Zizek in Ideology plus the Relationship Among Ideology and “The Real” ` CMNS 410 Mentor Rick Gruneau December 13, 2011 Zizek on Ideology and the Marriage Between Ideology and “The Real” Slavoj Zizek is one of the leading theorists on ideology since the 1990’s and his ideas of the genuine versus the emblematic versus the dreamed are of particular importance when dissecting the question ‘what is ideology? Zizek’s evaluate of ideology and attempt to unpack is actually inner operation is exciting, he is a powerful intellectual who also aims to reveal the “fake” workings of society. Through this paper Let me outline Zizek’s definition and approach to the study of ideology, paying out particular attention to the relationships he attracts between ideology and “the real, ” as opposed to “the imagined” and “the symbolic”. Zizek starts the book Mapping Ideology (1994) while using introduction “The Spectre of Ideology”, where he defines and openly criticizes the idea of ideology and its illusory personality.
First he presents all of us with the proven fact that ideology is a sort of matrix, “a generative matrix that regulates the partnership between obvious and non-visible, imaginable and non-imaginable, along with changes in that relationship” (italics mine, l. 1). This individual further clarifies not everything that seems to be ideological, necessarily is usually, claiming that unless we have a link to electric power relations inside the social sphere he would not consider anything to be ideological.
He remarks that occasionally what we consider to be ideological in fact is usually not, but also how at other times, things which we may not see to be ideological, actually maintain a very good ideological positioning. He declares that the “starting point in the critique of ideology must be the full verification of the fact that it truly is easily possible to lie in the guise of truth” – ideology that is – and this is an important realization for doing it ispels a common misconception we certainly have of ideology, especially here in the western world that, ideology is about laying or misleading others and society. Instead Zizek posits the idea that the information of a meaning is certainly not what makes it ideological, although instead is it doesn’t “the method this content relates to the subjective position implied by its very own process of enunciation” that makes it so (Zizek year 1994, p. 8).
In other words, irrespective of whether the content (of a message or perhaps object or perhaps interaction) is valid or fake, it becomes ideological the moment that content capabilities to achieve “some relation of social domination” and even more important, he provides “in a great inherently non-transparent way”, repeating that often occasions ideology is actually of a deceiving nature although not always in articles (italics my own, p. 8), it is from this standpoint that individuals can begin to understand and analyze the concept of ideology.
It is important to notice here, though Zizek stresses the importance of recognizing aspect of power relations (rather than content) which makes up ideology, he warns this can also be disadvantageous if it decreases “the intellectual value of the term ‘ideology’ and makes it into a simply expression of social circumstances” (p. 9). Considering this, as Gerofsky (2010) talks about, Zizek assumes on Hegel’s theory of the triad as a heuristic for further growing the theory of ideology, which is something Let me address later on in this daily news, after we go somewhat deeper in defining ideology.
According to Zezik after that, a necessary state for anything to be ideological is that there should be a relationship or determination to electrical power in some way, and it must be done so in a way which is not apparent for the addressees (Zizek, 1994). Nevertheless this is a rather general and overarching consideration when defining the definition of ideology and it is important to deconstruct the term even more before all of us proceed in analyzing its inner operation and impact on society. Zizek states “ideology is a methodically distorted connection: a text message in which under the influence of unavowed cultural interests (of domination, etc . a gap isolates its ‘official, ‘ general public meaning from the actual intention – frankly, “we will be dealing with a great unreflected stress between the direct enunciated content material of the text and its pragmatic presuppositions” (Zizek, 1994, g. 10). Ideology is a program, he states, of guidelines, views, ideas “destined to convince us of the ‘truth’, however actually offering some unavowed particular power interest” (p. 10). The Zizek shows to illustrate this point is the way mass media portrayed the conflict and cause of the Bosnian battle.
News coverage consisted of countless accounts from the histories of not only Yugoslavia but “the entire good the Balkan’s from old times” (p. 5). This incredible amount of information, of the challenges and relations between Bosnia and other countries over decades, if not really centuries, provides audiences the impression that they must know and understand all of the background information of this issue if they are to have an thoughts and opinions on it or take factors, again delivering countless hours details and debate on the concern.
Zizek explains that even though this is a sort of inversion of what we normally constitute since ideological messages, and it is unlike the misrepresentation and incessant demonization of Saddam Hussein that has been circulated to provide justice to entering into the Iraq warfare, the Bosnian war ideological messaging that took place is in fact “more sneaky, ” the over high and fake demonization of Saddam Hussein. ecause “to put it relatively crudely, the ‘evocation from the complexity of circumstances’ provides to [defer] us from the responsibility to act” (p. 5). This individual explains that instead of withholding information (as the mass media most often does), or misrepresenting information (Saddam Hussein), in the case of the Bosnian war the media above saturates viewers with information to the point of immobilizing them to come to a decision or make a change against the fact that this warfare is sparked by political, economic and monetary electricity interests.
Zizek explains the goal of going into war was portrayed as a ought to improve undesirable human legal rights conditions in the country, and though human legal rights conditions may very well be unacceptable in that country, then improve due to the attack, the true motivations for that conflict (power, dominance, superiority, money) had been kept concealed. This likewise illustrates the idea made previously about ideology not necessarily the need to be phony in its info, but rather hidden in motive, to get the information that they presented was by no means false or limited, it was increased, which shows to be just as debilitating a strategy on the average person.
Zizek’s cases and meanings of ideology discussed above demonstrate the division of ideology from Marx’s false consciousness theory (Gerofsky, 2010), although perhaps one of the most important classifications Zizek makes worldwide of ideology, is their connection to dislocation (dislocating truth from falsity) and how this kind of relates to thinking about “the Real” (Stavrakakis, 1997). Coming from the Lacanian theoretical background, the concept of Real versus Representational versus Mythical is an important part of Zizek’s theory, one which units him in addition to traditional ideas of ideology.
The question in the Real likewise cannot be segregated from the dislocation and display of the truth, so those two must be deemed together in asserting the concept of ideology. Zizek’s Real pulls attention to a unique idea, there is a difference between what is truly real inside our world and what is just a created real by our social framework and by world (Stavrakakis, 1997). The Real, the actual real, is definitely “the part of our world as revealed within our experience, which in turn escapes our attempts to represent and symbolize it within a final way” (1997, l. ). The true is the raw and unstructured experience of what is not yet symbolized or imaged by each of our social composition, by dialect, by emblems, and this in fact may not be symbolized in such a way. Unlike the social reality, the true True is extremely hard to represent, clarifies Stavrakaki of Zizek’s theory, impossible to find out or stand for, whereas the social the fact is nothing but symbolism and each of our desire to rank any a part of our knowledge into a definition or materials conception of some sort.
The real is not only opposed to what is “socially constructed” while real, the symbolic, but also it is possibly farther taken out of the mythical, which declines farthest apart on the variety, from accurate reality. The symbolic comes closer to the Real but there is certainly still a gap and something will always be missing through the symbolic real for dialect can never become a full representation of the genuine, the true Actual however is actually in its place. The symbolic true, however remains of importance to Zizek, because of it plays the largest role in our society and it is perhaps the integral component to ideology in the most general feeling.
The emblematic, although generally in the dimension of lauguage, Lacan (who’s theories Zizek has structured his individual theories of ideology on) does not identify the representational as entirely equal to language, because linguistiscs are also within the realm of the mythical sphere (Lucaites & Biesecker, 1998). The symbolic alternatively, is about the partnership to the “Other”, it is about difference and the signifiers which will create a emblematic order. Intended for Lacan the symbolic can be characterized by the absence of virtually any fixed contact between signifier and signified” (Lucaites & Biesecker, 1998).
Lastly you will find the realm from the imaginary, when ever Lacan talks about this level he refers to the formation with the ego. Identity is an important section of the imaginary, pertaining to “the spirit is formed by identifying while using counterpart or specular image” (Lucaites & Biesecker, 1998). The spirit, fundamentally narcissistic, is centered on identification with alienation and this alienation is yet another feature with the imaginary. The imaginary is most fundamentally, nevertheless , a metabolism of surface appearances, kinds which are produced in lies as part of the cultural order.
Going back to Zizek’s theory on ideology, he suggests that one of the problematic aspects of the concept, is the fact we because theorists, make an effort to escape in the grip of ideology in order to observe the globe from a target position, even so the moment we all feel we now have managed to consider up a position of truth, from which we are able to condemn the lie associated with an ideology, we instantly fall back into the grip of ideology again because our comprehension of the concept is definitely structured on a binary arrangement, which is frequently playing with this relationship between reality and ideology.
It truly is such the issue of ideology, the moment we feel were in the realm of truth, at last, we are actually instantly into the ideological exchange, devoid of recognizing this (Stavrakakis, 1997). Zezik would not offer a way to this, on the other hand he offers a way to countertop the problem, and this is the place that the concept of the Real (vs Emblematic vs Imaginary) comes into play, to help us identify and stage outside the atmosphere of ideology that surrounds us.
Instead of the binary relationship between actuality and ideology, now there is actually a three approach relationship. Zizek favours the actual over the additional two constructs because he argues, the symbolic, although it is definitely representing “reality” it is actually where “fiction assumes the guise of truth” (Stavrakakis, p. 3), and the fabricated construct, is of course also farther far from that actuality, therefore the Real should be the concentrate of the our understanding.
The Real is definitely the “only nonideological position obtainable, ” and although Zizek does not claim to offer usage of the “objective truth of things”, he explains we should begin with supposing the existence of ideology in every aspect of our society, and to take up a great actively critical attitude to it. This kind of Stavrakakis states is the main goal of Zizek’s theory, to show the need for frequent critique in the ideological sphere, especially in a time where the society has proclaimed that ideology can be described as thing of the past with out longer relevant in today’s world.
Zizek’s theory of ideology can be described as contemporary one which moves past traditional meanings of this strategy and is not really concerned with how ideological practices worked before and in record, instead he could be intrigued with all the here and now and argues strongly that the concept of ideology is far from extinct in today’s culture – as opposed to what a large number of would like to believe that. And this individual explains that rather than getting rid of the notion entirely, what we have to do to understand today’s politics within a completely new means of looking at that and understanding what it means to get in ideological space and time.
Individuals who believe were past the notion of ideology, he argues, will be in an “archeological fantasy” and this is only a sign of the increased ability of ideology to ingrain alone without our recognition. In certain of his famous demonstrations Zizek covers the ideological meaning historical even inside the simplest of human thing and devices, ones we don’t even recognize have an ideological message. His famous model, and one he self critically appreciates to be some sort of anal fixation which usually he has to address, may be the example of lavatories and how they are constructed in different ideological conditions.
In Portugal he talks about, toilets are constructed of the hole at the back, so that once used, the excrement falls directly in the hole and disappears, this individual equates this kind of with France’s extremely tolerante ideology – out of sight out of mind. In Germany, the toilets are constructed with the hole at the front, in a manner that holds the excrement on a shelf (ofcourse not in normal water or immediately disappearing) but instead in a way pertaining to the individual to view and take notice of the specimen intended for worms and any other diseases, he talks about this is a sign of the firmly onservative ideology of Philippines, where almost everything is business and completed as necessary. Inside the Anglo-Saxon community, specifically in America, he clarifies toilets are somewhere between, when utilized the excrement falls in this particular but still remains to be, it is not entirely hidden nevertheless also not completely displayed, this reveals the typical position the Anglo-Saxon world usually takes on, not as well extreme in either admiration (Zizek presentation, Youtube. com). This rather disgusting yet however interesting observation does an excellent job of portraying his theory on ideology.
First, ideology is very much continue to at play in our world and should be actively seen and considered (in in an attempt to minimize any negative and violent results it may pertain), and second, in order to be able to identify the functions of ideology in our every day lives, we now have step away from our normal reality where we are as good accustomed to, for this symbolic the truth is not the actual, and in taking ourselves out from the imaginary and symbolic which in turn appears to be fact and fact, we can after that perhaps attempt to get a true glimpse of what he calls the true.
References Gerofsky, S. (2010). The impossibility of , real-life’ phrase problems (according to Bakhtin, Lacan, Zizek and Baudrillard). Discourse: Research In The Ethnic Politics Of Education, 31(1), 61-73. doi: 10. 1080/01596300903465427 Lucaites, M., & Biesecker, B. A. (1998). Rhetorical Studies as well as the , New Psychoanalysis: Can be the Real Problem?
Or Framework the Problem from the Real. Quarterly Journal Of Speech, 84(2), 222. Stavrakakis, Y. (1997). Ambiguous ideology and the Lacanian twist. Record of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, 8, 117-30. Zizek, S. (1994a). The spectre of ideology. In H. Zizek (Ed. ), Mapping ideology (pp. 1-33). Birmingham & Nyc: Verso.
