Slavoj Žižek, Tarrying With The Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology

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

Philosophy (any)
Psychoanalysis

Dates

First circulation or publication 1993

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Treatise

Resources

Slavoj Žižek, one of today’s most important thinkers, articulates a new vision of humanity and society by developing the philosophical implications of the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. He deploys Lacanian theory in order to reactualize the philosophy of German Idealism, particularly the dialectical method of G.W.F. Hegel. This fusion not only allows Žižek to elaborate a unique ontology—transcendental materialism—it also facilitates a rigorous (though unorthodox) Marxist critique of capitalist ideology. One of Žižek’s theoretically most substantial books is Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology (1993). In Tarrying with the Negative (abbreviated TWTN below), the author shows how Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory opposes cognitive and ethical relativism and reaffirms a conception of universal truth:

The two crucial breaks in the history of philosophy, Plato’s and Kant’s, occurred as a reaction to...

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2623 words

Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "Tarrying With The Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 April 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23507, accessed 09 June 2026.]