International Dialogue
Abstract
Slavoj Žižek’s title Trouble in Paradise is also the name of a 1932 movie directed by Ernst Lubitsch, a movie which Žižek begins discussing as his first topic in his introduction. But the title obviously also reflects the notion that there is a difference between the superficial appearances of social life (often publically attractively depicted, with supporting justifications, sustaining collective illusions) and a time of deep societal troubles. Žižek says about his own title: “The ‘paradise’ in the title of this book refers to the End of History (as elaborated by Francis Fukuyama: liberal democratic capitalism as the finally found best possible social order), and the ‘trouble’ is, of course, the ongoing crisis that compelled even Fukuyama himself to drop his idea of the End of History” (7). This is a switching of perspectives between what we might call “cultural” interpretation and criticism and critical examination and advocacy about the more overt power systems of political economy. Such switching of perspectives, which we do not object to, but which we wish to emphasize, recurs throughout the book.
Recommended Citation
Sandowski, Edward and Harris, Betty J.
(2016)
"Trouble in Paradise: Political Economy and Cultural Criticism: Trouble in Paradise: From the End of History to the End of Capitalism,"
International Dialogue: Vol. 6, Article 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32873/uno.dc.ID.6.1.1121
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/id-journal/vol6/iss1/7
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