Core Questions and Chapter Outline

Core Questions: The core question that is driving this thesis revolves around the impotence of capitalist symptoms in terms of producing a dislocation of global capital. As such, I am attempting to generate a theoretical methodology, through Zizekian psychoanalysis, that is productive for understanding this impotence. More than this though, I would like the methodology to suggest ways out of the capitalist cycle. In the process of this investigation, I will apply my methodology to two discourses of global capitalism with particularly salient symptoms; global poverty and global change. At the end of this I hope to extend my understanding of the apparent deadlock between capital and its symptoms and suggest possible alternative strategies to go beyond this deadlock.

Current Chapter Outline

Chapter 2;

Chapter Two introduces and outlines the concepts, and the manner in which these concepts will be used, in the thesis. These concepts include;

- The Real
- Jouissance
- Desire
- Fantasy
- Objet a
- Universality.

As well, the theorists that are used by Zizek, and in the Thesis are also outlined. This establishes the context in which the thesis operates. Some of this may possibly be moved to the introductory chapter.

The theorists are;
- Lacan
- Marx
- Hegel
- Laclau

Chapter 3

This chapter is formed by a debate between the interpretive and (psycho) analytic positions staged by the differences in theory between Lalau and Zizek. The conclusion taken is that only the psychoanalytic position (taking on the concepts of jouissance and fantasy through an extended notion of the Real) can adequetely explain the grip of ideology.

Chapter 4

This is the main theoretical chapter, focusing on the materiality of universality ( the influence of jouissance on the universal). In particular it introduces the Parallax View in its relation to abstract and concrete universality. Also features discussions on dialectics and symptoms

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is the methodological chapter of the thesis, laying out the approach that will be applied to the following discursive analysis chapters. As such, along with Chapter 4, it forms the basis of my theoretical position. The chapter details the basic defence mechanisms used within an abstract universal against the symptom. Alternatively, discursive strategies used to break up the abstract universal via the concrete universal are considered.

The chapter also stages a transition from a fairly neutral theoretical position to a more explicitly political one.

Planned Chapters

Introduction and Conclusion
Discursive Analysis of Green Ideology
Discursive Analysis of Global Poverty
What can be done/ synthesis chapter