Yannis Stavrakakis:
The truth of post-truth
18 September
The recent discussions around post-truth and fake news brings back into fashion the ancient quest for collectively deciding on an absolute distinction between truth and falsity; a renewed craving for guaranteed and unmediated access to the real. We observe a reoccupation of a rather pre-modern perspective with quasi theological origins which was nevertheless secularised in various ways and still continues to fascinate. A genealogical reading of the critique of ideology, particularly through psychoanalysis and social constructionism, and a retrospect on strategies of ‘overidentification’ in political and artistic practices, can potentially strengthen a practical ‘political sophistication’ capable of escaping the aforementioned simplistic position, without overlooking the need to process the functional criteria of the ethico-political praxis.
Yannis Stavrakakis studied political science at Panteion University (Athens) and received his MA degree from the Ideology and Discourse Analysis Programme at the University of Essex, where he also completed his PhD. He has worked at the Universities of Essex and Nottingham before taking up his position at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2006. His research primarily focuses on contemporary political theory (with emphasis on psychoanalytic and poststructuralist approaches) and on the analysis of ideology and discourse in late modern societies (with emphasis on populism, environmentalism, nationalism and post‐democracy).