Conservatism and žižekian symbolic violence in “Fuck, San Antonio”, by Maya Falks

Abstract

This article aimed to interpret the short story “Porra, Santo Antônio”, by the writer Maya Falks, based on the concept of symbolic (objective) violence by the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, demonstrating how symbolic violence works as a mechanism for maintaining the symbolic order. and may eventually erupt into forms of subjective violence. This is a qualitative and interpretative study, based on the assumptions of Lacanian materialism. Lacanian materialism is a theory that links the assumptions of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis to Karl Marx's dialectical materialism, proposing reflections on the functioning of human relationships, considering not only the class struggle, but also the implications of the unconscious, language, etc. Its main disseminators are the philosophers Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou. Through this theoretical study, we verified the existence of symbolic violence perceptible through careful observation of the lexical uses in the plot; This symbolic violence structures the coordinates of the characters' symbolic universe and gives rise to forms of subjective violence when their contradictions come to light.

Keywords: Symbolic violence; Slavoj Žižek; Maya Falks.