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Why Theory

Author: Why Theory

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Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.
180 Episodes
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The Beautiful Soul

The Beautiful Soul

2024-11-2501:13:34

Ryan and Todd explore Hegel’s concept of the beautiful soul as he lays it out in the Phenomenology of Spirit. They discuss the contemporary political situation in terms of this figure and theorize about its predominance in today’s landscape. The beautiful soul also becomes a way of thinking through the difference between Kant and Hegel or between morality and politics.
Hegel & Feminism

Hegel & Feminism

2024-11-1101:17:53

Ryan and Todd address the fundamental connections between Hegelian philosophy and feminism. They discuss the role of contradiction in both lines of thought and focus on some of the major feminist readers of Hegel’s philosophy, including Gillian Rose, Catherine Malabou, and Rebecca Comay.
Aufhebung (Sublation)

Aufhebung (Sublation)

2024-10-2601:14:33

Ryan and Todd work to explain Hegel's central idea of Aufhebung (translated as "sublation"). This unique German term, which means to cancel, to preserve, and to lift up, provides the key for understanding the movement of Hegel's philosophy, but it is also the site for misunderstanding Hegel's project, which the show discusses.
Contemporary Horror

Contemporary Horror

2024-10-1401:47:28

Ryan and Todd continue their discussion of the horror film by focusing on the genre since Psycho. They discuss Night of the Living Dead, Carrie, The Shining, The Blair Witch Project, It Follows, and The Substance. Their theorize the modern horror film in relation to the psychoanalytic notion of the death drive.
Fredric Jameson

Fredric Jameson

2024-09-2901:14:01

Ryan and Todd pay tribute to the recently deceased theorist Fredric Jameson. They note his deep and wide-ranging contributions to a variety of fields and his unique ability to find something valuable in the object of his critique.
Horror Film

Horror Film

2024-09-1601:29:37

Ryan and Todd explore the classical horror film in terms of the antagonism between life and the beyond, inclusive of death. They focus on the films The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Frankenstein, Invisible Man, Godzilla, and Psycho.
Heist Film

Heist Film

2024-09-0201:32:55

Ryan and Todd develop their theory of the heist film as a genre, which they see as structured through the opposition between desire and its object. They examine closely Rififi, The Killing, Heat, Ocean's 11, and Inside Man, as well as touching on many other key films of the genre. Hugh Manon's film noir podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0aQXewYjXrMtTjwpJ18rg6
Sports Film

Sports Film

2024-08-1801:41:00

Ryan and Todd explore the genre of the sports film, focusing on important entries in the genre such as Chariots of Fire, Rocky, and Heaven Can Wait, among others. They define this genre through the category of the impossible and discuss the relationship between possibility and impossibility as it plays out in the sports film.
New Introductory Lectures

New Introductory Lectures

2024-08-0401:22:29

Ryan and Todd discuss what they see as the important moments from Freud's New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis--both its highlights and its lowlights. They explore the role that Freud's 1920 discovery of the death drive plays--or doesn't play--in this work.
Ryan and Todd outline the arguments of Freud's Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis and highlight the key ideas that appear in this work. They also discuss what Freud mentions here that he doesn't address elsewhere.
Suture

Suture

2024-07-0901:13:40

Ryan and Todd delve into the concept of suture, as first developed by Jacques-Alain Miller. They trace the deformation that it underwent through the history of film studies and examine a few films where we can see the different understandings of suture at work.
Extimacy

Extimacy

2024-06-2301:13:28

Ryan and Todd discuss the Jacques Lacan's neologism "extimacy," which first occurs in Seminar VII and then disappears. But they theorize that this concept offers an excellent starting point for grasping Lacan's entire project, despite his own sparse use of it.
Prequel

Prequel

2024-06-1101:14:41

Ryan and Todd explore the prequel as a narrative form. They consider its radical potential and how it might function ideologically. They discuss prequels such as Fire Walk With Me and Better Call Saul.
Modernist Novel

Modernist Novel

2024-05-2701:17:42

Ryan and Todd theorize the modernist novel as a specific literary form, defined not by its time period but by its structural exigencies. They relate this form to the importance of the ending that function as a cut in the narrative movement rather than as a summation of all that has happened, which contrasts it with previous iterations of the novel.
Endings

Endings

2024-05-1101:25:44

Ryan and Todd explore the problem of the ending, focusing on when and why the ending becomes important in film and television. They discuss the relationship between the ending of life and the ending of a work of art, especially in terms of psychoanalytic thinking.
Parallax View

Parallax View

2024-04-2801:12:18

Ryan and Todd analyze Slavoj Zizek's contribution in what may be his magnum opus--The Parallax View. They discuss how he builds on the concept of parallax as originally articulated by Kojin Karatani and its implication for Zizek's understanding of politics.
Seminar 11

Seminar 11

2024-04-1301:26:40

Ryan and Todd unpack Jacques Lacan's most well-known seminar--Seminar XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. In doing so, they focus on Lacan's own exclusion as a starting point and then delve into two concepts that Lacan does not list among the fundamental ones--subjectivity and the objet a.
Seminar 7

Seminar 7

2024-03-3001:28:23

Ryan and Todd analyze the complexity of Jacques Lacan's Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. They discuss the various notions that appear there--from das Ding to sublimation to death drive to the ethics of desire.
Ryan and Todd continue their exploration of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason with the Introduction. They discuss the importance of his critique of dogmatic metaphysics and the incredible discovery of the synthetic a priori judgment. Ryan's sports article: https://link.springer.com/journal/41282/online-first
Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet

2024-03-0301:19:10

Ryan and Todd interpret David Lynch's Blue Velvet by paying special attention to the Kantian dimension of the film. They consider the film in terms of the thing-in-itself and the sublime.
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Comments (8)

Nicholas Crawford

Your book on Lynch is the best book on fantasy and desire I've read. Hugely useful.

Aug 24th
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Nicholas Crawford

re Truman Show. What about subject supposed to know/supposed to enjoy? It seems that instead of comic sadism there's the relief of the laugh track laughing for you there. It's a fantasy screen. Today's Twitch streams of people playing games in your stead and YouTubers updating you with the innane come to mind...the drama side of that stuff isn't why we keep watching. Not fiction, but I'm not sure how I feel about that distinction here.

Jul 19th
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Brandon Miles

well, especially in the way you put it as coming from Hegel, it would make sense that people find peace in alienation because it is really a lack, is it not? a lack of feeling in place, of feeling unified, removed from a state of finality.

Apr 22nd
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Ben Zonca

Perhaps read more deeply about D&Gs conception of desire. There's a lot of guesswork and secondary readings about their work in general here. How can you claim they celebrate and want more capatalism? Absolute nonsense. The bias toward your own work here is extraordinary, and probably could do with some psychoanalysis. (I'm not even pro-Deleuze, but this is something else entirely).

Dec 13th
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Brandon Miles

So, hold on. You say the Real isn't a desert, but if it's just what's there after all the symbology is stripped away, then isn't it in a sense a desert? That which is bare and the last true landscape beneath all the window dressing and decoration?

Aug 25th
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Mikkel Thøgersen

keep it coming! so happy to stumble on this!

May 17th
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dok dicer

Huh. That was the first boring and banal episode I've heard of them. Point subverted, I guess.

Nov 15th
Reply

Garrett Paul

Yes please do a how to read series! It would be so helpful.

Nov 6th
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