Is Slavoj Žižek taken seriously in academic circles?

Question

I first saw a couple of youtube videos of Slavoj Žižek and was impressed by his style and his ideas. Then I tried to read "The Parallax View" and found it very difficult to follow and incoherent from one paragraph to the other, almost a parody of everything that is supposedly wrong with the continental style. Now I wonder, how seriously is he taken by professional philosophers.

1. Do the more established philosophy departments devote much effort and resources to his work?
2. Are his ideas and works included in current curriculums?
3. Are any of his results considered significant?

Answer 1

I don't really know, but my impression is that he is not read in philosophy departments at all, but is certainly read in departments of "critical theory," or whatever. I've never looked at the Parallax View, but much of his writing seems to me accessible, interesting, and amusing. I'm not big on Lacan, but I like some of his bits on Marx and Hegel.

I believe many students and general readers like him because he relentlessly engages current issues and has an anticapitalist political dimension pitifully lacking in academic philosophy today. And he is, of course, massively well-read, eclectic, and prolific. I've never discerned the "grand thesis," if one exists, and I just take him as an essayist and provocateur, which I intend as a compliment, mostly.