Skip to main content
Log in

Act Without Denial: Slavoj Žižek on Totalitarianism, Revolution and Political Act

  • Published:
Studies in East European Thought Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Žižek's thinking departs from the Lacanian claim that we live in a symbolic order, not a “real world,” and that “the Real” is what we desire, but can never know or grasp. There is a fundamental “virtuality” of “reality” that points to the “lie” in every truth-claim, and there are two ways of dealing with this:repression and denial. An ideology, a system or a regime becomes totalitarian when it denies the virtual character of both its world and its subject (democracy represses truth's basic lie, which makes it possible for the repressed to return). Žižek's analysis of totalitarianism, particularly Stalinism, shows how a totalitarian system denies its subject, which, being desire for the Real, cannot act in the name of truth but must acknowledge the contingency of its action (a political act can fail to reach its goal), whereas an established system can no longer fail and has to deny its flaws. Any political act disrupts the (evolution of) the symbolic order and thus is revolutionary, creating an event ex nihilo. An act is a jump into the inconsistency of the symbolic order, i.e. into “das Ding,” a jump both into and out of the nihil in which our world is grounded. Politics therefore can never be Realpolitik. The realization that politics is a symbolic phenomenon, supported not by “the real,” but by signifiers, is the Lacanian foundation of Žižek's political theory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

De Kesel, M. Act Without Denial: Slavoj Žižek on Totalitarianism, Revolution and Political Act. Studies in East European Thought 56, 299–334 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SOVI.0000043004.96751.d7

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SOVI.0000043004.96751.d7

Navigation