Horror and Evil in the Name of Enjoyment

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 Zizek'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/Zizekian theory of ideological fantasy and ethics of psychoanalysis is then applied to broader philosophical, political and cultural contexts.

Autorentext

The Author: Han-yu Huang is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Tamkang University, Taiwan. His research fields include cyberculture, horror film, and ethics of psychoanalysis.

Inhalt

Contents: A Psychoanalytic Cultural Study of the Contemporary Horror Film - Perversion, Father-Jouissance, and the Psychoanalytic Situation in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs - Global Multiculturalism and Its Symptoms - Moral Evil and Horror in the Name of Enjoyment.