Slavoj Žižek, Violence

Kelsey Wood (University of Arkansas at Little Rock)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (Universidad de Antioquia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Critical Theory
Cultural Studies

Dates

First circulation or publication 2008

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Resources

In his book Violence (2008), Slavoj Žižek begins by distinguishing between different forms of violence. Subjective violence (e.g., crime, terror) is perceived as a disturbance of the “normal” nonviolent state of things. Subjective violence is the most visible kind of violence, and subjective violence is performed by an easily recognized agent, such as a criminal or a terrorist.

Objective violence, however, is more pervasive, but hidden. Objective violence is the invisible violence that is inherent to the allegedly nonviolent, “normal” state of things (Violence, p. 2). Moreover, there are two kinds of objective violence: symbolic violence and systemic violence. Examples of …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2610 words

Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "Violence". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 April 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24952, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Save this article