Does the Internet Have an Unconscious?: Slavoj Žižek and Digital Culture (Psychoanalytic Horizons)

__Does the Internet Have an Unconscious?__ is both an introduction to the work of Slavoj Žižek and an investigation into how his work can be used to think about the digital present. Clint Burnham uniquely combines the German idealism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Marxist materialism found in Žižek's thought to understand how the Internet, social and new media, and digital cultural forms work in our lives and how their failure to work structures our pathologies and fantasies. He suggests that our failure to properly understand the digital is due to our lack of recognition of its political, aesthetic, and psycho-sexual elements. Mixing autobiographical passages with critical analysis, Burnham situates a Žižekian theory of digital culture in the lived human body. Does the Internet Have an Unconscious? is both an introduction to the work of Slavoj Žižek and an investigation into how his work can be used to think about the digital present. Clint Burnham uniquely combines the German idealism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Marxist materialism found in Žižek's thought to understand how the Internet, social and new media, and digital cultural forms work in our lives and how their failure to work structures our pathologies and fantasies. He suggests that our failure to properly understand the digital is due to our lack of recognition of its political, aesthetic, and psycho-sexual elements. Mixing autobiographical passages with critical analysis, Burnham situates a Žižekian theory of digital culture in the lived human body. -- Provided by publisher "Does the Internet Have an Unconscious? is both an introduction to the work of Slavoj Žižek and an investigation into how his work can be used to think about the digital present. Clint Burnham uniquely combines the German idealism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Marxist materialism found in Žižek's thought to understand how the Internet, social and new media, and digital cultural forms work in our lives and how their failure to work structures our pathologies and fantasies. He suggests that our failure to properly understand the digital is due to our lack of recognition of its political, aesthetic, and psycho-sexual elements. Mixing autobiographical passages with critical analysis, Burnham situates a Žižekian theory of digital culture in the lived human body."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Does the Internet Have an Unconscious?' is both an introduction to the work of Slavoj Zizek and an investigation into how his work can be used to think about the digital present.0Clint Burnham uniquely combines the German idealism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Marxist materialism found in Zizek's thought to understand how the Internet, social and new media, and digital cultural forms work in our lives and how their failure to work structures our pathologies and fantasies. He suggests that our failure to properly understand the digital is due to our lack of recognition of its political, aesthetic, and psycho-sexual elements. 0Mixing autobiographical passages with critical analysis, Burnham situates a Zizekian theory of digital culture in the lived human body Cover 1 Contents 8 Figures 9 Acknowledgments 10 List of Abbreviations 12 Introduction 14 1 Does the Internet Have an Unconscious? 22 2 Slavoj Žižek as Internet Philosopher 36 3 Was Facebook an Event? 50 4 Is the Internet a Thing? 80 5 The Subject Supposed to LOL 118 6 Her: Or, There Is No Digital Relation (with Matthew Flisfeder) 144 7 The Selfie and the Cloud 166 Conclusion 182 Notes 203 Index 228 List of Figures List of Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Does the Internet Have an Unconscious? 2. Slavoj Žižek as Internet Philosopher 3. Was Facebook an Event? 4. Is the Internet a Thing? 5. The Subject Supposed to LOL 6. Her: Or, There Is No Digital Relation (with Matthew Flisfeder) 7. The Selfie and the Cloud Conclusion Notes Index