03. Politics and the Limits of Modernity [Ernesto Laclau]

Postmodern Theories and Texts

"Politics and the Limits of Modernity"

Ernesto Laclaufrom Docherty, Thomas, ed. Postmodernism: A Reader. New York: Harvester, 1993.

IntroductionLaclau's view of

postmodernityLanguage and Reality

Capitalism, Uneven

Development, and Hegemony

The Process of Arguing and

Common Sense

Global Emancipation and

Empty Signifiers

Questions

Julia KuoJan. 07, 1999

Thesis: Laclau's focal point of the theory centers on anti-foundationalism, which derives fromHeidegger's conception of the dissolution of categories. The emphasis on radical contingenceprovides a way to 'weaken' the contents of the project of modernity.

Introduction:I.

Generally speaking, Laclau deals with postmodernity from a positive

viewpoint. As for him, postmodernity can manifest its radical

contingence to challenge the foundations of modernity. That is to say,

postmodernity focuses on anti-foundationalism and it attempts to

weaken the logic of the construction between social and cultural

identities.

A. Laclau's view of postmodernity:

1. "Postmodernity has advanced by means of two converging intellectual operations. . .which share one characteristic: the attempt to establish boundaries, that is to say, toseparate an ensemble of historical features and phenomena (postmodern) from othersalso appertaining to the past and that can be grouped under the rubric of modernity."(329)

What's the importance of these two operations? Both of them serve as radical ways toestablish the boundaries of modernity

a). "The first announces a weakening of the metaphysical and rationalist pretensions ofmodernity, by way of challenging the foundational status of certain narratives." (329)

. "The second challenges not the ontological status of narrative as such, but rather thecurrent validity of metanarratives, which unified the totality of the historical experienceof modernity within the project of global, human emancipation

a.

Postmodernity is an ensemble of pre-theoretical references that establish certain 'familyresemblance's' among its diverse manifestations, that is suggested by the process oferosion and disintegration of such categories as 'foundation,' 'new,' 'identity,' 'vanguard,' andso on. (330)

2.

Ernesto Laclau: "Politics and the Limits of Modernity" http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/Laclau.html

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Postmodernity cannot be a simple rejection of modernity, rather, it involves a differentmodulation of its themes and categories, a greater proliferation of its language-games. (330)

3.

It is precisely the ontological status of the central categories of the discourses of modernity,and not their content, this is at stake; that the erosion of this this status is expressed throughthe 'postmodern sensibility; and that this erosion, far from being a negative phenomenon,represents an enormous amplification of the content and operability of the values ofmodernity, making it possible to ground them on foundations much more solid than those ofthe Enlightenment project. (332)

4.

Language and Reality:II.

This part is very significant, for it unfolds Laclau's central idea and it is also

in relation to the following sections of discussion. First, Laclau deconstructs

traditional structuralism. Saussurean theory of linguistics is the target of his

argument. Laclau shows us the analysis of the ambiguities between the

signifier and the signified. There is no fixed character of the signifier/the

signified relation.

And then, he generalizes this analysis into two points: context is changeable and every identity isrelational. Second, in this sense, Laclau skillfully applies the ambiguous feature of language tothe explanation of the social action.

As for him, the 'social' itself is a discourse and it is in the form of discursive sequences thatarticulate linguistic and extra linguistic elements, which leads the society to plurality.

The crisis of linguistic model in structuralism:A.

Where is the crisis?1.

"The crisis consisted precisely in the increasing difficulty of defining the limits oflanguage, or, more accurately, of defining the specific identity ofthe linguistic object." (332)Saussurean theory of linguistics as an example: it exposes a set of ambiguitiesbetween the signifier and the signified. (333)

2.

three moments to transcend the ambiguities: (333)3.

. [O]ne of the fundamental oppositions of this system was required to be externallydefined, thus confining linguistic formalism within a new limits. Beyond this point, it wasimpossible to posit a 'linguistics of discourse', if by discourse we mean a linguistic unitgreater than the sentence."

a.

. "In this second moment of the radicalization of structuralism, the stable character ofthe relation between signifier and the signified had not, however, been questioned;only the structural isomorphism between the two had been broken. The boundaries oflinguistics had been expanded, but the immediacy and the characteristic of fullpresence of its objects were only reaffirmed." (333)

a.

. "The quasi-Cartesian transparency that structural formalism had established betweenthe purely relational identities of the linguistic system served only to make them morevulnerable to any new system of relations." (334) A double movement in the crisis ofthe immediacy of the sign: "While the signified was less closed within itself and couldbe defined only in relation to a specific context, the limits of that context were


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increasing less well defined." (334)

The unfixed character of all identities:C.

1. Example: Democracy is a floating signifier. (335)The term 'democracy' has a radical ambiguity, which subverts the fixity of thesign. This ambiguity is precisely what gives the context its openness.

2. Three consequences come after a floating signifier.

. The concept of discourse is not linguistic but prior to the distinction between thelinguistic and extralinguistic.

a.

. The relational character of discourse is precisely what permits the generalization ofthe linguistic model within the ensemble of social relations.

a.

. The radical relationalism of social identities increases their vulnerability to newrelations and introduces within them the effect of ambiguity.

a.

The difference of discourses between modernity and postmodernity (335-36)D.

Modernity: The discourses of modernity characterize their pretension is to dominate thefoundation of the social, to give a rational context to the notion of the totality of history,and to base in the project of a global human emancipation.

1.

Postmodernity: The fully present identity is threatened by an ungraspable exterior thatintroduces a dimension of opacity and pragmatism into the pretended immediacy andtransparency of its categories. It weakens the absolutist pretensions of concepts.However, this 'weakening.' does not in any way negate the contents of the project ofmodernity; it shows only the radical vulnerability of those contents to a plurality ofcontexts that redefine them in an unpredictable way.

2.

Capitalism, Uneven Development, and HegemonyIII.

Laclau continues his assertion of radically relational character of identity

and further employs this conception to analyze politics. In this part, he

takes Marxism for an example and challenges the logic of foundations in

the Marxist tradition.

Weaknesses/Limits of a central tenet of Marxism (336-337)A.

Capitalism exists only by dint of the constant transformation of the means of productionand the increasing dissolution of preexisting social relations.

1.

The history of capitalism is, on the one hand, the history of the progressive destructionof the social relations generated by it and, on the other, the history of its border withsocial forms exterior to it.

2.

The relation of exteriority can be internally defined, since every exterior relation isdestined a priori to succumb as a result of capitalist expansion.

3.

The internal logic of capital comes to constitute the relational substrate of History, andthe advent of socialism is thought to be made possible only by the results of theinternal contradictions of capitalism.

4.

Nodal moments of ambiguity in the history of Marxism (Laclau's views)5.


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. Uneven and combined developmenta.

. Hegemonyb.

Employment of post-Marxism to deconstruct Marxist tradition:B.

1. Two examples: Sorel and Gramsci

2. The stance of post-Marxism: Basically, 'post-Marxism' is not an 'ex-Marxism', for it entailsan active involvement in its history and in the discussion of its categories. (339)3. Declarations:

. The abandonment of the faith in the "universal class" and in the unity of Marxism.a.

. The rejection of the myth of foundations.b.

. To construct a radical imaginary: it means trying to insert the isolated struggles withina wider horizon that 'totalizes' an ensemble of an experience.

c.

To establish a radical political discourse.c.

The Process of Arguing and Common Sense (341-42)IV.

Laclau tries to redefine the categories, such as common sense and

tradition, which we take it for granted.

A. Society can then be understood as a vast argumentative texture

through which people construct their own identity.

B. Abandonment of the myth of foundations does not lead to nihilism; it

leads to a proliferation of discursive interventions and arguments that

are necessary, because there is no extradiscursive reality that discourse

might simply reflect.

Argument and discourse constitute the social, their open-ended character becomes thesource of a greater activism and a more radical libertarianism.

C.

The dissolution of the myth of foundations - and the concomitant dissolution of the category'subject' - further radicalizes the emancipatory possibilities offered by the Enlightenment andMarxism.

A.

Social agents are never 'humans' in general. They appear in concrete situations and areconstituted by precise and limited discursive networks, In this sense, lack of grounding doesnot abolish the meaning of human beings' acts, it only affirms their limits, their finitude, andtheir historicity.

B.

Global Emancipation and Empty Signifiers (342-43)V.

Laclau makes the concept of empty signifiers clearer and redefines the global emancipation bytelling from the difference between the foundation and the horizon.

Empty signifiers:A.

Any identity is ambiguous insofar as it is unable to constitute itself as a precisedifference within a closed totality.

1.

The degree of fixity of a signifier varies in inverse proportion to the extent of its2.


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circulation in a given discursive formation.A signifier is emptied when it is disengaged from a particular signified and comes tosymbolize a long chain of equivalent signifieds.

3.

The difference between the foundation and the horizon:B.

The foundation:1.

It is a relation of delimitation and determination.It is unified or totalized.It suffices to posit an egalitarian logic whose limits of operation are given by theconcrete argumentative practices existing in a society.

The horizon:1.

It is open-ended.It is a formation without foundation.It is an empty locus, a point in which society symbolizes its very groundlessness, inwhich concrete argumentative practices operate over a backdrop of radical freedom, orradical contingency.'

Questions:VI.

What's the difference between 'democracy' and 'radical democracy'?1.Do you agree Laclau's opinion that democracy is impossible without the abandonment of theuniversal discourse?

2.


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03. Politics and the Limits of Modernity [Ernesto Laclau]

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