Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 15:31:48 -0500 (EST)
From: Satish K Kolluri <kolluri-AT-comm.umass.edu>
Subject: Re: psychical and non-discursive


Peter

I was surprised too, at Zizek making the link between enjoyment and 
ethics because nowhere in his essay "enjoy your nation as yourself" does 
he draw the connection between the two. The questions I asked were: a) 
how is enjoyment produced and shared and how are different enjoyments 
(different nations) produced? How does one enjoy when one does not have a 
nation, for eg, the Palestinians? Is enjoyment an omnihistorical category?

	Zizek's responses were, I must say, unusual. He sidestepped the 
first question by telling us that we were trivializing the notion of 
enjoyment. For him it meant much more. It was an ethical category and 
unfortunately he  could not (would not?)find the time to elaborate on this 
curious relationship. Answering the second one, he said that the Palestinians 
enjoyed their nation more beacuse they did not have one and he left it at 
that and needless to say, it was extremely frustrating. 

	I am still trying to figure out the import of his statement- 
enjoyment/pre-ideological/non-discursive/substance/ethical?/political?/
ideological/(omni)historical?/particular?/universal? 

Satish


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