FANTASY AS CRITIQUE AND COGNITION (2006, 3,200 words) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Postmodern Culture, 2020
This essay offers a comparative reading of the post-Marxian work of Jean Baudrillard and François Laruelle, arguing that both thinkers seek to establish a way forward for theory that remains faithful to the spirit of Marxism without reaffirming dialectics. In order to do so, both turn to the concept and strategy of "fiction." Their fictionalized Marxian theory intervenes in reality in the form of writing without reaffirming the dialectical presumption that the Real and concept can be exchanged. To fictionalize Marxism in non-dialectical terms repudiates the logic of exchange, enabling us to think against capital in non-capitalist terms. This essay offers a comparative reading of the post-Marxian work of Jean Baudrillard and François Laruelle to argue that these thinkers are linked by two elective affinities. First, both seek to establish a way forward for theory that remains faithful to the spirit of Marxism without reaffirming dialectics. Second, both turn to the concept and strategy of "fiction" in order to accomplish this task;, Baudrillard names his work "theory-fiction," and Laruelle names his "non-philosophical" approach to theory "philo-fiction" (short for "philosophical fiction"). I argue that their turn to fiction grows out of a shared conviction that theory must forge ahead without reference to the Real. I capitalize the Real, as does Laruelle, because it names what both thinkers conceive (in different ways) as the transcendental horizon that can never be encompassed by the signs and simulacra of theoretical concepts. This axiomatic starting point organizes Baudrillard's
Journal of Language and Politics, 2021
Many scholars have drawn attention to the affective power that aspects of discourse and practice exert in our social and political life. Fantasy is a concept that, like structures of feeling, rhetoric, myth, metaphor, and utopia, has generated illuminating explanatory and interpretive insights with which to better understand the operation of this power. In this piece I argue that there are distinctive virtues in affirming the value of the category of fantasy, from a theoretical point of view. Importantly, however, I also argue that the qualification 'critical' in Critical Fantasy Studies captures something about how such studies can draw out the normative, ideological, and politico-strategic implications of psychoanalytic insights and observations, and thus become part of a broader enterprise in critical theoretical and empirical research.
Fantasy as a Political Category
Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalytic Political Theory [preprint], 2018
This chapter examines Žižek’s theorizations of ‘ideological fantasy’ and its different manifestations or veils (Žižek 1997: 1-35). We begin (part 1) by recalling the fundamental coordinates of Freud’s, then Lacan’s, conceptions of fantasy, allowing a theoretical lineage to be established which accounts for Žižek’s coaptation and extension of what was originally a clinical term. Part 2 then turns, in this light, to Žižek’s reformulation of ‘fantasy’ in the context of a post-Marxian theory of ideology. First, we pursue Žižek’s critique of the Marxist notion of ‘false consciousness’, by way of his famous analyses of ideological cynicism, into his theory of ideological disidentification, and the function of ideological fantasy in structuring groups’ quasi-transgressive forms of jouissance. Second, we look at Žižek’s analyses of sublime objects of ideology, and the function of ideological fantasy in papering over social antagonism or ‘the Real’ by constructing narratives of the loss or theft of jouissance. As an avenue for future research, we show just how well and powerfully Žižek’s theory allows us to comprehend contemporary Right-wing populism as an ideological formation.
The following thesis is an exploration of a similarity in the works of Marx and Nietzsche: that for both, the ‘objective’ is not that which is unmolested by human beings, but rather the reverse is true, in that the ‘objective’ is that which human beings make, though not consciously and not according to any (human or inhuman) plan. This thesis first studies how the ‘objective’ is made for Marx, and the role of the human imagination in this making. It will then do the same with Nietzsche. Finally, this thesis attempts to develop a materialist theory of the imagination beyond Marx and Nietzsche, with and against the conception of the imagination of Cornelius Castoriadis, which it argues is ‘idealist’, and limited by this idealism.
The Dreadful Credibility of Absurd Things: A Tendency in Fantasy Theory
Historical Materialism, 2002
In Britain it has been estimated that 10% of all books sold are fantasy. And of that fantasy, 10% is written by Terry Pratchett. So, do the sums: 1% of all books sold in Britain are written by Terry Pratchett. Coo. 2 Although it is unclear whether, by 'fantasy', Butler intends a narrow de nition (generic fantasy, i.e., imitation Tolkien heroic or epic fantasy and sword 'n' sorcery) or a broad de nition (the fantastic genres, i.e., generic fantasy, sf (science ction), horror, supernatural gothic, magic realism, etc.), such statistics nonethless make the need for a Marxist theory-or preferably, Marxist theories-of the fantastic selfevident. The last twenty or thirty years have witnessed a remarkable expansion in the study of fantastic texts and genres. Literary studies has embraced the gothic, fairy tales and sf, and screen studies has developed a complex critique of horror and is now beginning
USES OF MARX: THE IMPLICIT OF THE MANIFESTED (OR, DEMYSTIFICATION AND CRITIQUE) (2016, 19,500 words)
This integral version was first published in Rab-Rab [Helsinki] no. 3 (2016): 35-72., 2016
A smaller paper on the Communist Manifesto was first written by Marc Angenot + DS in French and English and redone much later by DS only. It is divided into: 1. The Figuration of Demystification, which deals with imagery and metaphors, and results in an underlying englobing image that is also a concept, that of the Naked Truth; 2. [Marx’s] Oscillation and Its Limits: Demystifying Scientism and Anti-Essentialism; 3. A brief conclusion reveals that if we cannot accept the deterministic aspect of Marx, we cannot do without his horizon.
Marxism and Literature: An Overview
Asian journal of multidisciplinary studies, 2016
Marxism gives a new dimension to the study of literature by laying stress upon the importance of history within which various social and cultural trends emerge. It helps us to gain a practical and systematic world view by devoting self to the intense study of history. It evaluates the modern society from a unique prism of master-slave view— Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. The account of the horrid tale of proletariat’s oppression is recorded well in the seminal works of Karl Marx like Das Capital , The Communist Manifesto , The German Ideology and so on. A literary artist is deeply affected by the social, economic and political upheavels in the society and tries to give a true account of it in his literary works. Marxism helps the artist to unravel the self interest of the bourgeoisie by putting an end to the patriarchal and feudal idyllic relations which shook the ecstacies of brutal exploitation coated with religious fervor and sentimentalism. In this paper, an attempt has been made...
A Society Without Imagination: A Lament
2022
This paper explores the loss of imagination in contemporary society as a consequence of the modern tendency to associate the 'real' with the material and quantitative. With reference to the development of Realism by Marx and Freud and its current role as the foundation of modern capitalism, the author draws on the work of Carl Jung, Brazilian theologian Ruben Alves, and cultural theorist Mark Fisher to expose this development and reassert the vital role of the imagination. The subjugation of imagination to Realism is regarded as especially tragic because Realism as an ideology underscores and sponsors a social structure in which the world is divided between those who have power and those upon whom power is exercised. The loss of a proper recognition of the place of the arts in socio-political re-imagination and hope for change is exposed and lamented. Imagination is viewed as not altogether lost, being particularly vested in children and the creative arts, but rather suppressed. In conclusion, despite the way that contemporary social reality presents as permanent and incontrovertible, the paper makes a fervent plea for the recovery of space in which the human soul can reassert its needs and longings into the world. "All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination?"-C.G. Jung 1 A tragedy of modern society is our loss of faith in the visionary power of imagination to bring forth as yet unconceived possibilities. This depreciation of imagination has its origins in the modern tendency to associate the 'real' with the material and quantitative. What counts is what can be counted. The natural corollary to this is the world of the unreal, into which we now lump imagination, fantasy, illusion, and delusion as interchangeable modes of unreality. A world of facts has become privileged over against the world of the imagination. Our world now belongs to the Realists. Rubem Alves lays out the essential dogmas of the Realist worldview: "Imagination must be displaced by science, dreams by analysis, our wishes by an objective understanding of the historical processes. The essence of Marxist