Laclau And Mouffe After Marxism, Discourse Theory,

Since the mid-1970s, accompanied by the setback of the left-wing politics, the resurgence of the right-wing forces in the westen nations as well as the wane of the structural Marxism, many westen left-wing intellectuals have oppugned the validity of the nature, the goal, the creed and the strategies of the traditional socialism that gives birth to the straightforeward animadversion upon the main principles of classical Marxism. It is the essential background that breeds Laclau and Mouffe's post-Marxism. Of all the theorists who are either self-assumed Marxists or so-called Marxists, Laclau and Mouffe occupy a most important status. On one hand, their post-Marxist theory integrates diverse deconstruction points of Marxism and gets the most out of the logic of deconstructionism. They employ many principles of postmodernism to deconstruct Marxism, thereby discarding the key categories and main principles of Marxism. On the other hand, by reexpounding radically some concepts of Marxist theory and recasting or transforming post-modernist theories while using them, they manage to establish the new mode of liberation as a super-Marxism essensialism, which combines multielement self-identity with radical democracy in the frame of the theory of discourse. Based on the study of Laclau and Mouffe's main works, analyzes their theory of discourse concerning post-Marxism, displays their deconstruction dimensions of Marxism and reveals the theoretical indications and constructive significance of their theory of hegemonic articulation.