(Per)versions of love and hate

Why, when we are desperately in love, do we continuously block union with our love object?

Why do we often destroy what we love most? Why do we search for the impossible object? Is it that we desire things because they are unavailable, and therefore, to keep desire alive, we must prevent its fulfillment?

Renata Salecl explores the disturbing and complex relationships between love and hate, violence and admiration, libidinal and destructive drives. She investigates phenomena as diverse as the novels The Age of Innocence and The Remains of the Day, classic Hollywood melodramas, the Sirens’ song, Ceaușescu’s Romania, and the Russian performance artist Oleg Kulik, who acts like a dog and bites his audience.

(Per)Versions of Love and Hate presents a unique and timely intervention in contemporary debates by questioning the legitimacy of calls for tolerance and respect within multiculturalism, while also exploring practices like body mutilation as symptoms of the radical shifts that have affected subjectivity in contemporary society.