Navayana presents preeminent Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek in its 1st Annual Lecture series. The lectures, beginning 4 Jan 2010, are preceded by screenings of films on/with Žižek. After the screening of two films on 24 Dec 2009 at Sarai, the show now moves to Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, where Astra Taylor’s Žižek! will be screened on 2 Jan 2010. All the events are open to the public.

“Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn’t give you what you desire — it tells you how to desire.” — Slavoj Žižek

“Žižek!” (2005, 71 mins) is a feature documentary that explores the eccentric personality and esoteric work of the “wild man of theory”. The feature, directed by Astra Taylor, trails the thinker as he crisscrosses the globe, racing from New York City lecture halls, through the streets of Buenos Aires, and even stopping at home in Ljubljana, Slovenia. All the while Žižek obsessively reveals the invisible workings of ideology through his unique blend of Lacanian psychoanalysis, Marxism, and critique of pop culture. A review in Variety says: “Subject is a bearded, sweating, antisocial, eminently quotable bear of a man who throws out ideas in a heavily accented lisp. Žižek ’s work fuses Marxism and the thinking of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), who put a post-structuralist spin on Freud. Further twists are his encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture and extreme pronouncements: ‘My big worry,’ he frets, ‘is not to be ignored, but accepted.’”

To know more about the film, visit the film’s official website.

Žižek’s latest book, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, will be for sale at all venues. For Žižek enthusiasts, the full schedule of his India tour is as follows:

2 Jan 2010. 7 p.m. Screening
“Žižek!” A feature documentary directed by Astra Taylor, 71 mins.
Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

4 Jan 2010. 5 p.m. Lecture
“Ideology in the Post-ideological World: The Case of Hollywood”
Interlocutor: Shuddhabrata Sengupta
Sarai-CSDS. 29 Rajpur Road, Civil Lines, Delhi

5 Jan 2010. 7 p.m. Lecture
“Tragedy and Farce”
Interlocutor: Nivedita Menon
Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

7 Jan 2010. 11 a.m. Lecture
“Capitalism and Particular Life-Worlds: In Defense of Universalism”
Interlocutor: Madhava Prasad
ICSSR Auditorium, English & Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad

9 Jan 2010. 5 p.m. Lecture and Panel Discussion
“Whither Left?”
Panelists: Usha Zacharias, Ravikumar, Sashi Kumar (Chair)
Town Hall, Kochi, Kochi Life 2010

For print-quality pictures of Žižek for use in media, please click here.