On The Theory Of Laclau And Mouffe’s Discourse Hegemony

Since the 1980 s,the living conditions of the working class have been improved a lot with the new development of capitalism.And they gradually began to differentiate.The working class has been unable to carry out the revolutionary struggle as a single force.There has been a downturn in the socialist movements.Meanwhile,new social movements such as the feminist movement,the ecological movement has arisen in the society.Under this background,Laclau and Mouffe’s post-marxism theory emerges as the times require.The discourse hegemony theory occupies an important position in Laclau and Mouffe’s theory.Firstly,this thesis summarizes the origin and main contents of Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of discourse hegemony.Their theory is deeply influenced by Antonio Gramsci,Louis Pierre Althusser and post-structuralist thinkers.They combine hegemony and discourse theory by the use of deconstruction and construction methods.They think that society is constructed by the discourse.Hegemony is practice of discourse articulation and reflects the logic of contingency.They put forward a new socialist strategy of radical pluralist democracy through the construction of the theory of discourse hegemony.On the basis of analyzing in Laclau and Mouffe’ s theory of discourse hegemony,this thesis also comments it.It points out that this theory has a deconstruction of the concept of totality.It reflects the characteristics of anti economic determinism and anti class reduction theory.It enriches Marxism and increases its focus on the ideological field.But to a certain extent,Marxism was misread.It reflects the tendency of discourse determinism.We should explore the practical significance of Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of discourse hegemony based on the reality of our country.We should strengthen the construction of socialist culture and ideology,and grasp the discourse hegemony in the new period for the better construction of socialism.