Discourse, the political and the ontological dimension: an interview with Ernesto Laclau

Abstract

In this interview, Ernesto Laclau discusses his theoretico-political endeavour from the publication of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy; questions of radical democratic subjectivity; the social order, sedimentation and change; and finally his relationship to the work of Michel Foucault.

Keywords:

• antagonism
• democracy
• discourse theory
• dislocation
• Foucault
• hegemony
• subjectivity

Notes on contributors

Ernesto Laclau (1935–2014) was an Argentinian political theorist, holding a chair at University of Essex (UK) from 1973 until his retirement in 2008. He held positions at New York at Buffalo (2002–5) and at Northwestern University (2006) (both US), and was in 2009 appointed Doctor Honoris Causa at National University of Buenos Aires, at National University of San Martin, and at University of San Pablo, Tucuman (all Argentinian). His publications include Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (Verso, 1985 co-written with Chantal Mouffe); Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory (Verso, 1977); New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (Verso, 1990); The Making of Political Identities (ed., Verso, 1994); Emancipation(s) (Verso, 1996); On Populist Reason (Verso, 2005); and, with Judith Butler and Slavoj Zizek, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left (Verso, 2000).

Allan Dreyer Hansen is associate professor at the Institute for Society and Globalisation at Roskilde University, Denmark. He has published widely on the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, including ‘Dangerous Dogs, Constructivism and Normativity: The Implications of Radical Constructivism’, Distinktion  2010.

André Sonnichsen is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he works with order formation in the postcolony critically inspired by, amongst others, the work of Laclau and Mouffe.