Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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friction between Žižek and the post-theorists is the work of Bordwell. Flisfeder
writes:
Although Žižek finds it necessary to address science as ‘knowledge in
the Real’ (i.e., Marxism) and therefore criticizes some of the reigning
practices in cultural studies, particularly a certain variety of historical
relativism, he considers this silent passing over of the tough ideological
questions by post-Theorists to be somewhat of a spontaneous ideological
attachment to the reigning political power. (90) [parentheses in original]
Žižek applies this thinking in his criticism of Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark
Thirty, arguing that the film endorses torture by not overtly condemning it, and
opting instead to show torture coldly and clinically.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/25/zero-dark-thirty-normalisestorture-unjustifiable;
accessed 18-04-2013) In short, Žižek appears to believe that
the biggest crime perpetrated by those that engage in an analysis of style without
incorporating ideological frameworks is to risk supporting that which is morally
wrong, or at least, the dominant ideology of the text and the institutional and cultural
contexts of its production. Bordwell indirectly addresses this when he writes, “For
our theorists, politics equals left politics equals the glory years of May 1968 theory.
Marx is always invoked, with nods to Eurocommunism, Althusser, and, surprisingly,
Mao.” (http://www.davidbordwell.net/essays/zizek.php; accessed 26-04-2013)
There are two responses to this particular accusation by Žižek. My own argument is
that because one does not incorporate moral and political ideology into his/her
analysis does not mean that said person is devoid of such opinion, nor does it make