In the space of barely more than five years, with the publication of four pathbreaking books, Slavoj Zizek has earned the reputation of being one of the most arresting, insightful, and scandalous thinkers in recent memory. Perhaps more than any other single author, his writings have constituted the most compelling evidence available for recognizing Jacques Lacan as the preemient philosopher of our time.

In "Tarrying with the Negative," Zizek challenges the contemporary critique of ideology, and in doing so opens the way for a new understanding of social conflict, particularly the recent outbursts of nationalism and ethnic struggle. Are we, Zizek asks, confined to a postmodern universe in which truth is reduced to the contingent effect of various discursive practices and where our subjectivity is dispersed through a multitude of ideological positions? "No" is his answer, and the way out is a return to philosophy. This revisit to German Idealism allows Zizek to recast the critique of ideology as a tool for disclosing the dynamic of our society, a crucial aspect of which is the debate over nationalism, particularly as it has developed in the Balkans--Zizek's home. He brings the debate over nationalism into the sphere of contemporary cultural politics, breaking the impasse centered on nationalisms simultaneously fascistic and anticolonial aspirations. Provocatively, Zizek argues that what drives nationalistic and ethnic antagonism is a collectively driven refusal of our own enjoyment.

Using examples from popular culture and high theory to illuminate each other--opera, film noir, capitalist universalism, religious and ethnic fundamentalism--this work testifies to the fact that, far more radically than the postmodern sophists, Kant and Hegel are our contemporaries.

斯拉沃热•齐泽克(1949- )，斯洛文尼亚卢布尔雅那大学社会和哲学高级研究员，拉康传统最重要的继承人，他长期致力于沟通拉康精神分析理论与马克思主义哲学，将精神分析、主体性、意识形态和大众文化熔于一炉，形成了极为独特的学术思想和政治立场，是当代最为耀眼的国际学术明星之一，被称为黑格尔式的思想家。

齐泽克对于我们这个时代的思想有两个方面的贡献：第一，借助于大众文化通俗的表现形式揭示了晦涩的拉康哲学思想的核心内涵；第二，在犬儒主义意识形态大行其道之时，齐泽克坚持了一种不妥协的理论立场，试图探寻一种新的意识形态批判路径。显然后一方面的工作不仅具有较强的理论原创性，还具有相当的现实意义，并因此促使齐泽克成为当代激进左派思想的代表人物之一。