The ethics of Sekai-kei: reading Hiroki Azuma with Slavoj Zizek

Author: Christopher Howard
Date: Dec. 2014
From: Science Fiction Film and Television(Vol. 7, Issue 3)
Publisher: Liverpool University Press (UK)
Document Type: Article
Length: 8,067 words
Abstract :

The aim of this paper is to re-examine the engagement of sekai-kei (world-type) anime with questions of ethical decision through reasserting the usefulness of Lacanian-Zizekian approaches in contrast to the Derrida-inspired ideas used by Japanese cultural theorist Azuma Hiroki. Here I note that although sekai-kei may stage an encounter with the Lacanian real, such texts typically employ strategies by which any form of radical subversion through an ethical act are, in various ways, foreclosed. Sekai-kei thus often, alongside the work of Azuma, supports rather than challenges contemporary capitalism. Keywords: Hiroki Azuma, Slavoj Zizek, sekai-kei, Evangelion, Derrida, Lacan
Source Citation
Howard, Christopher. "The ethics of Sekai-kei: reading Hiroki Azuma with Slavoj Zizek." Science Fiction Film and Television, vol. 7, no. 3, Dec. 2014, pp. 365+. link.gale.com/apps/doc/A388968073/AONE?u=gale&sid=bookmark-AONE. Accessed 24 June 2026.
  

Gale Document Number: GALE|A388968073