Slavoj Žižek – Masterclass 2: Surplus-Value, Surplus-Enjoyment, Surplus-Knowledge

http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2016/04/slavoj-zizek-masterclass-2-surplus-value-surplus-enjoyment-surplus-knowledge/

Event Date: 19 April 2016

Room B01
 
Clore Management Building
 
Birkbeck, University of London
 
Torrington Square
 
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities presents:

Masterclass 2: Is Surplus-Value Marx’s Name For Surplus-Enjoyment?

Slavoj Žižek (International Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities) - Is Surplus-Value Marx’s Name For Surplus-Enjoyment?

Jacques Lacan located the origin of his key notion of plus-de-jouir (surplus-enjoyment) in Marx’s notion of surplus-value, and it is worth exploring in detail the homology of the two notions, adding a third one, that of surplus-knowledge, a pseudo-knowledge in the guise of which our ignorance appears (“supreme” knowledge of God and other hidden forces, conspiracy theories, etc.). Such an analysis is crucial for resuscitating Marx’s critique of political economy, as well as for properly understanding today’s global capitalism and its ideological effects, up to fundamentalist violence.

Recommended reading:
 
Slavoj Žižek, ‘The Return of the Critique of Political Economy’ in Living in the End of Times (Verso 2010)
 
Samo Tomšič, The Capitalist Unconscious (Verso Books 2015)