Slavoj Žižek, The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity

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

Critical Theory
Psychoanalysis

Dates

First circulation or publication 2002

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Commentary / criticism

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

After

The Fragile Absolute

(2000) and

On Belief

(2001), Slavoj Žižek’s third intervention in Christian belief is

The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity

(2003). The title involves a reversal of Walter Benjamin’s first thesis on the philosophy of history. Referring to the story of an allegedly automatic chess machine (actually operated by a hidden dwarf pulling the strings), Benjamin wrote: “The puppet called ‘historical materialism’ is to win all the time. It can easily be a match for anyone if it enlists the services of theology, which today, as we know, is wizened and has to keep out of sight” (p. 253).

Today, our postmodern fear of directly assuming belief entails that we cynically distance ourselves from it, all the while relying on the fantasy of some

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.

2559 words

Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 March 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23497, accessed 19 April 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here