Uppsatsen tar avstamp i det faktum att ideologi ofta förmedlas via språket och syftet var att skapa förståelse av hur Sverigedemokraterna argumentativt uttrycker ideologi i flygbladet ”NO MONEY, NO JOBS, NO HOME”. Med hjälp av Žižeks ideologikritik och en klassisk topikanalys presenteras följande: Sverigedemokraternas argumentation kretsar till stor del kring en agonistisk uppdelning som visar på ett förakt mot en viss grupp av människor utifrån en uppdelning av ett ”vi” som utgörs av svenskar och ett ”dem” som utgörs av invandrare – där svenskar är det goda och invandrare det dåliga. Vidare utgår argumentationen utifrån att det finns en tydlig syndabock: ideologins symptom som i flygbladet är invandraren. Detta symptom är anledningen till den negativa verklighetsbeskrivning vi får ta del av i flygbladet. Deras argumentation är till viss del implicit vilket kan förstås bero på att partiet inte vill uppfattas som oetiska och därmed förlora förtroende hos sina väljare.

This thesis investigates the ways representations of terrorism in Hollywood, German and British cinema embody what Slavoj Žižek describes as the postpolitical, that is the current state of denial of alternatives within global politics and a directionlessness within cultural theory, which set in after the apparent defeat of the possibility of a radical alternative to capitalism. Moreover, this thesis proposes that films about terrorism are not only cultural expressions of the post-political, but also show the post-political condition to be problematic, displaying as they do symptoms such as the devaluation of human subjectivity and its concomitant failure to achieve progressive political change. Žižek’s philosophical approach as a method of interpreting the postpolitical is applied to the films Munich (2005), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) Die Kommenden Tage/The Coming Days, (2010) Four Lions (2010) and Hunger (2008). As well as Žižek’s work, the writings of other critics and commentators and such as Frank Furedi, Thomas Elsaesser, Kenan Malik and others are drawn on. The aesthetic and formal properties of these films are read against Žižek’s texts on ideology critique, which are primarily directed at the post-political. The films shown exhibit expressions of the post-political in notions of empathy and sustainability, campness, and postmodern forms of narrative, which Žižek calls filling in gaps, and Žižek’s concept of ‘the act’. By mapping the post-political in Hollywood, British and German cinema this research assays the manner in which screen terrorism is symptomatic of the post-political condition.

For the readers of White Noise, the first issue he or she has to deal with is the relationship between the society and the individual. But DeLillo was never straightforward in Jack¡¦s narrative. From time to time, the reader is asked to judge by themselves about the authorial intention and the narrator¡¦s attitude toward the characters¡¦ suffering. As both the narrator and a character, Jack Gladney typifies the tension of locating the hope of resistance in a seemingly hopeless situation. As the narrator, Jack¡¦s attitude toward the corrupting force of the society would seem to vacillate among indifference and affirmation. Yet, his indifference would appear to be sarcastic or even accusatory if one remembers that he or she is reading one of DeLillo¡¦s novels. The interpretive deadlock, then, can be summarized into the following question: if DeLillo intended to posit the possibility of resistance through the process of writing and reading, how can it be realized in the protagonist with whom the reader is invited to identify? Numerous approaches are adopted by the critics, and yet the enigmatic ending of the novel continues to challenge the results of their efforts. With ease, Jack Gladney returns to his normal routine after he nearly kills a man, but it is indicated that he is never the same person as exhibited in the previous chapters. To determine the nature of transformation and its implication for the existence of hope, this thesis sets out to dissect the important elements in the last chapter. As the novel ends in Jack¡¦s shopping, the chapter two of this thesis traces the influence of capitalism on the characters. It is found that the characters¡¦ enjoyment of the consumerism is correlative with a fundamental imperfection in their sense of self. In narrating the stories about him, Jack Gladney cannot hide his anxiety for failing to be a good professor, husband and father. From a Lacanian perspective, the disjointedness reveals the failure of the system to provide all his needs. Still, Jack and others are spurred to immerse harder in the ever-revolutionizing mode of enjoyment, endlessly deferring from confronting the void inherent in all their pursuits. Before Jack returns to shop for the last time in the novel, however, he is infected by toxic substance that causes him to eye the capitalist system with suspicion. During the outbreak of the disaster, the New Age belief system, painful enjoyment and environmental crisis are associated with the oppressive force of capitalist development. They all reappear in the end of the novel, yet they are no longer threats for Jack; instead, he finds them enjoyable. In the chapter three of this thesis, my analysis recounts how the characters¡¦ reluctance to depart from their routine of enjoyment contributes to their intentional disavowals of the injuries the system brings to them. In Jack¡¦s case, the biopolitical control that results in the elevation of the status of medical science and enjoyment causes him to resubmit himself more violently to the system. He becomes a killer and enjoys seeing himself as such who seems to contribute to all the subjects in the capitalist society. It is after such sad transformation that the final chapter begins, suddenly deflating the emotional turbulences accumulated throughout the previous chapters. The enigmatic vacuum is still accompanied by signs of Jack¡¦s transformation. However, the omnipresence of death in the chapter seems to weaken the certainty for a pessimistic future of suffering in the capitalist system. Waiting before the checking out point, Jack is in fact facing to the end of vicious circle symbolically. The unfathomable death corresponds with the impossibility the reader encounters when interpreting the text. As the readers cannot determine what will happen after the terminal, they are actually freed from chopping the text for constructing hopes that will be contradicted by the remaining paragraphs at one point or another, while they have to put down the novel and go on living with the similar situations the novel portrays. Herein resides the hope: externalizing the deadlock of life for the reader, the end of White Noise testifies the ongoing procession of human history that cannot be anticipated beforehand.

Between 1888 and 1896, William Morris wrote several medieval-inspired, proto-fantasy romances which have consistently threatened to fall into the doldrums of literary criticism. I am particularly interested, here, in the most complete of these compositions entitled The Story of the Glittering Plain, The Wood Beyond the World, The Well at the World’s End, The Water of the Wondrous Isles, and The Sundering Flood: texts which I call Morris’s late romances. Critics who have engaged with these texts have often taken on the difficult task of reconciling Morris’s growing political vehemence during the time of their composition and the ostensibly escapist stance these romances seem to purport. As such, critics have largely relied on Morris’s fidelity of the Middle Ages as a time that offered a more authentic, original, innocent, or natural mode of human experience, which Morris preferred over the industrial capitalism of his own Victorian period. Through various versions of this stance, critics have articulated that the late romances can offer socially progressive content through an outdated mode of literary production. While this dissertation maintains the significance of anti-escapist readings of these late romances, it also expresses the value of alternative readings of the critical appeal to authenticity. Using critical theories from Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, and most especially Slavoj Žižek, this dissertation suggests that any recognition of authenticity is reliant upon its own corruption and that part of the communist value of William Morris’s late romances exists not in their exemplification of a (medieval) world unblighted by modern corruption but through their demonstration of the conceptual necessity to incorporate modern corruption into any possible vision of past authenticity. That is, the late romances show that past authenticity is a product of an intellectual frame produced by modern corruption; they therefore imply that, in a similar way, communism can only become recognizable as a result of capitalist exploitation. In this way, I hope to aid in resurrecting these beautiful and valuable texts so that they can play a role in the communist struggles of the future.

This PhD thesis investigates Slavoj Žižek's thought in relation to contemporary art, especially with respect to the use of some žižekian notions within the sphere of an art criticism based on an ethical and political perspective. The main features of biotechnological art are presented and an analysis of the bioartist Eduardo Kac's transgenic artwork The Eight Day is developed by applying concepts of Slavoj Žižek's philosophy. / La presente tesis doctoral investiga el pensamiento de Slavoj Žižek en relación con el arte contemporáneo, especialmente con respecto a la utilización de algunas nociones žižekianas en el ámbito de una crítica de arte basada en una perspectiva ética y política. Se presentan las características principales del arte biotecnológico y, mediante la aplicación de conceptos propios de la filosofía de Slavoj Žižek, se desarrolla un análisis de la obra de arte transgénico El Octavo Día del bioartista Eduardo Kac. / La present tesi doctoral investiga el pensament de Slavoj Žižek en relació a l'art contemporani, especialment respecte a la utilització d'algunes nocions žižekianes en l'àmbit d'una critica d'art basada en una perspectiva ètica i política. Es presenten les característiques principals de l'art biotecnològic i, mitjançant l'aplicació de conceptes propis de la filosofia de Slavoj Žižek, es desenvolupa una anàlisi de l'obra d'art transgènic El Huité Dia del bioartista Eduardo Kac. / Pisano, S. (2017). Aplicación de conceptos propios del pensamiento de Slavoj Žižek al análisis del arte transgénico: investigación sobre El Octavo Día de Eduardo Kac [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/90444 / TESIS

(in English): The thesis deals with the formulation of a new theoretical perspective on terrorism. Terrorism has become a frequent topic in the academic, political and laical environment, especially in recent years as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. It acquired a new form of a global threat; however, it is still a phenomenon of socially ambiguous approach. This thesis aims to analyze terrorism through its ideological background. Criticism of social inequality, which is masked by ideology, is the basic subject of Marxist thinkers. The thesis focuses on the Slovenian philosopher and sociologist Slavoj Zizek. He enriches the Marxist theory of psychoanalysis, which provides him a tool for the interpretation of social phenomena, and ideology is one of his central themes. The main goal of this thesis is to show the analysis of ideology through Žižek's original approach, which can be used to understand the causes of terrorism.

According to Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, our postmodern era and its correlate political problematic requires a shift in positing socialist strategy. Their wager is that by shifting away from essentialist Marxism, and towards a post-Marxist theory of hegemony which they adapt from Gramsci, the analytic for overturning contemporary hegemony will take the form of a radical democratic politics. My contention is that in shifting away from essentialist Marxism through their post-structuralist deconstructive stance, Laclau and Mouffe overstep and make their analytic for socialist strategy impotent. In order to show where Laclau and Mouffe have gone wrong I use primarily the work of Michel Foucault and Slavoj Žižek in order to demonstrate how a post-structuralist theory of ideology need not be a post-Marxist theory of ideology. / Master of Arts

Sweden is often considered to be one of the world's most tolerant countries. This is often illustrated by questions surrounding religious expression, such as if it should be tolerated to have a veil on when working in healthcare or schools? At the same time, we can see current examples of decreasing tolerance in some parts of Europe and the world. The Hungarian Government has annulled gender studies on the basis that we are born either as women or men. Meanwhile we ask ourselves in Sweden whether parties that advocate a racial war will have right to demonstrate on our streets. In this way, tolerance seems to be linked to the contradiction that exists within democracy between the will of the people and the individual. Between those which may be included, and those which cannot be included at all - the excluded. Because democracy always needs to draw a line and this line is today redrawn in the name of tolerance. This essay aims to investigate and problematize rhetoric’s relation to politics and democracy based on tolerance as a concept. This purpose leads to three key questions: 1. What role do the Scandinavian rhetoric researchers give the rhetoric in relation to politics and democracy? 2. How can we understand tolerance and its function for and within the democracy? 3. What could be an alternative role for rhetoric beyond tolerance? The essay therefore contains a survey of the Scandinavian researchers in rhetoric and their views on the role of rhetoric in politics. It also contains a problematization of tolerance extracted from the work of Wendy Brown and Slavoj Žižek. The essay concludes that rhetoric research in Scandinavia is based on the intention to create more tolerance. It also comes to the conclusion that tolerance as a political discourse works depoliticizing. The essay’s contribution to rhetorical science therefore comes in the form of another perspective providing an alternative role for rhetoric in democracy. Here it is not based on morality but on what we should call the political. That is, rhetoric may act in the intersections between the dichotomies – politics / the political, democracy / dictatorship, descriptive / normative – in order to see the various symptoms and the lack that exist in society and in the system.

This study aims to examine ways to understand the ideological dimension of Sustainable Development (SD), as it is portrayed in the Swedish school system, and the consequences thereof. By examining policy documents, in the form of curricula and formal reports from relevant agencies, the role of the concept of SD in the Swedish school system is discussed and analysed by applying the analytical methods of ideology criticism from a critical theory standpoint, with the aim to explore possible underlying ideological content. The research questions focus on if, and if so why, ideological components are apparent in the material through the theoretical framework of critical theory, with special attention paid to the theories of Žižek and Bauman. Special methodological considerations to the empirical aspect of this essay is applied to improve the rigidity of the analysis. A theoretical model of ideological awareness is sketched to illustrate the importance of theoretical knowledge going into the material. The analysis shows that the concept of SD can most accurately be described by using the marxist concept of fetischism, a form of reification, which displaces SD from its context and makes it both unquestionable and all encompassing. The ideological function of SD in the Swedish school system is argued to be the ability to suppress possibilities to discuss among other things: power inequalities, environmental questions from other aspects than SD as well as criticism of SD itself. The study concludes that raising an ideological awareness in teachers may be a way to grasp the immense ideological power the concept of SD holds in the Swedish school system and to counteract alienation in both teachers and students. New avenues of research are introduced from questions raised during this work and as a result of the conclusions reached.

This thesis explores how the Lacanian concept of ‘the enjoyment of the Other’ (la jouissance de l’Autre) can be applied to break open normative understandings of the political factors shaping the climate crisis deadlock. The principal aim is to investigate how ostensibly disconnected environmental debates may be regarded as linked by an economy of enjoyment, more precisely by the promise of enjoyment by which the subject is libidinally attached to an ideology. Analysis of text proceeds by way of a psychoanalytic critique of ideology on two case studies from UK news media, namely, i) the development of onshore wind turbines and, ii) the appearance of direct-action environmentalist groups, in particular the activities of the group Just Stop Oil. This thesis finds that rhetorical devices across the discourses analysed are sustained by an ideological belief that the subject’s enjoyment has been stolen or ruined by the Other, that is, the external symbolic framework of language, morals and other people that shapes and influences subjectivity. On the one hand it is argued that the mediatisation of the climate crisis in terms of the enjoyment of the Other, that is, the belief that the Other has access to a full enjoyment which the subject is denied, portrays environmental politics as an empty display or ‘spectacle.’ On the other hand, it is suggested that the experience of environmental politics as a spectacle is a symptom of the decline of the state’s symbolic role in late capitalism.