Email this article 
THINKING WITH ROY AND ŽIŽEK ON THE FREEDOM OF A FORCED COVID-19 ‘NEW NORMAL’
Abstract
The increasing imagination of crisis within the contemporary scene is set within the state of emergency that is the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this background, there is the problem of redefining the conditions of normality. The paper aims to take some insights about how to think through this predicament from Arundhati Roy and Slavoj Žižek who are, the authors deemed, subversives against the normal regulatory course of thought. To do this, the study applies the method of textual hermeneutics on both thinker’s oeuvre, particularly those that relate to the pandemic and specifically Roy’s AZADI and Žižek’s Pa(ndem)ic! 1 and 2, and contextualizes their energetic radical visions to one of the co-authors’ compiled takes on various cases during COVID-19. In this paper’s reading, which attempts to succinctly open a leeway for such takes by aligning the implications with both thinkers’ views for thinking forward and enacting possibilities, Roy’s resolve through love and Žižek’s notion of a forced choice can be reflected on in traversing the inevitable portal of the ‘New Normal.’
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abiera, A. (2019). Let your insight change you: Insights for your great life and relationship. Amazon Publishing.
Adorno, T. (2020). Minima Moralia: Reflections from damaged life. Verso. [Originally Published: 1951].
Bautista, D., Abanilla, C., Matillano, A., & Abiera, A. (2017). Pintakasi: A unifying factor in a local village in the Philippines. International Journal of Research-Granthaalayah, 5(21), 53-65.
Boyle, J. Jr., & Novak, D. (2008). Introduction. Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics. In P. Singer and A.M. Viens (Eds.) The Cambridge textbook of bioethics (pp. 379-381). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cabatbat, K. (2021). Food sustainability in Covid-19 pandemic [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jul 17]. Journal of Public Health (Oxford). doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdab292
Duque, A. D., Fabillar, F. G., & Kahambing, J. G. (2021). Validating the crisis, or the “technology contra humanities” argument during COVID-19 through formal proofs of language. ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 4(3), 369-377.
Egargo, F. J., & Kahambing, J. G. (2021). Existential hope and humanism in COVID-19 suicide interventions. Journal of Public Health (Oxford), 43(2), e246-e247.
Featherstone, M. (2021). Žižek's Pandemic: On utopian realism and the spirit of communism. Cultural Politics, 17(1), 124-134.
Foucault, M. (1976). The history of sexuality (The Will to Knowledge: History of Sexuality Vol. 1). London: Allen Lane.
Galfarsoro, I. (2020). Obvious: Žižek is Žižek!. International Journal of Žižek Studies, 14(2), 1-5.
Gunkel, D. (2020). Deconstructing the panic of pandemic: A critical review of Slavoj Žižek’s pandemic! COVID-19 shakes the world. International Journal of Zižek Studies, 14(2), 1-6.
Kahambing JGS. (2019). Developing the vanishing mediator as theoretical framework: synthesis and application. Journal of International Social Research, 12(64), 470–479.
Kahambing, J.G. (2019). Žižek on Überwindung, or traumatic and abysmal intersections. Journal of International Social Research, 12(67), 601-608.
Kahambing, J.G. (2020). The specter of narration of hypocrisy in Albert Camus’ The Fall. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 28(1), 207-220.
Kahambing, J., & Edilo, S. R. (2020). Stigma, exclusion, and mental health during COVID19: 2 cases from the Philippines. Asian journal of psychiatry, 54, 102292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102292
Kahambing, J.G. (2021). COVID-19, natural vulnerability and zugzwang. Journal of Health (Oxford), 43(2), 252–253.
Kahambing, J.G. (2021a). Global health governance and disaster recovery for rebel returnees during COVID-19 [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jul 6]. Journal of Public Health (Oxford). doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdab277
Kahambing, J.G. (2021b). Mental health ethics in COVID-19 vaccination. Asian J Psychiatr. 2021;60:102659. doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102659
Kahambing, J.G. (2021c). Philippine prisons and 'extreme vulnerability' during COVID-19. Journal of Public Health (Oxford), 43(2), 285-286. doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdaa259
Kahambing, J.G. (2021d). Radicalizing moral conservatism in herd immunity during COVID-19 [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jul 23]. Journal of Public Health (Oxford). doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdab307
Kahambing, J.G. (2021e). Sustainable diet and cruciform ethics during COVID-19 [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jun 22]. Journal of Public Health (Oxford). 2021;fdab235. doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdab235
Kahambing, J.G. (2021f). Vanishing mediators in public health during COVID-19. Journal of Public Health (Oxford), 2021;, fdab301, https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab301
Kahambing, J.G. (2021g). Vulnerabilities in 'local moral worlds': COVID-19 provincial social work interventions [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jun 1]. Journal of Public Health (Oxford). 2021;fdab187. doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdab187
Kahambing, J.G. (2021h). Zero waste and Wastephilian ethics during COVID-19. Journal of Public Health (Oxford), https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab255
Kahambing, J.G. (2021i). Geophilosophical exemption to mandatory vaccination. Journal of Public Health (Oxford), https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab166
Kahambing, J.G. (2021j). Migration and indigenous health during COVID-19. Journal of Public Health (Oxford), https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab290
Klein, N. (2007). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Macmillan.
Kremer, A. (2020). Spirit is a virus: A review of pan(dem)ic!. International Journal of Zižek Studies, 14(2), 1-7.
Kundera, M. (1980). The book of laughter and forgetting (M. H. Heim, Trans.). USA: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Markowitz, D.M., Shoots-Reinhard, B., Peters, E., Silverstein, M.C., Goodwin, R., & Bjälkebring, P. (2021). Dehumanization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology. 12:634543. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.634543
Mendez, R. WHO says Covid will mutate like the flu and is likely here to stay. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/07/who-says-covid-is-here-to-stay-as-hopes-for-eradicating-the-virus-diminish.html (Accessed September 10, 2021).
Mbembé, J. A. (2003). Necropolitics. Public Culture, 15(1), 11-40.
Molabola, AJ., Abiera, A, & Kahambing, JG. (2020). In the mountains, we are like prisoners: Kalinggawasan as indigenous freedom of the Mamanwa of Basey, Samar. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 12(5), 1-6.
Moore, M., dir. (2009). Capitalism: A love story. Dog Eat Dog Films; The Weinstein Company.
Palmer, R. (1969). Hermeneutics. Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer. Northwestern University Press.
Peters, M. A. (2020). Philosophy and pandemic in the postdigital era: Foucault, Agamben, Žižek. Postdigital Science and Education, 2(3), 556-561.
Roy, A. (1997). The God of small things. Flamingo.
Roy, A. (1998). The end of imagination. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books.
Roy, A. (1999). The cost of living. Flamingo.
Roy, A. (2011). Kashmir: The case for freedom. Verso Books
Roy, A. (2011a). Walking with the Comrades. New Delhi: Penguin.
Roy, A. (2014). Capitalism: A ghost story. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Roy, A. (2017). The doctor and the saint: Caste, race, and annihilation of caste, the debate between B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Roy, A. (2019). My seditious heart. Collected Nonfiction. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Roy, A. (2020). AZADI: Freedom. fascism. fiction. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Roy, A. (April, 2020a). The pandemic is a portal: Imani Perry in conversation with Arundhati Roy. Haymarket Books.
Roy, A. (September, 2020b). ‘AZADI: Freedom. fascism. fiction.’: Nick Estes in conversation with Arundhati Roy. Haymarket Books.
Roy, A., & Cusack, J. (2016). Things that can and cannot be said: Essays and conversations. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Webster. P, Neal, K. (2021). Normal led to this - Where next?. Journal of Public Health (Oxford), 43(2), 217–218.
Whitcomb, C. G. (2020). Review of Slavoj Žižek (2020). Pandemic!: COVID-19 shakes the world. Postdigital Science and Education, 2(3), 1020-1024.
Yu, B., Kahambing, J.G. (2022). Human rights and rethinking the use of" Mandatory" during COVID-19. Ethics, Medicine, and Public Health, 21, doi: 10.1016/j.jemep.2022.100754
Zižek, S. (1989). The sublime object of ideology. London and New York: Verso.
Žižek, S. (2004). The reality of the virtual. Documentary. Wright, B. (director). Ben Wright Film Productions. US.
Zižek, S. (2010). Living in the end times. Verso.
Žižek, S. (2017). In defense of lost causes. Verso. [Digital Copy; Originally Published: 2008]
Zižek, S. (2020). Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a time lost. OR Books.
Zižek, S. (2020a). Pandemic!: COVID-19 shakes the world. OR Books.
Zižek, S. (2020b). Sex, love and coronavirus. International Journal of Žižek Studies, 14(2), 1-3.
Zižek, S. (2020c). The appointment in Samara: A new use for some old jokes. International Journal of Žižek Studies, 14(2), 1-17.
Zižek, S. (2021). Heaven in disorder. OR Books.
Žižek, S. (2021a). We have to live till we die. The Journal of Ethical Reflections, 1(4), 57-68.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/ijhs.v5i2.4392
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2022 Jan Gresil Kahambing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Indexed and abstracted in:
IJHS Sinta 3 Certificate (S3 = Level 3)
International Journal of Humanity Studies (IJHS) has been nationally accredited Sinta 3 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia based on the decree No. Surat Keputusan 158/E/KPT/2021. Validity for 5 years: Vol 4 No 1, 2020 till Vol 8 No 2, 2024
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA.
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
p-ISSN: 2597-470X (since 31 August 2017); e-ISSN: 2597-4718 (since 31 August 2017)
International Journal of Humanity Studies (IJHS) is a scientific journal in English published twice a year, namely in September and March, by Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Note: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the editorial team or publishers.