Revolution at the Gates: Zizek on Lenin: The 1917 Writings (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781859845462)

The idea of a Lenin renaissance might well provoke an outburst of sarcastic laughter. Marx is OK, but Lenin? Doesn't he stand for the big catastrophe which left its mark on the entire twentieth-century?

Lenin, however, deserves wider consideration than this, and his writings of 1917 are testament to a formidable political figure. They reveal his ability to grasp the significance of an extraordinary moment in history. Everything is here, from Lenin-the-ingenious-revolutionary-strategist to Lenin-of-the-enacted-utopia. To use Kierkegaard's phrase, what we can glimpse in these writings is Lenin-in-becoming: not yet Lenin-the-Soviet-institution, but Lenin thrown into an open, contingent situation.

In Revolution at the Gates, Slavoj Žižek locates the 1917 writings in their historical context, while his afterword tackles the key question of whether Lenin can be reinvented in our era of "cultural capitalism." Žižek is convinced that, whatever the discussion--the forthcoming crisis of capitalism, the possibility of a redemptive violence, the falsity of liberal tolerance--Lenin's time has come again.

Author: V. I. Lenin
ISBN-10: 1859845460
ISBN-13: 9781859845462
Publisher: Verso
Language: English
Published: 06/17/2004
Pages: 356
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 8.16h x 5.94w x 1.05d