Slavoj Žižek, The Fright of Real Tears: Krzysztof Kieslowski between Theory and Post-theory

Kelsey Wood (University of Arkansas at Little Rock)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Cultural Studies
Film Theory and Criticism

Dates

First circulation or publication 2001

Places

Slovenia (Country of Origin)
United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Commentary / criticism

Resources

One of Slavoj Žižek's most penetrating interventions into film theory is The Fright of Real Tears: Krzysztof Kieślowski Between Theory and Post-Theory. As always with Žižek's works, the reader of Fright gets much more than he bargained for. In the first part of the book, Žižek redefines the coordinates of the controversy in today's cinema studies between “Theory” and “Post-Theory” by demonstrating decisively that both sides are wrong, both sides misrepresent the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. Against the reductivist reading of Lacan presupposed by both Theorists and Post-Theorists, Žižek indicates a way beyond the controversy by deploying properly Lacanian concepts in order to reveal ideological tensions in the films of Kieślowski. Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941-1996) began his career as a brilliant documentary film maker in Poland during the 1970s. Kieślowski abandoned documentaries and turned to...

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2638 words

Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "The Fright of Real Tears: Krzysztof Kieslowski between Theory and Post-theory". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 July 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23499, accessed 09 June 2026.]