Horror and Evil in the Name of Enjoyment: A Psychoanalytic Critique of Ideology

This book argues for the significance of ideology critique and moral judgment in the fields of literary, cultural, political and philosophical studies. By drawing on Slavoj Ž iž ek's theory of ideology the author examines postmodern horror films like Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs, multiculturalism, post-September 11 political discourses and the society of enjoyment in terms of paranoia and perversion and reveals patterns of enjoyment structured through ideological fantasy. The Lacanian/Ž iž ekian theory of ideological fantasy and ethics of psychoanalysis is then applied to broader philosophical, political and cultural contexts.