Book Review: Slavoj Žižek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology (London: Verso, 1999, 409 pp., £20.00 hbk., £16.00 pbk.)
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| Author | Jasmina Husanovic |
| DOI | 10.1177/03058298000290030931 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Millennium
984
the Asian crisis. From an institutiona l perspective, he shows t he strong negatives
effects and spillovers from the crisis that have undermine d t ransregional
arrangements such as APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operati on) and ASEM
(Asia Europe M eeting).
In sum, even if this compilatio n avoids reciting easy clichés a bout t he Asian
crisis, those who have read extensively o n the Asian crisis will not find many of
the ideas in this volume g roundbreaking. However, for those with l ess exposure to
the su bject matter, the book provides compreh ensive coverage of the Asian crisis
from an econo mic, political, and social point of view.
SIMONE LUCATE LLO
Simone Lucat ello is a Research Student in the Depart ment of International
Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science
Slavoj iek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology
(London: Verso, 1 999, 409 pp., £20.00 hbk., £16.0 0 pbk.).
Slavoj i ek’s treatise on t he political ontolog y of the Ca rtesian subject is not o nly
a timely philo sophical, but also—and most crucially—‘an eng aged politic al
interventio n’: it charts promising ways out of t he impasses which su ffocate
authentic emanc ipatory pol itics in the age of glo bal capita lism and liberal
multicult uralism. This reasserti ng manifesto o f the Carte sian subjectivi ty unravels
its fo rgotten or unacknowledged kernels in contrast to the predo minant and o ften
simplistic images and/or critiques of the modern self. Suc h effort then branches
into related assessme nts of the contemporary Real of gl obal Capital, contributing to
the resu scitation of th e leftist, anti -capita list political proje ct. Hence, the a im is to
counteract b oth the philoso phical flaws and the debilitating ethico-political effects
inherent in the ‘nursery tale of th e spectre of Cartesian subjecti vity’ which is being
exorcised by the ‘holy allian ce’ b etween many major, often adversarial academic
powers toda y (pp. 1-2.).
The Tick lish Subject assumes a tripartite structure (a some what Hegelian dya dic
triad, perhap s?). The first chapter of each part o f the book offers a pi ercing analysis
of a parti cular critique of Cartesi an subjectivity, German Idea lism and Heidegger’s
attempted traversa l of the modern subjec t; post-Althusserian theorising s of Baliba r,
Rancière, Laclau, and especi ally Badiou; and, deconst ructionist thoug ht and
Butler’s theory of pe rformati vity, respectiv ely. The problems identified are t hen
fully engaged within the subsequent chapter, which maps out potential exit routes,
subjectivi ty and refle xivity; political sub jectivisation and a le ftist tra versal of post-
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