ABSTRACT
Slavoj Zizek’s critical theory turns upon a synthesis of Lacanian, Hegelian and Marxist ideas. One might consider Islam the Real of Zizek’s theoretical standpoint. Despite the basic Hegelian-Lacanian framework, which underpins Zizek’s theology, he recognises the proximity to which his reading brings him to theologians like Soren Kierkegaard. Abandoned in a professional wilderness, Zizek became part of a significant group of Slovenian scholars who engaged with the theories of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and with whom he founded the Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis in Ljubljana. From Lacan, Zizek inherits a “meta-psychology,” three orders or registers that provide a structural framework for thinking through subjectivity: the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real. At the heart of Zizek’s approach to materialism is a rejection of the given choices between adopting scientific rationalism or a postmodern linguistic paradigm. In some respects, Zizek’s turn to theology adheres to the Marxist principle that social criticism begins with the criticism of religion.
