Student Fantasies: A Žižekian Perspective on the 2012 Quebec Student Uprising

Abstract

For a vast majority of Quebec’s postsecondary students, the year 2012 was most definitely what Slavoj Žižek would call a “year of dreaming dangerously.” These students defied a well-established political and social order in their refusal of a drastic—and highly ideological—university tuition hike. Indeed, as it is well known today, the decision by Jean Charest’s Liberal government to raise tuition fees led to a massive uprising in the spring of 2012. The recurring protests that accompanied the most important student strike in the province’s history, as well as the political and economic discourses that pervaded mediascapes for more than three months, marked a steep division in the public opinion on central questions, such as the role the university should play in Quebec’s sociocultural landscape as well as the functioning and funding that should direct such an institution.¹ The most fascinating fact, however, remains the sheer absence of these crucial questions within media discourses and analyses. Of course, mainstream media played a major role in defining the student crisis; however, this role was not one of debate and inquiry, but rather one that centered on the highly ideological admonishing of an entire generation. In the words of Philippe Fournier:

This young generation of Quebecers, which many had touted as completely apathetic and apolitical, has taken a resolute stand against restricting access to a public good, against the further commodification of knowledge and against the uncompromising law and order approach of an arrogant and irresponsible government.²