Book Review: Rex Butler (ed.), The Žižek Dictionary
| Author | David S Moon |
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917713465 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsPolitical Theory |
610 Political Studies Review 15(4)
should be concern about the fragility of democ-
racy and its institutions.
Spiro Metaxas
(Independent Scholar)
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929917720420
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The Žižek Dictionary by Rex Butler (ed.).
Durham: Acumen Publishing, 2014. 299pp., £12.99
(p/b), ISBN 9781844655823
As the name suggests, The Žižek Dictionary pre-
sents a guide to ‘Žižekian thought’, with 63 indi-
vidual contributions, each focused on a key term
or intellectual encounter, within Žižek’s work.
The entries themselves are short and sharp – not
more than four pages each – and cover such con-
cepts as ‘Act’, ‘Desire/drive’, ‘Fantasy’, ‘Jew’,
‘Parallax’, ‘Symptom’ and ‘Vanishing Mediator’
alongside important intellectual interlocutors
including Louis Althusser, Judith Butler, David
Lynch, Lenin and ‘Žižek’ (a final entry penned
by Žižek himself, revolving around some of his
‘guilty pleasures’).
The contributors include a mixture of
well-known figures in Žižek studies – for
example, Adrian Johnston (on ‘Cognitivism/
neuroscience’), Glyn Daly (on ‘Enjoyment/
jouissance’) and Jodi Dean (on ‘Law’) – and
also new voices, with a number of PhD candi-
dates providing prominent entries. As the editor,
Rex Butler, explains, he ‘wanted the widest vari-
ety of scholars who were interested in the work
of Žižek to be represented in this dictionary:
young, old, male, female, from all parts of the
world and at all stages of their careers’ (p. xviii).
This editorial decision pays off handsomely
in illustrating the range and applicability of the
theory under discussion. As far as a diction-
ary’s practical task of elucidation through
delineation, categorisation and cross-indexing
goes, the book is a success. Either as individu-
ally insightful stand-alone pieces or as part of
the totality, the entries should provide routes
into Žižek for new readers and further valuable
commentaries for those already immersed.
That such a text exists – and succeeds – is not a
minor matter.
Žižek, the back-cover proclaims, is
‘undoubtedly the most popular and discussed
philosopher in the world today’. Writing this
review just 2 years on from publication, and
following Žižek’s recent dialectically inspired
endorsement of the Trump victory in the 2016
US election and his interventions regarding
the refugee crisis in Europe, the first claim
seems more than overstated; there is, cur-
rently, an increasingly splenetic rejection of
Žižek across Leftist social media. Such rejec-
tion of ‘the Elvis of Cultural Theory’ is not
new, but it feels more substantial.
However, this reaction points to an issue
within the second part of the back-cover blurb.
Because yes, Žižek is much discussed, but
arguably not as a philosopher, and often with
little more than surface engagement. To this
end, a serious but inviting text such as this is
even more valuable. At only £12.99, it is also
exceedingly good value, hopefully extending
its reach beyond a prominent place within uni-
versity reading lists.
David S Moon
(University of Bath)
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929917713465
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Ontopower: War, Powers, and the State of
Perception by Brian Massumi. Durham and
London: Duke University Press, 2015. 306pp.,
£16.99 (p/b), ISBN 9780822359951
In Ontopower: War, Powers, and the State of
Perception, Brian Massumi offers a theory of
power to explain the contemporary era of instability
and the near-continual conflict we find ourselves in.
An exploration of the contemporary military opera-
tional logic of preemption, Ontopower argues that
there has been a modulation of the concept of
preemption from the focus on an evident and exist-
ing danger to a danger that has not yet emerged.
Ultimately, the unknowability of threats
in the international system has resulted in an
environment wherein fear of potentialities –
potential threats – is exerting force and driv-
ing policy. This medium of fear, whereby a
threat is felt into being, and the accompany-
ing threat-fear feedback loop, has and will
result in conflict beginning without an insti-
gating incident; the operational logic of
preemption has taken hold. However,
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