This seminar will focus on the enormous contribution to psychoanalytic theory and philosophy made by Slavoj Žižek, Mladen Dolar, and Alenka Zupančič, who together comprise what has come to be known as “the Ljubljana School.” Seminar members may engage with any number of concepts or topics that Žižek, Dolar, and Zupančič, whether individually or collectively, have helped to establish as central to various academic disciplines and discourses (psychoanalytic theory and philosophy especially) over the past few decades.

There is an excess of Žižekian topics from which to choose, of course, but in addition to his work on Hegel and Lacan more generally, some of those we favor include: ideology, ontology, ethics, politics, political theology (especially Christian atheism), and film/media theory. With regard to Dolar’s work, some prospective topics include: voice and gaze, interpellation, the uncanny/extimacy (especially in literature), cogito and the unconscious, and “rumors.” Zupančič’s most recent works—What IS Sex?, Let Them Rot, and Disavowal—are of particular interest to us, but participants may address her earlier work on the “ethics of the Real,” comedy, Nietzsche, and more. We are also open to papers that treat the Ljubljana School as a group.

In addition to celebrating and bringing into greater relief the academic contributions of Žižek, Dolar, and Zupančič, the seminar aims to build upon and further advance their work by way of rigorous engagement with it.

Seminar chairs: Frances Restuccia (Professor of English, Boston College) and Russell Sbriglia (Associate Professor of English, Seton Hall University)