The Failure of the Radical Democratic Imaginary: Zizek Versus Laclau and Mouffe on Vestigial Utopia  

Oleh:

Brockelman, Thomas

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Philosophy & Social Criticism vol. 29 no. 2 (Mar. 2003), page 183–208.
Topik: antagonism ; anti-essentialism ; anti-utopianism ; Jacques Lacan ; Ernesto Laclau ; Chantal Mouffe ; radical democratic imaginary ; radical democratic theory ; utopia ; Slavoj Zizek
Fulltext: 183PSC292.pdf (135.81KB)

Isi artikel

Starting from the author’s critique of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, this essay offers a comprehensive interpretation of Slavoj Z? iz?ek’s political theory. Z? iz?ek’s position drives a wedge between two concepts foundational to Laclau and Mouffe’s ‘radical democratic theory’, namely ‘antagonism’ and ‘anti-essentialism’. Anti-essentialism, it is argued, carries with it a residual utopianism – i.e. a view of political theory as offering a vision of a desirable radicalized society or a ‘radical democratic imaginary’ – that the more radical concept of antagonism forbids. Effectively, anti-essentialism is shown to produce a new kind of ideology, an ideology that Z? iz?ek, deeply critical, associates with the shortcomings of multi-culturalism and political correctness. The essay ends with a critical consideration of Z? iz?ek’s claim that he himself produced a systematic political theory based upon the insight of antagonism. Having constructed (by way of return to Marx and Engels) a version of Z? iz?ek’s project that makes sense of his derision for antiutopianism by positing a utopian theory without any ‘imaginary’ support, the article closes with critical comments about the effectiveness of such a position. Z? iz?ek is seen to offer us a powerful political theory, one that unmasks the hypocrisy in much contemporary work, but also a theory whose limits must give us pause.

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