A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION Slavoj Žižek is without question one of the most important and provocative contemporary thinkers. Yet his work has radically divided critics and commentators, often along political lines. On the one hand, his work has been compared with the biggest names of French post- structuralist theory like Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, for its scope, insights and significance. Although he began publishing in English only in 1989, by 2006 Žižek was already a highly influential figure in social theory, continental philosophy, cinema studies, literary and cultural studies. He is rightly celebrated for his introductions to the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and his use of Lacanian psychoanalysis to interpret popular culture.