Ernesto Laclau - Wikipedia Ernesto Laclau From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Ernesto Laclau Ernesto Laclau in 2012 Born 6 October 1935 Buenos Aires, Argentina Died 13 April 2014(2014-04-13) (aged 78) Seville, Spain Era 20th / 21st-century philosophy Region Western philosophy School Post-Marxism Main interests Hegemony · Identity politics Influences Marx · Gramsci · Ramos · Althusser · Hobsbawm · Lacan · Foucault · Derrida · Wittgenstein Influenced Žižek · Butler · Critchley · Marchart · Stavrakakis · Norval · Errejón Ernesto Laclau (Spanish: [laˈklaw]; 6 October 1935 – 13 April 2014) was an Argentine political theorist and philosopher. He is often described as an 'inventor' of post-Marxist political theory. He is well known for his collaborations with his long-term partner, Chantal Mouffe. He studied History in Buenos Aires, graduating from the University of Buenos Aires in 1964, and received a PhD from the University of Essex in 1977. Since 1986 he served as Professor of Political Theory at the University of Essex, where he founded and directed for many years the graduate programme in Ideology and Discourse Analysis, as well as the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Under his directorship, the Ideology and Discourse Analysis programme has provided a research framework for the development of a distinct type of discourse analysis that draws on post-structuralist theory (especially the work of Saussure, and Derrida), post analytic thought (Wittgenstein, and Richard Rorty) and psychoanalysis (primarily the work of Lacan) to provide innovative analysis of concrete political phenomena, such as identities, discourses and hegemonies. This theoretical and analytical orientation is known today as the 'Essex School of discourse analysis'.[1] Over his career Laclau lectured extensively in many universities in North America, South America, Western Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Most recently he has held positions at SUNY Buffalo and Northwestern University, both in the US. Laclau died of a heart attack in Seville in 2014.[2][3] Contents 1 Biography 2 Work 2.1 Laclau's relationship with Slavoj Žižek 3 Books 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links Biography[edit] Laclau studied History at the University of Buenos Aires[4] and was a member of the PSIN (Socialist Party of the National Left) until 1969, when the British historian Eric Hobsbawm supported his entrance to Oxford.[5] He had close links with Jorge Abelardo Ramos, the founder of the PSIN, although he stated in 2005 that the latter had evolved in a direction he did not appreciate.[5] In the same interview, he claimed that he came from a Yrigoyenista family, and that the Peronist politician Arturo Jauretche, a strong opponent of Justo's dictatorship during the Infamous Decade of the 1930s, was a close friend of his father.[5] In his later years, he had close ties with the Argentine Socialist Confederation (Spanish: Confederación Socialista Argentina),[6] and in Argentina he is associated with Peronism.[7] Work[edit] Laclau's early work was influenced by Althusserian Marxism and focused on issues debated within Neo-Marxist circles in the 1970s, such as the role of the state, the dynamics of capitalism, the importance of building popular movements, and the possibility of revolution. Laclau's most significant book is Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, which he co-authored with Chantal Mouffe in 1985. The position outlined in this book is usually described as post-Marxist because it rejects (a) Marxist economic determinism and (b) the view that class struggle is the most important antagonism in society. In their 2001 introduction to the second edition Laclau and Mouffe commented on this label, stating that whilst 'post-Marxist' they were also 'post-Marxist':[8] their work, though a departure from traditional Western Marxism, retained similar concerns and ideas. A key innovation in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy was Laclau and Mouffe's argument that left-wing movements need to build alliances with a wide variety of different groups if they are to be successful and establish a left-wing 'hegemony'. In the final chapter of the book, the project of "radical and plural democracy" was advocated: a democracy in which subjects accept the importance of the values of liberty and equality, but fight over what the terms mean. In Hegemony and Socialist Strategy Laclau and Mouffe also offered a constructivist account of 'discourse'. By drawing on the work of the later Wittgenstein, they argued that social entities only become meaningful through discursive articulation. As such, the meaning of something is never pre-given but is, instead, constructed through social practices. Laclau subsequently used this account of discourse to re-consider the nature of identity, arguing that all political identities are discursive - even if they are experienced by individuals as 'natural' (even to the point where one's identity is not recognised as an identity). For example, though an individual may think that they are just 'born male' this is, for Laclau, not the case: 'maleness' is a socially constructed category that has no innate meaning. In his more recent works Laclau returned to a topic that was prevalent in his earliest writings: populism. In On Populist Reason, Laclau considered the nature of populism in political discourse, the creation of a popular hegemonic bloc such as "the people", and the importance of affect in politics. Building on his earlier work, Laclau argued that the basis of populism lies in the creation of "empty signifiers": words and ideas that express a universal idea of justice, and symbolically structure the political environment. Against those who see populism as a threat to democracy, Laclau argued that it is an essential component of it.[9] Laclau's relationship with Slavoj Žižek[edit] Laclau is known for his long standing dialogue with Lacanian "arch-Marxist" Slavoj Žižek. This dates back to at least 1989, when Laclau wrote the introduction to Žižek's first book in English (The Sublime Object of Ideology). Žižek is widely recognized as responsible for Laclau's increased acceptance of Lacanian ideas and his essay "Beyond Discourse Analysis",[10] which was published in Laclau's New Reflections on the Revolutions of Our Time (1990), provided a psychoanalytic critique of Laclau's work. In 2000, Laclau, Žižek and Judith Butler published the trialogue Contingency, Hegemony, Universality, in which each responded to the others' works in a three-essay cycle. Although Žižek and Laclau noted their similarities and mutual respect, significant political and theoretical differences emerged between all three interlocutors. Following several acrimonious publications in the early 2000s, Laclau wrote in On Populist Reason (2005) that Žižek had an impractical and confused approach to politics, describing him as "waiting for the martians".[9] Their disagreement escalated in the pages of Critical Inquiry in 2006, when in a spate of essays the two argued in an increasingly hostile manner about political action, Marxism and class struggle, Hegel, populism, and the Lacanian Real.[11][12] More recently in a 2014 interview with David Howarth, Laclau stated that his relationship with Žižek had deteriorated due to the latter adopting a "frantic ultra-Leftist stance, wrapped in a Leninism of kindergarten".[13] Books[edit] Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory (NLB, 1977) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Chantal Mouffe) (Verso, 1985) New Reflections on the Revolution of our Time (Verso, 1990) The Making of Political Identities (editor) (Verso, 1994) Emancipation(s) (Verso, 1996) Contingency, Hegemony, Universality (with Judith Butler and Slavoj Žižek) (Verso, 2000) On Populist Reason (Verso, 2005) The Rhetorical Foundations of Society (Verso, 2014) See also[edit] Hegemony discursive theory Laclau-Mouffe Chantal Mouffe Essex School of discourse analysis List of deconstructionists Richard JF Day Louis Althusser Antonio Gramsci Post-Marxism Slavoj Žižek Saul Newman Peronism References[edit] ^ See Jules Townshend, 'Discourse theory and political analysis: a new paradigm from the Essex School?’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol. 5, No. 1, February 2003, pp. 129–142. ^ "ÚLTIMO MOMENTO: Falleció en Sevilla, el téorico y politólogo argentino, Ernesto Laclau | Radio Rivadavia". Rivadavia.com.ar. Archived from the original on 2014-04-14. Retrieved 2014-04-13. ^ Blackburn, Robin. "Ernesto Laclau, 1935-2014". VersoBooks.com. Retrieved 2014-04-14. ^ Cuáles eran las principales ideas de la obra de Ernesto Laclau - La Nacion, 13 April 2014 ^ a b c Las manos en la masa - Ernesto Laclau contra Negri, Hardt y Zizek, Pagina/12, June 5, 2005 (in Spanish) ^ Una apuesta por la transformación - La Vanguardia ^ Ernesto Laclau, el ideólogo de la Argentina dividida Archived 2015-04-19 at the Wayback Machine - Perfil, 14 April 2014 ^ Laclau, Erneso (2001) [1985]. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso. ^ a b Laclau, Ernesto (2005). On Populist Reason. London: Verso. p. 232. ^ Žižek, Slavoj (1990). Beyond Discourse Analysis. London: Verso. pp. 249–260. ^ Laclau, Ernesto (2006). "Why Constructing A People is the Main Task of Radical Politics". Critical Inquiry. 32 (4): 646–680. doi:10.1086/508086. JSTOR 10.1086/508086. ^ Žižek, Slavoj (2006). "Schlagend, aber nicht Treffend!". Critical Inquiry. 33: 185–211. doi:10.1086/509751. JSTOR 10.1086/509751. ^ Laclau, Ernesto (2014). Ernesto Laclau: Post-Marxism, Populism and Critique. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 271. Further reading[edit] Library resources about Ernesto Laclau Resources in your library Resources in other libraries By Ernesto Laclau Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Anna Marie Smith, Laclau and Mouffe: The Radical Democratic Imaginary, London: Routledge, 1998. David Howarth, Discourse, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 2000. Louise Philips and Marianne Jorgensen, Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method, London: Sage, 2002. David Howarth, Aletta Norval and Yannis Stavrakakis (eds), Discourse Theory and Political Analysis, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002. Simon Critchley and Oliver Marchart (eds), Laclau: A Critical Reader, London: Routledge, 2004. Warren Breckman, Adventures of the Symbolic: Postmarxism and Radical Democracy, New York: Columbia University Press, 2013 David Howarth and Jacob Torfing (eds) Discourse Theory in European Politics, Houndmills: Palgrave, 2005. External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ernesto Laclau. Centre for Theoretical Studies, University of Essex Includes Laclau papers on populism and the philosophical roots of discourse theory Ideology and Discourse Analysis network Hearts, Minds and Radical Democracy Interview with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe Entrevista a Ernesto Laclau sobre el juego de la política Curriculum Vitae God Only Knows 1991 article in Marxism Today Socialist strategy: where next? 1981 article in Marxism Today by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe v t e Social and political philosophy Ancient philosophers Aristotle Chanakya Cicero Confucius Han Fei Lactantius Laozi Mencius Mozi Origen Plato Polybius Shang Socrates Sun Tzu Tertullian Thucydides Valluvar Xenophon Xunzi Medieval philosophers Alpharabius Augustine Averroes Baldus Bartolus Bruni Dante Gelasius al-Ghazali Giles Hostiensis Ibn Khaldun John of Paris John of Salisbury Latini Maimonides Marsilius Nizam al-Mulk Photios Thomas Aquinas Wang William of Ockham Early modern philosophers Beza Bodin Bossuet Botero Buchanan Calvin Cumberland Duplessis-Mornay Erasmus Filmer Grotius Guicciardini Harrington Hayashi Hobbes Hotman Huang Leibniz Locke Luther Machiavelli Malebranche Mariana Milton Montaigne More Müntzer Naudé Pufendorf Rohan Sansovino Sidney Spinoza Suárez 18th–19th-century philosophers Bakunin Bentham Bonald Bosanquet Burke Comte Constant Emerson Engels Fichte Fourier Franklin Godwin Hamann Hegel Herder Hume Jefferson Justi Kant political philosophy Kierkegaard Le Bon Le Play Madison Maistre Marx Mazzini Mill Montesquieu Möser Nietzsche Novalis Paine Renan Rousseau Royce Sade Schiller Smith Spencer Stirner Taine Thoreau Tocqueville Vico Vivekananda Voltaire 20th–21st-century philosophers Adorno Ambedkar Arendt Aurobindo Aron Azurmendi Badiou Baudrillard Bauman Benoist Berlin Bernstein Butler Camus Chomsky De Beauvoir Debord Du Bois Durkheim Dworkin Foucault Gandhi Gauthier Gehlen Gentile Gramsci Habermas Hayek Heidegger Irigaray Kautsky Kirk Kropotkin Laclau Lenin Luxemburg Mao Mansfield Marcuse Maritain Michels Mises Mou Mouffe Negri Niebuhr Nozick Nursî Oakeshott Ortega Pareto Pettit Plamenatz Polanyi Popper Qutb Radhakrishnan Rand Rawls Rothbard Russell Santayana Sartre Scanlon Schmitt Searle Shariati Simmel Simonović Skinner Sombart Sorel Spann Spirito Strauss Sun Taylor Walzer Weber Žižek Social theories Anarchism Authoritarianism Collectivism Communism Communitarianism Conflict theories Confucianism Consensus theory Conservatism Contractualism Cosmopolitanism Culturalism Fascism Feminist political theory Gandhism Individualism Islam Islamism Legalism Liberalism Libertarianism Mohism National liberalism Republicanism Social constructionism Social constructivism Social Darwinism Social determinism Socialism Utilitarianism Concepts Civil disobedience Democracy Four occupations Justice Law Mandate of Heaven Peace Property Revolution Rights Social contract Society War more... Related articles Jurisprudence Philosophy and economics Philosophy of education Philosophy of history Philosophy of love Philosophy of sex Philosophy of social science Political ethics Social epistemology Category Authority control BIBSYS: 90067085 BNE: XX1135598 BNF: cb122085212 (data) GND: 119504901 ICCU: IT\ICCU\LO1V\138895 ISNI: 0000 0001 0903 8513 LCCN: n82094744 LNB: 000034000 NDL: 00446626 NKC: jcu2012712080 NLK: KAC199615733 NTA: 06955319X PLWABN: 9810538047905606 SELIBR: 314910 SUDOC: 030727340 VIAF: 56658491 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n82094744 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ernesto_Laclau&oldid=998460949" Categories: Argentine people of French descent 1935 births 2014 deaths People from Buenos Aires Political philosophers Discourse analysis Marxist theorists Argentine political philosophers Populism scholars Academics of the University of Essex Argentine philosophers 20th-century Argentine philosophers 21st-century philosophers Continental philosophers Peronists University at Buffalo faculty Hidden categories: Articles with Spanish-language sources (es) Webarchive template wayback links Articles with hCards Commons category link from Wikidata Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ICCU identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages العربية Azərbaycanca বাংলা Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français Հայերեն Bahasa Indonesia Italiano Македонски മലയാളം مصرى Nederlands 日本語 Occitan Polski Português Русский Simple English Slovenščina Српски / srpski Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 5 January 2021, at 13:50 (UTC). 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