Event or act? On Žižek’s critiques of Badiou

Abstract:

the article discusses Alain Badiou´s concept of Event and contraposes it to Slavoj Žižek’s reformulations of Lacanian notion of act. It exams the central works in which the French philosopher reconstructs Lacanian concepts based in ingenious associations with Espinosa, Aeschylus and militant texts of Marx. Badiou writes about a non-dialectical division between Being and Event. Žižek, who remains faithful to Lacan and also Hegel, argues that there is unity instead of two separated dimensions. According to the Slovenian, a political act does not immediately establishes a new beginning, it just clears the way for it. Saying “no”: would it the genuine revolutionary act?

Keywords: Event; Act; Revolutions; Psychoanalysis