Simon Gros

Zupančič’s presentation offers an analysis of the relationship between sex, power, and the dynamics of desire. Following Oscar Wilde she explores the notion that sex is fundamentally about power rather than mere desire. This critical perspective leads to a broader discussion on systemic enjoyment and its profound political implications. The concept of sexuality as a power game is explored, where sexual power is not merely exerted but strategically elicited from the other in a voluntary way. Through an analysis of seduction, manipulation, and destruction as depicted in 18th-century literature, particularly the pact between characters like Vicomte de Valmont (the main character in Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 18th-century epistolary novel “Les Liaisons dangereuses”) to seduce and ruin lives, Zupančič illustrates how authentic feelings such as love can be manipulated and weaponized. Valmont’s methodical seduction of Madam D, which involves a calculated approach to her happiness and virtuous nature, underscores the complexity of power dynamics in sexual relationships, where intimacy is mechanized and surrender becomes a conscious and rational decision.

She further examines the sadistic perversion inherent in certain sexual interactions, where the other is forced to make impossible choices, thereby fully subjectivizing them. This is exemplified through the sadistic officer’s demand in the film ‘Sophie’s Choice’, representing the apex of perversion where the subject is split by the impossibility of the choice presented. In this context, sexual relations are revealed to inherently involve dimensions of power and abuse, with perverts positioning themselves as instruments of impossible enjoyment for the other. Ultimately, she argues that the dismissal of desire interrogation in the context of abuse misses the crux of the matter. By denying the subjectivity of those involved, one paradoxically affirms a strange form of self, where the complexities of power, enjoyment, and desire are sidelined, yet remain central to the experience of sexual relations. This presentation thus invites a critical rethinking of the intersections between sexual violence, systemic power structures, and the dark undercurrents of enjoyment that permeate them.

This talk was presented as part of Extimacy: Authority, Anxiety and the Desire for Revolution Symposium. This conference was organized with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the “Extimacies: Critical Theory from the Global South” early-career scholars program and Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Critical Theory (PACT).

Alenka Zupančič is one of the most incisive philosophers within the contemporary landscape of psychoanalytic and continental thought, embodying a thinker that marries the rigorous intellectual traditions of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jacques Lacan with a radical interrogation of the subject, ethics, and the ontology of the Real. As a Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalytic social theorist, her work offers an analysis of the intersections between sexuality, ontology, and the unconscious, while challenging the hegemony of established philosophical dogmas. She serves as a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, embedded within the Scientific Research Center of the Slovene Academy of Sciences, where her scholarly contributions resonate on an international scale. Her academic affiliations extend to her roles as a professor at the European Graduate School in Switzerland and the Graduate School ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana, where she imparts her insights to the next generation of thinkers. Her intellectual lineage is notably connected to the Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis, alongside figures like Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar, with whom she shares a commitment to exploring the radical potentials of Lacanian thought. She is the author of numerous articles and books on psychoanalysis and philosophy, including What is Sex? (MIT Press 2017), The Odd One In: On Comedy (MIT Press 2008), The Shortest Shadow: Nietzsche’s Philosophy of the Two (MIT Press 2003) and Ethics of the Real: Kant and Lacan (Verso 2000). Her books have been translated into many languages.