Laclau: A Critical Reader

by Critchley,Simon

• ISBN13: 9780415238434
• ISBN10: 0415238439
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-10-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Over the last thirty years, the work of the political theorist Ernesto Laclau has reinvigorated radical political and social theory. Taking concepts previously ignored or unused within mainstream political theory, such as the political, hegemony, discourse, identity, and representation, he has made them fundamental to thinking about politics and social theory. Resisting the dead end of postmodern politics, his work has drawn in stimulating ways on Gramscian, poststructuralist and psychoanalytic theory. Laclau: A Critical Readeris the first full-length critical appraisal of Laclau's work and includes contributions from several leading philosophers and theorists. The first section examines Laclau's theory that the contest between universalism and particularism provides much of the philosophical background to political and social struggle, taking up the important place accorded to, amongst others, Hegel and Lacan in Laclau's work. The second section of the book considers what Laclau's "radicaldemocracy" might look like and reflects on its ethical implications, particularly in relation to Laclau's post-Marxism and thinkers such as Jurgen Habermas. The final section investigates the place of hegemony in Laclau's work, the idea for which he is perhaps best-known. This stimulating collection also includes replies to his critics by Laclau and the important exchange between Laclau and Judith Butler on equality, making it an excellent companion to Laclau's work and essential reading for students of political and social theory.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
Acknowledgements	x
List of abbreviations	x
Introduction	1	(14)
Simon Critchley
Oliver Marchart
PART I Philosophy: universality, singularity, difference	15	(96)
How empty can empty be? On the place of the universal	17	(18)
Rodolphe Gasche
Laclau and hegemony: some (post) Hegelian caveats	35	(19)
Fred Dallmayr
Politics and the ontological difference: on the `strictly philosophical' in Laclau's work	54	(19)
Oliver Marchart
Politics as the real of philosophy	73	(15)
Rado Riha
This universalism which is not one	88	(23)
Linda M. G. Zerilli
PART II Democracy: politics, ethics, normativity	111	(88)
Is there a normative deficit in the theory of hegemony?	113	(10)
Simon Critchley
Ethics and politics in discourse theory	123	(17)
Mark Devenney
Democratic decisions and the question of universality: rethinking recent approaches	140	(27)
Aletta Norval
The ethos of democratization	167	(15)
William E. Connolly
Anachronism of emancipation or fidelity to politics	182	(17)
Jelica Sumic
PART III Hegemony: discourse, rhetorics, antagonism	199	(78)
Encounters of the real kind: sussing out the limits of Laclau's embrace of Lacan	201	(16)
Jason Glynos
Yannis Stavrakakis
`Taking up a task': moments of decision in Ernesto Laclau's thought	217	(9)
J. Hillis Miller
Competing figures of the limit: dispersion, transgression, antagonism, and indifference	226	(15)
Urs Staheli
The political and politics in discourse analysis	241	(15)
Torben Bech Dyrberg
Hegemony, political subjectivity, and radical democracy	256	(21)
David Howarth
PART IV A reply	277	(52)
Glimpsing the future	279	(50)
Ernesto Laclau
Appendix I: the uses of equality	329	(16)
Judith Butler
Ernesto Laclau
Appendix II: bibliography of Ernesto Laclau's work	345	(3)
Index	348