publishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintent toinfringe. LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Names:Homer,Sean,author. Title:SlavojŽižekandRadicalPolitics/SeanHomer. Description:Firstpublished2016.|NewYork,NY:Routledge,2016.| Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2016003533|ISBN9781138643574(hbk)|ISBN 9781138643581(pbk) Subjects:LCSH:Žižek,Slavoj.|Philosophy–Slovenia.|Nationalism– FormerYugoslavrepublics. Classification:LCCB4870.Z594H662016|DDC199/.4973–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2016003533 ISBN:978-1-138-64357-4(hbk) ISBN:978-1-138-64358-1(pbk) ISBN:978-1-315-62933-9(ebk) TypesetinBembo byTaylor&FrancisBooks For Ella, Alice, James and Anneta This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Copyright x Acknowledgement xi Preface xii PARTI Žižek in the Balkans 1 3 Introduction: The case of Kosovo 1 It’s the political economy, stupid!: On Žižek’s Marxism 11 2 Nationalism, ideology and Balkan cinema: Re-reading Kusturica’s Underground 28 40 3 To begin at the beginning again: Žižek in Yugoslavia PARTII Radicalizing Žižek 57 Introduction: Thinking through Žižek and beyond 59 4 The politics of comradeship: Philosophical commitment and construction in Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek 67 5 On the “Critique of Violence” and revolutionary suicide 84 6 Resources of hope: A critique of Lacanian anti-utopianism 96 111 Index