Difference between revisions of "Masculinity"
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+ | / MASCULINE/FEMININE (see also EXCEPTION NOT-ALL) | ||
+ | The Lacanian 'formulae of sexuation" make up a crucial part of | ||
+ | Žižek's thinking: one way of characterizing the overall trajectory of his | ||
+ | work is as a movement from a masculine logic of the universal and | ||
+ | its exception towards a feminine logic of a not-all' without excep- | ||
+ | tion. However, Žižek does not simply oppose the masculine and the | ||
+ | feminine, but rather argues that the masculine is a certain effect of | ||
+ | the feminine: 'Man is a renexive determination of woman's impossi- | ||
+ | bility of achieving an identity with herself (which is why woman is a | ||
+ | symptom of man)' (p.276). That is, everything in Žižek can ultimately | ||
+ | be understood in terms of these two formulae. As Žižek asks: 'What if | ||
+ | sexual difference is ultimately a kind of zero-institution of the social | ||
+ | split of humankind, the naturalized, minimal zero-difference, a split | ||
+ | that. prior to signalling any determinate social difference, signals | ||
+ | this difference as such? The struggle for hegemony would then, once | ||
+ | again, be the struggle for how this zero-difference is overdetermined by | ||
+ | other particular social differences." (p. 338) But. in fact, are these two | ||
+ | positions consistent? On the one hand, Žižek argues that man is | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | explained by woman: on the other, that the split between the two sexes | ||
+ | is irreconcilable, like the two different conceptions of the same village | ||
+ | in Lévi-Strauss. | ||
+ | |||
[[Category:Sexuality]] | [[Category:Sexuality]] | ||
[[Category:Blank]] | [[Category:Blank]] |
Revision as of 09:56, 15 May 2006
/ MASCULINE/FEMININE (see also EXCEPTION NOT-ALL) The Lacanian 'formulae of sexuation" make up a crucial part of Žižek's thinking: one way of characterizing the overall trajectory of his work is as a movement from a masculine logic of the universal and its exception towards a feminine logic of a not-all' without excep- tion. However, Žižek does not simply oppose the masculine and the feminine, but rather argues that the masculine is a certain effect of the feminine: 'Man is a renexive determination of woman's impossi- bility of achieving an identity with herself (which is why woman is a symptom of man)' (p.276). That is, everything in Žižek can ultimately be understood in terms of these two formulae. As Žižek asks: 'What if
sexual difference is ultimately a kind of zero-institution of the social
split of humankind, the naturalized, minimal zero-difference, a split that. prior to signalling any determinate social difference, signals this difference as such? The struggle for hegemony would then, once again, be the struggle for how this zero-difference is overdetermined by other particular social differences." (p. 338) But. in fact, are these two positions consistent? On the one hand, Žižek argues that man is
explained by woman: on the other, that the split between the two sexes
is irreconcilable, like the two different conceptions of the same village
in Lévi-Strauss.