THE FANTASY OF SOVEREIGNTY WITHOUT THE BURDEN OF POWER: NEOLIBERALISM, CARNIVALIZATION, AND THE NEW PRECARIAT THROUGH THE LENS OF PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITIQUE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25264/2786-9202/4.1-69-91Keywords:
neoliberalism, psychoanalysis, precariat, carnivalization, ideological fantasy.Abstract
The article examines the transformation of the ideological fantasy of mastery under late neoliberalism through the psychoanalytic theory of J. Lacan and S. Žižek, M. Bakhtin’s concept of carnival, and P. Bourdieu’s sociology of symbolic capital. It considers the displacement of the object-cause of desire from the classic consumption markers of the late-Soviet era (jeans, chewing gum, Coca-Cola) toward contemporary status symbols such as a purchased diploma, expensive devices, and consumer electronics bought on credit. It is argued that the new representative of the working class and precariat (used here as analytical rather than empirically homogeneous categories) inherits the fantasmatic structure of the “homo sovieticus,” yet grafts it onto the meritocratic myth of a natural right to rule, without being ready to bear the burden of the ruler’s responsibility. It is shown that this configuration rests on the superego injunction to enjoy, which converts personal failure into a matter of individual moral fault rather than a structural consequence of neoliberal capitalism. The article analyzes mechanisms of cultural carnivalization whereby the desire to switch roles (streaming, avatars, virtual identities) substitutes for an actual transformation of social positions. Using three episodes of the animated series South Park (“Cartmanland,” 2001; “Margaritaville,” 2009; “A Nightmare on FaceTime,” 2012) as a symptomatic cultural text, the study demonstrates the operation of cynical distance according to the Sloterdijk–Žižek formula (“they know very well what they are doing, but still they are doing it”; Sloterdijk, 1987, p. 5; Žižek, 1989, p. 33), as well as the effect of “equal opportunity hatred” (Samuels, 2008), which produces a position of cynical meta-distance in the viewer. A theoretical model is proposed for analyzing the “new homo sovieticus” as a figure combining nostalgia for imaginary sovereignty with the real debt-dependency of the precarious subject. Practical implications of the model for media consumption, education policy, and consumer-credit regulation in the Ukrainian context of labor migration and full-scale war are formulated as research hypotheses requiring further empirical testing rather than as established findings. The study is theoretical-analytical in nature and relies on a method of critical textual analysis (McKee, 2003; Fürsich, 2009) of cultural artifacts combined with a synthesis of psychoanalytic and socio-critical literature.
References
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Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and his world. Indiana University Press.
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Fedyuk, O. (2023). Temporary labour migration in the wake of the Ukraine war: Building long-term resilience through inclusive labour and social policies (CELSI Policy Brief). Central Eu-ropean Labour Studies Institute.
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McGowan, T. (2016). Capitalism and desire: The psychic cost of free markets. Columbia Univer-sity Press.
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Sharafutdinova, G. (2023). The afterlife of the ‘Soviet man’: Rethinking Homo Sovieticus. Bloomsbury Academic.
Sloterdijk, P. (1987). Critique of cynical reason. University of Minnesota Press.
Standing, G. (2011). The precariat: The new dangerous class. Bloomsbury Academic.
Weinstock, J. A. (Ed.). (2008). Taking South Park seriously. State University of New York Press.
Yurchak, A. (2006). Everything was forever, until it was no more: The last Soviet generation. Princeton University Press.
Zinoviev, A. (1985). Homo Sovieticus. Atlantic Monthly Press.
Žižek, S. (1989). The sublime object of ideology. Verso.
Žižek, S. (1997). The plague of fantasies. Verso.
Žižek, S. (2008). Violence: Six sideways reflections. Picador.
Żuk, P. (2023). The war in Ukraine: Consequences for the economy, labour class and equita-ble development in Europe and beyond. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 34(2), 343–356. https://doi.org/10.1017/elr.2023.18
References
Adorno, T. W., & Horkheimer, M. (2002). Dialectic of enlightenment. Stanford University Press.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and his world. Indiana University Press.
Baudrillard, J. (1998). The consumer society: Myths and structures. Sage.
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Polity Press.
Bauman, Z. (2007). Consuming life. Polity Press.
Boltanski, L., & Chiapello, E. (2005). The new spirit of capitalism. Verso.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste (R. Nice, Trans.). Harvard University Press.
Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth revolution. Zone Books.
Dardot, P., & Laval, C. (2013). The new way of the world: On neoliberal society. Verso.
Debord, G. (1994). The society of the spectacle. Zone Books.
Fedirko, T. (2021). Liberalism in fragments: Oligarchy and the liberal subject in Ukrainian news journalism. Social Anthropology, 29(2), 471–489. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.13063
Fedyuk, O. (2023). Temporary labour migration in the wake of the Ukraine war: Building long-term resilience through inclusive labour and social policies (CELSI Policy Brief). Central Eu-ropean Labour Studies Institute.
Fisher, M. (2009). Capitalist realism: Is there no alternative? Zero Books.
Foucault, M. (2008). The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979. Pal-grave Macmillan.
Fürsich, E. (2009). In defense of textual analysis: Restoring a challenged method for journal-ism and media studies. Journalism Studies, 10(2), 238–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616700802374050
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Anchor Books.
Graeber, D. (2011). Debt: The first 5,000 years. Melville House.
Groening, S. (2008). Cynicism and other postideological half measures in South Park. In J. A. Weinstock (Ed.), Taking South Park seriously (pp. 113–129). State University of New York Press.
Halsall, A. (2008). “Bigger longer & uncut”: South Park and the carnivalesque. In J. A. Wein-stock (Ed.), Taking South Park seriously (pp. 23–38). State University of New York Press.
Han, B.-C. (2017). Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and new technologies of power. Verso.
Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
Illouz, E. (2007). Cold intimacies: The making of emotional capitalism. Polity Press.
Iurchenko, M., & Ponomarenko, M. (2025). Ukrainian educational and scientific potential af-ter the full-scale invasion: Socioeconomic challenges and prospects. SocioEconomic Chal-lenges, 9(1), 21–38.
Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. Duke University Press.
Kupets, O. (2016). Education-job mismatch in Ukraine: Too many people with tertiary educa-tion or too many jobs for low-skilled? Journal of Comparative Economics, 44(1), 125–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2015.10.005
Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits: The first complete edition in English (B. Fink, Trans.). W. W. Norton.
Lazzarato, M. (2012). The making of the indebted man: An essay on the neoliberal condition. Semiotext(e).
Libanova, E., Pozniak, O., & Tsymbal, O. (2022). Scale and consequences of forced migration of the population of Ukraine as a result of armed aggression of the Russian Federation. Demography and Social Economy, 48(2), 37–57. https://doi.org/10.15407/dse2022.02.037
McGowan, T. (2016). Capitalism and desire: The psychic cost of free markets. Columbia Univer-sity Press.
McKee, A. (2003). Textual analysis: A beginner’s guide. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020017
Parker, T. (Writer & Director). (2001, July 25). Cartmanland (Season 5, Episode 6) [TV series episode]. In T. Parker & M. Stone (Executive Producers), South Park. Comedy Central.
Parker, T. (Writer & Director). (2009, March 25). Margaritaville (Season 13, Episode 3) [TV series episode]. In T. Parker & M. Stone (Executive Producers), South Park. Comedy Cen-tral.
Parker, T. (Writer & Director). (2012, October 24). A Nightmare on FaceTime (Season 16, Ep-isode 12) [TV series episode]. In T. Parker & M. Stone (Executive Producers), South Park. Comedy Central.
Parker, T., & Stone, M. (Creators). (1997–present). South Park [TV series]. Comedy Central.
Samuels, R. (2008). Freud goes to South Park: Teaching against postmodern prejudices and equal opportunity hatred. In J. A. Weinstock (Ed.), Taking South Park seriously (pp. 99–111). State University of New York Press.
Sandel, M. J. (2020). The tyranny of merit: What’s become of the common good? Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Sharafutdinova, G. (2023). The afterlife of the ‘Soviet man’: Rethinking Homo Sovieticus. Bloomsbury Academic.
Sloterdijk, P. (1987). Critique of cynical reason. University of Minnesota Press.
Standing, G. (2011). The precariat: The new dangerous class. Bloomsbury Academic.
Weinstock, J. A. (Ed.). (2008). Taking South Park seriously. State University of New York Press.
Yurchak, A. (2006). Everything was forever, until it was no more: The last Soviet generation. Princeton University Press.
Zinoviev, A. (1985). Homo Sovieticus. Atlantic Monthly Press.
Žižek, S. (1989). The sublime object of ideology. Verso.
Žižek, S. (1997). The plague of fantasies. Verso.
Žižek, S. (2008). Violence: Six sideways reflections. Picador.
Żuk, P. (2023). The war in Ukraine: Consequences for the economy, labour class and equita-ble development in Europe and beyond. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 34(2), 343–356. https://doi.org/10.1017/elr.2023.18
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