A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Modalities of a rupturing experience: applying Žižek’s topological reading of the Lacanian real to COVID-19;




AuthorsHekkala, Mikael

PublisherInforma UK Limited

Publication year2026

Journal: Journal for Cultural Research

ISSN1479-7585

eISSN1740-1666

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2026.2704130

Publication's open availability at the time of reportingOpen Access

Publication channel's open availability Partially Open Access publication channel

Web address https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2026.2704130

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/526783501

Self-archived copy's licenceCC BY

Self-archived copy's versionPublisher`s PDF


Abstract

COVID-19 can be viewed as a societal rupture, a phenomenon that caused widespread disorientation. Studies applying Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis to social sciences have shown this by arguing that COVID-19 was an ‘encounter with the real,’ representing a disordered upheaval that questions social norms and cultural customs, as the real is a register of impossibility that reveals a void or gap in the socio-symbolic structure. What remains unaddressed in these studies is the topological nature of the Lacanian real and how it is embedded in every register of psychic experience, which Lacanian theory classifies as the imaginary, symbolic, and real. Slavoj Žižek has highlighted this by constructing ‘knots’ of ‘imaginary-real,’ ‘symbolic-real,’ and ‘real-real.’ In this paper, I will use these knots to analyse the experience of COVID-19 as a societal rupture.


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Last updated on 20/07/2026 10:06:49 AM