Page 129 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

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Lacan,Jacques (1901–1981) Lacan was a French psychoanalyst whose work has been
particularly influential within feminism and on a number of theories of subjectivity
and identity. Through this body of work Lacan’s writings have become the most
prominent form of psychoanalysis within cultural studies. Lacan’s value to cultural
theory has been in his revision of Freudian principles using structuralism and
poststructuralism in ways that give particular attention to the place of language in
the structuring of the unconscious and of subjectivity. That is, for Lacan entry into
the subject positions of the symbolic order is the very condition of subjectivity.
Further, the unconscious is said to be structured ‘like a language’ and is thus a site
of signification and meaningfulness.
• Associated concepts Mirror phase, Oedipus complex, subject position,
subjectivity, symbolic order, unconscious.
• Tradition(s) Psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, structuralism.
• Reading Lacan, J. (1977) Écrits: A Selection. London: Tavistock.

Laclau, Ernesto (1935– ) Laclau was born in Argentina and educated at the
University of Buenos Aires and the University of Essex (UK) where he has also
worked as a Professor of Political Philosophy. His anti-foundationalist philosophy
of radical contingency is aimed at the dissolution of concepts and the weakening
of the project of modernity. In particular he argues that there are no necessary links
between discursive concepts, and that those links that are forged are temporary
articulations bound together by hegemonic practice. With Chantal Mouffe, he has
developed a form of post-Marxism that has been very influential within cultural
studies, especially through the work of Stuart Hall. For Laclau and Mouffe, radical
politics cannot be premised on any particular political project (for example, the
proletariat of Marxism) but must instead be constructed in terms of the recognition
of difference and the identification and development of points of common interest.
The central purpose is to further the project of radical democracy.
• Associated concepts Anti-essentialism, articulation, différance, foundationalism
(anti-), hegemony.
• Tradition(s) Marxism, post-Marxism, poststructuralism.
• Reading Laclau, E. and Mouffe, C. (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Toward
a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso.

Language Issues of language are central to culture and thus to cultural studies.
Language is important to an understanding of culture for two central and related
reasons: first, language is the privileged medium in which cultural meanings are

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