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Has Oedipus Signed Off (or Struck Out)?: Žižek, Lacan and the Field of Cyberspace

Has Oedipus Signed Off (or Struck Out)?: Žižek, Lacan and the Field of Cyberspace Has Oedipus Signed Off (or Struck ˇ ˇ Out)?: Zizek, Lacan and the Field of Cyberspace Costello: I’m only asking you. Who’s the guy on first base? Abbott: That’s right. (Abbott and Costello, ‘Who’s on First?’ [1936])1 Taking the Field Perhaps in part because of the attention he gives to cutting-edge ˇ z popular culture, Slavoj Ziˇ ek enjoys a celebrity status that is unique in the field of cultural theory, his reputation as both flamboyant showman and intellectual heavy-hitter confirmed by the colourful moniker — ‘The Giant of Ljubljana’ — which seems to confer the charisma of a popular sports-hero on this Lacanian philosopher. But decades before Lacan’s own grandstand play diagrammed ˇ z Ziˇ ek’s field as the relay of intersubjective desire around four bases (in the schema L), popular culture had already produced a peerless demonstration of sliding subjectivity, circulating in a diamond-shaped semantic field.2 I am, of course, referring to Abbott and Costello’s classic routine on baseball, ‘Who’s on First?’ (1936), which hilariously muddles meaning and position: the straight man Abbott pitches a slippery signifier (‘Who’) to his hopelessly confused partner Costello, unable to catch its meaning, none the less gives merry chase to http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Paragraph Edinburgh University Press

Has Oedipus Signed Off (or Struck Out)?: Žižek, Lacan and the Field of Cyberspace

Paragraph , Volume 24 (2): 53 – Jul 1, 2001

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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press
ISSN
0264-8334
eISSN
1750-0176
DOI
10.3366/jsp.2001.24.2.53
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Has Oedipus Signed Off (or Struck ˇ ˇ Out)?: Zizek, Lacan and the Field of Cyberspace Costello: I’m only asking you. Who’s the guy on first base? Abbott: That’s right. (Abbott and Costello, ‘Who’s on First?’ [1936])1 Taking the Field Perhaps in part because of the attention he gives to cutting-edge ˇ z popular culture, Slavoj Ziˇ ek enjoys a celebrity status that is unique in the field of cultural theory, his reputation as both flamboyant showman and intellectual heavy-hitter confirmed by the colourful moniker — ‘The Giant of Ljubljana’ — which seems to confer the charisma of a popular sports-hero on this Lacanian philosopher. But decades before Lacan’s own grandstand play diagrammed ˇ z Ziˇ ek’s field as the relay of intersubjective desire around four bases (in the schema L), popular culture had already produced a peerless demonstration of sliding subjectivity, circulating in a diamond-shaped semantic field.2 I am, of course, referring to Abbott and Costello’s classic routine on baseball, ‘Who’s on First?’ (1936), which hilariously muddles meaning and position: the straight man Abbott pitches a slippery signifier (‘Who’) to his hopelessly confused partner Costello, unable to catch its meaning, none the less gives merry chase to

Journal

ParagraphEdinburgh University Press

Published: Jul 1, 2001

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