Slavoj Zizek, Rex Libris, and the Traumatic Real: Representations of the library and the librarian in a modern comic book series

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to use the work of philosopher Slavoj Zizek to gain insights into representations of the librarian and the library in contemporary popular culture. Design/methodology/approach - A psycho-analytic reading of the comic book series Rex Libris using Slavoj Zizek's treatment of Jacques Lacan. Findings - Zizek's approach can provide novel and previously unconsidered insights into the understanding of librarian stereotypes in particular and representations of the library in general. Research limitations/implications - This paper is limited to the representations of the librarian and the library in one comic book series. Its findings need to be generalized to representations in other forms of popular culture. Originality/value - As far as the authors know, this is the only paper that has applied the work of Zizek in the library and information science (LIS) literature. As such, not only are the insights into the representations of librarians and libraries important, this paper also acts as a valuable introduction to the work of Zizek for the LIS community of scholars.