Signification
Signification or the logic of signifieds denotes Ernesto Laclaus' post-structuralist theory for describing the political in terms of development, but which can be expanded to include any general term. It is not a discourse theory. The basis for this is the monograph Hegemony and Radical Democracy , written with Chantal Mouffe .
Emergence
In the past, structuralism assumed that the signifieds and the signifiers have a clearly demarcated structure and are symmetrically assigned to one another, poststructuralism postulates that language is a limitless, expanding network in which there is a constant exchange and circulation between the elements prevails. No single element can be completely defined in it. There is no reality outside of language. So every knowledge has a language barrier.
The basis of this is Ferdinand de Saussure's system of signs . Saussure took the view that linguistic signs do not simply reproduce the world as it is, but that their meaning is only constituted in the sign system of language. At Saussure, a sign consists of a signifier (indicative) and a signified (denoted), the former reflecting the sound image and the latter reflecting the idea of a term, the content page.
definition
The definition of a term is based on the interplay of the signifier and the signified . When looking at socio-political considerations and the way in which political identities were created, Laclau noticed that meanings are an effect of relationships of difference, and that these depend temporarily on language and are not fixed. So: In the demarcation to a certain system, identities are formed. "Difference = Identity". Logic of difference.
Laclau now says that in a signification the signifiers are not tied to a special signified but explain their meaning by referring to other signifiers. In the search for the signified one glides along a so-called signifier chain, which distinguishes itself in equivalence to other signifiers of the same thing. There are two different approaches to definition in contradiction: While the logic of difference tries to fix the meaning of individual discursive elements, the logic of equivalence subverts this definition of meaning, since it equates the different. The two logics stand in each other's way, as one dissolves what the other tries to fix. The signified is lost during the signification.
"Strictly speaking, an empty signifier is a signifier without a signified."
A fixation of meaning in a discourse is then only possible if an equivalence chain is formed from a purely negatively excluding (antagonistic) system boundary that divides this difference in a contingent way. These chains of equivalence, which stick together exclusively through difference, revolve around a signified that loses its differentiality, it becomes an empty signifier.
"There can be empty signifiers within the field of signification because every signification system is constructed around an empty space, which results from the impossibility of producing an object which the systemic nature of the system in spite of everything requires."
In the course of political instrumentalizations, words are emptied of concrete ideas in order to encompass as many differential positions as possible; an empty signifier emerges as a symbolic embodiment of an imaginary general, the concrete contents of which can no longer be reconstructed because they have been lost / filed. Actually, however, these signifiers are not empty, but full of meanings that everyone puts into it differently. This problem can be solved in the political spectrum according to Laclau through positive reforms by means of radical and plural democracy, the absolute exposure and deconstruction of those political battle concepts.
For example, signifiers such as “freedom” or “social democracy” have become empty signifiers because their meaning is so indeterminate that numerous different and contradicting meanings are gathered under them in political discourse. Furthermore, the political concepts have no other ontological status than any other everyday concept. So when one speaks historically about “religion”, “literature”, “music”, one has to do with terms such as “politics”, which have to be presented as empty signifiers.
literature
- Ernesto Laclau : What do empty signifiers have to do with politics ?, The social production of empty signifiers. In: Emancipation and Difference. Turia and Kant, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85132-244-6 , pp. 65-78.
- Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe : Hegemony and Radical Democracy. To the deconstruction of Marxism. Passagen Verlag, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-7092-0179-4 .
- Ferdinand de Saussure : Basic questions in general linguistics. De Gruyter, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-11-017015-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernesto Laclau: What do empty signifiers have to do with politics? The social production of empty signifiers . 3. Edition. Emancipation and Difference. Vienna 2010, p. 67 .
- ↑ Ernesto Laclau: What do empty signifiers have to do with politics ?, The social production of empty signifiers . In: Emancipation and Difference . 3. Edition. Vienna 2010, p. 65 .
- ↑ Ernesto Laclau: What do empty signifiers have to do with politics ?, The social production of empty signifiers . In: Emancipation and Difference . Vienna 2010, p. 69 .
- ↑ Ernesto Laclau: What do empty signifiers have to do with politics ?, The social production of empty signifiers . In: Emancipation and Difference . Vienna 2010, p. 70 .
- ↑ Michael Bergunder : What is religion? Cultural studies considerations on the subject of religious studies . In: Journal for Religious Studies . tape 19 , 2011, p. 3 - 55 .