What follows is a brief list of major influences on the work of philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
The Big Three:
The Second Tier:
- Theodor Adorno (Žižek often directly adopts and repeats Adorno’s ideas uncited)
- Peter Sloterdijk
- Fredric Jameson
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (another influence cited only occasionally that nonetheless tacitly informs a lot of Žižek’s work)
- Frantz Fanon
- Alain Badiou (his contemporary and friend, Žižek engages his ideas frequently but does not always fully agree)
Others:
- Walter Benjamin
- G.K. Chesterton (Žižek translated a lot of Chesterton, and for a long time frequently quoted him)
- Robespierre
- Karl Marx (Žižek usually invokes “Marxism” via Lenin and less often directly through Marx)
- Immanuel Kant
- F.W.J. Schelling
From the arts:
- Herman Melville (especially his short story, “Bartleby, The Scrivener”)
- Wagner
- Andrei Platonov
- Samuel Beckett
- Sophocles (especially “Antigone”)
- Bertolt Brecht (a less overt and explicit influence, but Žižek uses a lot of the same methods)
- Ernst Lubitsch
- Alfred Hitchcock
Fellow travelers (not influences as such): Alenka Zupancic, Mladen Dolar, Jodi Dean, Joan Copjec, Rex Butler
See also bibliography of overview books and “Slavoj Zizek – Key Ideas” and Žižek’s Ontology