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; 
Authors: Hekkala, Mikael
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Journal for Cultural Research
ISSN: 1479-7585
eISSN: 1740-1666
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2026.2704130
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open 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 address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/526783501
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
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.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |