Editing Slavoj Žižek (section)

==Life and career==
===Early life===
Žižek was born in [[Ljubljana]], [[Socialist Republic of Slovenia|PR Slovenia]], [[Yugoslavia]], into a middle-class family.<ref name="mladina.si">{{cite web |url=http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200442/clanek/nar-kdo_je_kdaj--ursa_matos/ |trans-title=Who's When: Slavoj Žižek. The Last of the Marxists who made Pop from Philosophy and Philosophy from Pop |title=Kdo je kdaj: Slavoj Žižek. Tisti poslednji marksist, ki je iz filozofije naredil pop in iz popa filozofijo |publisher=Mladina |date=24 October 2004 |access-date=13 August 2010 |language=sl |archive-date=10 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210034440/http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200442/clanek/nar-kdo_je_kdaj--ursa_matos/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> His father Jože Žižek was an economist and civil servant from the region of [[Prekmurje]] in eastern Slovenia. His mother Vesna, a native of the [[Gorizia Hills]] in the [[Slovenian Littoral]], was an accountant in a state enterprise. His parents were [[Atheism|atheists]].<ref>''Slovenski biografski leksikon'' (Ljubljana: [[Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts|SAZU]], 1991), XV. edition</ref> He spent most of his childhood in the coastal town of [[Portorož]], where he was exposed to Western film, theory and popular culture.<ref name="iep.utm.edu"/><ref name=slovenskapomlad>{{cite web |url=http://www.slovenskapomlad.si/2?id=20 |title=Slovenska pomlad: Slavoj Žižek (Webpage run by the National Museum of Modern History in Ljubljana) |publisher=Slovenskapomlad.si |date=29 September 1988 |access-date=4 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003180230/http://www.slovenskapomlad.si/2?id=20 |archive-date=3 October 2011}}</ref> When Žižek was a teenager his family moved back to Ljubljana where he attended [[Bežigrad High School]].<ref name=slovenskapomlad/> Originally wanting to become a filmmaker himself, he abandoned these ambitions and chose to pursue philosophy instead.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Down with ideology|website = [[YouTube]]| date=18 January 2019 |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zm5tpQp6sT4| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/Zm5tpQp6sT4| url-status=live | archive-date=2021-10-31}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Education===
In 1967, during an era of [[liberalization]] in [[Titoism|Titoist]] Yugoslavia, Žižek enrolled at the [[University of Ljubljana]] and studied philosophy and sociology.<ref name="lacan.com">Tony Meyers [http://www.lacan.com/zizekchro1.htm Slavoj Zizek - His Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513103155/http://www.lacan.com/zizekchro1.htm |date=13 May 2021 }} lacan.com, from: Slavoj Zizek, London: Routledge, 2003.</ref>

Žižek had already begun reading French [[Structuralism|structuralists]] prior to entering university, and in 1967 he published the first translation of a text by [[Jacques Derrida]] into Slovenian.<ref name="mladina.si 42">{{cite web |url= http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200442/clanek/nar-kdo_je_kdaj--ursa_matos/ |title= Tednik, številka 42, Slavoj Žižek |publisher= Mladina.Si |date= 24 October 2004 |access-date= 13 August 2010 |archive-date= 10 December 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081210034440/http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200442/clanek/nar-kdo_je_kdaj--ursa_matos/ |url-status= dead }}</ref> Žižek frequented the circles of dissident intellectuals, including the [[Martin Heidegger|Heideggerian]] philosophers [[Tine Hribar]] and [[Ivo Urbančič]],<ref name="mladina.si 42"/> and published articles in alternative magazines, such as ''[[Praxis School|Praxis]]'', ''Tribuna'' and ''Problemi'', which he also edited.<ref name=slovenskapomlad/> In 1971 he accepted a job as an assistant researcher with the promise of [[tenure]], but was dismissed after his Master's thesis was denounced by the authorities as being "non-Marxist".<ref name="p37">Žižek's response to the article "Če sem v kaj resnično zaljubljena, sem v življenje Sobotna priloga Dela, p. 37 (19.1. 2008)</ref> He graduated from the University of Ljubljana in 1981 with a [[Doctor of Arts]] in Philosophy for his dissertation entitled ''The Theoretical and Practical Relevance of French Structuralism''.<ref name="lacan.com"/> He spent the next few years in what was described as "professional wilderness", also fulfilling his legal duty of undertaking a year-long [[national service]] in the [[Yugoslav People's Army]] in [[Karlovac]].<ref name="lacan.com"/>

===Academic career===
During the 1980s, Žižek edited and translated [[Jacques Lacan]], [[Sigmund Freud]], and [[Louis Althusser]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dskp-drustvo.si/prevajalci.php |title=Prevajalci&nbsp;– Društvo slovenskih književnih prevajalcev |publisher=Dskp-drustvo.si |access-date=7 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105042135/http://www.dskp-drustvo.si/prevajalci.php |archive-date=5 January 2012}}</ref> He used Lacan's work to interpret [[Hegelianism|Hegelian]] and Marxist philosophy.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

In 1986, Žižek completed a second doctorate ([[Doctor of Philosophy]] in [[psychoanalysis]]) at the [[University of Paris VIII]] under [[Jacques-Alain Miller]], entitled "La philosophie entre le symptôme et le fantasme".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Žižek |first1=Slavoj |title=Le plus sublime des hystériques |date=1988 |publisher=Distribution, Distique. |location=Paris |page=10 | language=fr}}</ref>

Žižek wrote the introduction to Slovene translations of [[G. K. Chesterton]]'s and [[John le Carré]]'s detective novels.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TsDgpEkMGdcC&pg=PA10 |title=Zizek: A Guide for the Perplexed|author=Sean Sheehan|publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]] |page=10|year=2012|isbn=978-1441180872}}</ref>
In 1988, he published his first book dedicated entirely to [[film theory]], ''Pogled s strani''.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/440170467 Pogled s strani at worldcat.org]</ref> The following year, he achieved international recognition as a [[Social theory|social theorist]] with the 1989 publication of his first book in English, ''The Sublime Object of Ideology''.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Slavoj-Zizek|title=Slavoj Zizek - Slovene philosopher and cultural theorist|date=29 April 2023|access-date=27 September 2015|archive-date=16 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220316200721/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Slavoj-Zizek|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="iep.utm.edu">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Slavoj Žižek |first=Matthew |last=Sharpe |encyclopedia=The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |issn=2161-0002 |url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/zizek/ |access-date=27 September 2015 |archive-date=22 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220622083116/http://www.iep.utm.edu/zizek/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Žižek has been publishing in journals such as ''[[Lacanian Ink]]'' and ''[[In These Times (publication)|In These Times]]'' in the United States, the ''[[New Left Review]]'' and ''[[The London Review of Books]]'' in the United Kingdom, and with the Slovenian [[left-liberal]] magazine ''[[Mladina]]'' and newspapers ''[[Dnevnik (Slovenia)|Dnevnik]]'' and ''[[Delo (newspaper)|Delo]]''. He also cooperates with the Polish leftist magazine ''[[Krytyka Polityczna]]'', regional southeast European left-wing journal ''[[Novi Plamen]]'', and serves on the editorial board of the psychoanalytical journal ''Problemi''.<ref name="Editorial Staff - Problemi International">{{cite web |url=https://problemi.si/editorial-staff/ |title=Editorial Staff - Problemi International |access-date=25 October 2021 |archive-date=25 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211025164847/https://problemi.si/editorial-staff/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Žižek is a series editor of the [[Northwestern University Press]] series Diaeresis that publishes works that "deal not only with philosophy, but also will intervene at the levels of ideology critique, politics, and art theory".<ref>{{cite web|title=Diaeresis series page|url=http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/diaeresis|website=Northwestern University Press|access-date=28 January 2017|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202051054/http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/diaeresis|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2012, ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' listed Žižek on its list of Top 100 Global Thinkers, calling him "a celebrity philosopher",<ref name="The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers">{{cite web |date=26 November 2012 |title=The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/26/the_fp_100_global_thinkers?page=0,55 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130221322/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/26/the_fp_100_global_thinkers?page=0,33 |archive-date=30 November 2012 |access-date=28 November 2012 |work=Foreign Policy |df=dmy-all}}</ref> while elsewhere he has been dubbed the "[[Elvis Presley|Elvis]] of cultural theory"<ref name="Zizek Journal">{{cite web |title=International Journal of Žižek Studies, home page |url=http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/ijzs/index |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103211107/http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/index |archive-date=3 January 2018 |access-date=27 December 2011}}</ref> and "the most dangerous philosopher in the [[western world|West]]".<ref>{{cite web |date=4 October 2013 |title=Slavoj Zizek - VICE - United Kingdom |work=VICE |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/slavoj-zizek/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084757/http://www.vice.com/en_uk/video/slavoj-zizek |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=11 September 2017}}</ref> Žižek has been called "the leading Hegelian of our time",<ref>{{cite web |last1=Şahin |first1=Tuna |date=27 December 2021 |title=Slavoj Žižek: The Hegelian of Our Time |url=https://www.thenaszone.com/post/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-the-hegelian-of-our-time |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907031913/https://www.thenaszone.com/post/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-the-hegelian-of-our-time |archive-date=7 September 2022 |access-date=4 May 2022}}</ref> and "the foremost exponent of Lacanian theory".<ref>McGowan, Todd (2013). "Hegel as Marxist: Žižek's Revision of German Idealism." In ''Žižek Now: Current Perspectives in Žižek Studies''. Cambridge: Polity Press. p. 42.</ref> A journal, the ''International Journal of Žižek Studies'', was founded by professors David J. Gunkel and Paul A. Taylor to engage with his work.<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Journal |url=http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/about/editorialPolicies#focusAndScope |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220620134909/http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/about/editorialPolicies#focusAndScope |archive-date=20 June 2022 |access-date=1 May 2019}}</ref>

===Political career===
In the late 1980s, Žižek came to public attention as a columnist for the alternative youth magazine ''[[Mladina]]'', which was critical of Tito's policies, Yugoslav politics, especially the [[militarization]] of society. He was a member of the [[League of Communists of Slovenia]] until October 1988, when he quit in protest against the [[JBTZ trial]] together with 32 other Slovenian intellectuals.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slovenskapomlad.si/1?id=103 |title=Skupinski protestni izstop iz ZKS |date=28 October 1998 |publisher=Slovenska Pomlad |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003180147/http://www.slovenskapomlad.si/1?id=103 |archive-date=3 October 2011 |language=sl }}</ref> Between 1988 and 1990, he was actively involved in several political and [[civil society]] movements which fought for the [[democratization]] of Slovenia, most notably the [[Committee for the Defence of Human Rights]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.slovenskapomlad.si/1?id=31&aofs=3 |title=Odbor za varstvo človekovih pravic |date=3 June 1998 |website=Slovenska Pomlad |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003180306/http://www.slovenskapomlad.si/1?id=31&aofs=3 |archive-date=3 October 2011 |language=sl }}</ref> In the [[1990 Slovenian presidential election|first free elections]] in 1990, he ran as the [[Liberal Democracy of Slovenia|Liberal Democratic Party]]'s candidate for the former four-person collective presidency of Slovenia.<ref name="Britannica"/>

Žižek is a member of the [[Democracy in Europe Movement 2025]] (DiEM25) founded in 2016.<ref>{{cite web |title=Posts Tagged: slavoj zizek {{!}} DiEM25 |url=https://diem25.org/tag/slavoj-zizek/ |access-date=8 February 2024 }}</ref>

===Public life===
[[File:Slavoj Žižek 2011.jpg|alt=|thumb|Žižek speaking in 2011]]

In 2003, Žižek wrote text to accompany [[Bruce Weber (photographer)|Bruce Weber]]'s photographs in a catalog for [[Abercrombie & Fitch]]. Questioned as to the seemliness of a major intellectual writing ad copy, Žižek told ''[[The Boston Globe]]'', "If I were asked to choose between doing things like this to earn money and becoming fully employed as an American academic, kissing ass to get a tenured post, I would with pleasure choose writing for such journals!"<ref>Glenn, Joshua. "The Examined Life: Enjoy Your Chinos!", ''[[The Boston Globe]]''. 6 July 2003. H2.</ref>

Žižek and his thought have been the subject of several documentaries. The 1996 ''[[Liebe Dein Symptom wie Dich selbst!]]'' is a German documentary on him. In the 2004 ''[[The Reality of the Virtual]]'', Žižek gave an hour-long lecture on his interpretation of Lacan's tripartite thesis of the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real.<ref>{{Citation |title=Slavoj Zizek: The Reality of the Virtual | date=20 August 2012 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnTQhIRcrno |language=en |access-date=2022-08-23 |archive-date=23 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823175906/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnTQhIRcrno |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Zizek!]]'' is a 2005 documentary by [[Astra Taylor]] on his philosophy. The 2006 ''[[The Pervert's Guide to Cinema]]'' and 2012 ''[[The Pervert's Guide to Ideology]]'' also portray Žižek's ideas and cultural criticism. ''[[Examined Life]]'' (2008) features Žižek speaking about his conception of [[ecology]] at a garbage dump. He was also featured in the 2011 ''[[Marx Reloaded]]'', directed by [[Jason Barker]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schmitt |first=Peer |date=2011-04-08 |title=Falsche Freunde |url=https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/162082.falsche-freunde.html |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=[[Junge Welt]] |language=de}}</ref>

''[[Foreign Policy (magazine)|Foreign Policy]]'' named Žižek one of its 2012 Top 100 Global Thinkers "for giving voice to an era of absurdity".<ref name="The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers"/>

In 2019, Žižek began hosting a mini-series called ''How to Watch the News with Slavoj Žižek'' on the [[RT (TV network)|RT network]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://czaskultury.pl/czytanki/koniec-niewinnosci/|title=Koniec niewinności|access-date=27 April 2021|archive-date=27 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427151325/https://czaskultury.pl/czytanki/koniec-niewinnosci/|url-status=live}}</ref> In April, Žižek [[Peterson–Žižek debate|debated]] psychology professor [[Jordan Peterson]] at the [[Sony Centre for the Performing Arts|Sony Centre]] in [[Toronto|Toronto, Canada]] over [[happiness]] under [[capitalism]] versus [[Marxism]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/04/19/jordan-peterson-slavoj-zizek-each-draw-fans-at-sold-out-debate.html|title=Jordan Peterson, Slavoj Zizek each draw fans at sold-out debate|author1=Raju Mudhar|author2=Brendan Kennedy|date=19 April 2019|newspaper=Toronto Star|access-date=20 April 2019|archive-date=20 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420020933/https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/04/19/jordan-peterson-slavoj-zizek-each-draw-fans-at-sold-out-debate.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/20/jordan-peterson-slavoj-zizek-happiness-capitalism-marxism|title=The 'debate of the century': what happened when Jordan Peterson debated Slavoj Žižek|author=Stephen Marche|date=20 April 2019|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=20 April 2019|archive-date=20 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420153957/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/20/jordan-peterson-slavoj-zizek-happiness-capitalism-marxism|url-status=live}}</ref>