73 min listen
Zizek on Wokeness: A Conversation
ratings:
Length:
74 minutes
Released:
Apr 17, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
On Feb 22, 2023, Compact Magazine published an article by Slavoj Zizek titled, Wokeness is Here to Stay. In this article, Zizek makes several claims about the existence of woke and trans lobbies, exercising, somehow, power over a variety of public and private organizations and institutions. Unsurprisingly, this was controversial in left circles generally and among people who admire Zizek’s body of work and, let’s be honest, persona. In the days and weeks following the article’s release there was a rush of activity - podcasts, essays and so on - either condemning or supporting Zizek (mostly supporting). The supportive responses used an interesting tactic encouraging people to, essentially, ignore the phrases Zizek clearly used, such as woke lobby to look deeper at the supposed Lacanian meanings behind it all. For RC Charles Roberts and yours truly, this smelled of obfuscation and bad faith in a Sartrean sense. Both of us have enjoyed, and in various ways, learned from Zizek’s work on ideology, particularly as applied to film (which is one of the reasons Film Conversations seemed a good place to talk about this), so there was no tossing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. However, Zizek’s arguments, flimsy and offensive as they are, deserved an unequivocal response. So we each wrote an essay, analyzing and responding to Zizek’s Compact Magazine piece. Charles’ is entitled Living the Dream: On Slavoj Zizek and Wokeness and mine is Just One More Thing: Slavoj Zizek on Wokeness. We take very different approaches which, in the conversation you’re about to hear, we’ll discuss. I hope you enjoy it. Links: Wokeness is Here to Stay by Slavoj Zizek https://compactmag.com/article/wokeness-is-here-to-stay Living the Dream: On Slavoj Zizek and Wokeness by R.C. Roberts https://ferocia.substack.com/p/living-the-dream-on-slavoj-zizek Just One More Thing: Slavoj Zizek on Wokeness by Dwayne Monroe https://ferocia.substack.com/p/just-one-more-thing-slavoj-zizek Slavoj Zizek Vs Will Self in Dangerous Ideas https://youtu.be/CId1iOWQUuo
Released:
Apr 17, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (10)
Blade Runner: Four Views: This is an audio version of a video I recorded with Robert Beshara, RC Roberts and Matthew Flisfeder about the original, 1982 release of the movie ‘Blade Runner’ on the occasion of the film’s 40th anniversary. This was recorded before the Film... by Film Conversations