French Literature Reviews - 2026
S. Zizek, Jacques Lacan à Hollywood, et ailleurs
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Jacques Lacan à Hollywood, et ailleurs
Slavoj Zizek
Frédéric Joly (Translator)
Published: 11/02/2010
Publisher: Actes Sud
Series: Rayon philo
ISBN: 978-2-7427-8809-5
EAN: 9782742788095
No. of pages: 364 pages
Publisher's price: 23.80€
Introducing the thought of Jacques Lacan to a non-specialist reader is already a risky gamble.
Doing so through the prism of Hollywood cinema, and—conversely—addressing popular culture through the lens of Lacanian thought, seems practically impossible. Yet Slavoj Zizek pulls off this gamble with flying colors. Embodied by the character of Charlie Chaplin in City Lights, the mysterious "objet petit a" suddenly becomes lucid. All at once, Lacan makes sense, and it is exhilarating.
However, this book cannot be reduced to a successful attempt to "vulgarize" sophisticated thinking. More profoundly, it fundamentally renews the Marxist notion of "dialectical materialism." Zizek demonstrates that Lacan allows us to grasp the truth of Hegel’s system—not found in the final outcome that brings the movement of being and history to a close, but rather in the infinite mobility that establishes a difference at the heart of things that is at once minimal and essential.
Consequently, Slavoj Zizek calls for a radical shift in our vision of the structure of the real—that is, a new way of being a realist, which entails refusing to accept things as they are. Anyone who rejects the idea that capitalism is synonymous with the real will greatly benefit from discovering, through this work, one of the most innovative and exciting minds of our time.
Contents:
WHY DOES A LETTER ALWAYS ARRIVE AT ITS DESTINATION?
WHY IS WOMAN A SYMPTOM OF MAN?
WHY IS EVERY ACT A REPETITION?
WHY DOES THE PHALLUS APPEAR?
WHY ARE THERE ALWAYS TWO FATHERS?
WHY IS REALITY ALWAYS MULTIPLE?
About the author:
A philosopher and doctor in psychoanalysis, Slavoj Zizek was born in Ljubljana (Slovenia) in 1949.
A visiting professor in the Department of Psychoanalysis at Paris VIII, he teaches at several prestigious American universities, including Columbia and Princeton. He is also the founding president of the Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis in Ljubljana. A tireless speaker, a colorful theorist, a prolific author, and an interlocutor and accomplice to the leading critical voices of the global intellectual field (of which he is unquestionably one of the most original figures), Zizek is a crossroad thinker situated at the confluence of the Hegelian-Marxist tradition and Lacanian psychoanalysis.
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This translation was the subject of a review by Aude Lancelin on the BibliObs.com website:
"Everything you always wanted to know about Lacan's thought in a book as gripping as a great American thriller?
This is the feat achieved by Slavoj Zizek in *Jacques Lacan à Hollywood*, an essay published in 1992, updated ten years later, and now translated into French. Illuminated by numerous examples drawn from the films of Chaplin or Hitchcock, the concepts of the great French psychoanalyst, who died in 1981, become crystal-clear, playful, and extraordinarily operational here. Thus, the "Big Other" or the enigmatic "objet petit a" will hold no more secrets for the reader, thanks to the dissection of the torments of the tramp in love with a blind flower girl in City Lights. As throughout his philosophical oeuvre, Zizek does not hesitate to draw upon the entertainment industry to pierce the most intimate contradictions of our liberal societies. Thus, the Wachowski brothers' blockbuster The Matrix—despite being commented on a hundred times since 1999—is the subject of a study here that is as definitive as it is provocative regarding perversion. It comes as no surprise that Zizek's book has long since attained cult status in the Anglo-Saxon world."
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You can also read an article about this book on the website nonfiction.fr:
The intersection of psychoanalysis, continental philosophy, and popular culture has long formed a fertile ground for critical theory. By reading cinematic works alongside complex theoretical frameworks, contemporary thinkers often seek to make abstract psychoanalytic concepts tangible through familiar cultural touchstones. This approach engages with established traditions in continental thought, particularly the legacies of German idealism and structuralism, bridging the gap between specialized academic discourse and broader cultural analysis through the medium of film and media studies.
Readers interested in the intersections of psychoanalytic theory, philosophy, and cultural critique may find this volume relevant to their pursuits. Slavoj Žižek was born in Ljubljana in 1949 and is a philosopher, doctor in psychoanalysis, and professor who has taught at several universities.