This is a wonderfully lucid and perceptive account of how the i ekian approach to cinema provides the theoretical coordinates for our understanding of ideology. Via i ek, Matthew Flisfeder makes a compelling case for a Lacanian reading of film which, once freed from old debates on spectatorship, has a chance to strike a formidable alliance with Marxism to invite us to rethink our world through the eyes of film. - Fabio Vighi, reader in Film and Critical Theory, Cardiff University, UK
Matthew Flisfeder's The Symbolic, The Sublime, and Slavoj i ek's Theory of Film marks a decisive moment in film studies. It is the first book to take full account of Slavoj i ek's significance for the analysis of film, and it does so in an exhaustive and insightful way. Though there now exist many recent books on Lacanian film theory and on Slavoj i ek's thought, no books exist that explain i ek's intervention in the domain of film studies. Not only does Flisfeder open new ground in this way, but he also creates a work that is accessible and theoretically sophisticated at the same time, much like i ek's own thought. It will provide a point of entry into the implications of i ek's philosophy on the analysis of cinema for all levels, from undergraduate students to professors of film studies. Flisfeder's book is a treasure for all. - Todd McGowan, associate professor of Film Studies, University of Vermont. USA
[Flisfeder's] book insists on the need for a sophisticated and politically aware psychoanalytic film theory, and he makes an effort to answer the question about the relevance of Lacanian film theory today . . . This book may help to ignite an exciting new trend in film theory, and I welcome it. Canadian Journal of Communication