Who gets a fair go? A Žižekian reading of representations of asylum seekers in Australia

Abstract

In this paper I seek to utilise a Žižekian reading of ideological fantasy, of universality and of the Real to examine Australian representations of asylum seekers. I argue that, whilst Žižek’s work is of value in identifying the political and fantasmatic logics of the field, particularly the grip of the ‘fair go’, his applied analysis of the ‘global order’ has limited potential in these geo-politically bounded circumstances. Conversely, Žižek’s understanding of universality does offer the conceptual tools to provide an alternative political practice that seeks to evoke those moments of impossibility within the Australian narrative of the fair go.