The Subject, the Real and the question of form: A return to historical materialism

摘要

What Zizek has dubbed 'the parallax view' is here developed with reference to Marx's labour theory of value and commodity fetishism in an attempt to show that dividing historical materialism into 'dialectical' and 'historical' camps is at best an analytic distinction, at worst a mechanical and false one. In emphasizing that the Subject is a product of the Symbolic, and yet the Symbolic is the product of the Subject, it can be seen that one cannot do history without simultaneously talking about the forms of consciousness that are in effect the historical, changing face of the Subject itself. This can be seen not only in Capital, but also in Marx's 'political works' - this is argued by turning to Zizek's discussion of Class Struggles in France. This is contrary to a Lacanian-inspired reading of historical materialism in which the Real is prioritized and taken as a primordial generator of the Symbolic order as well as readings of Zizek's work that miss the significance of 'parallax'.