“A massive field of action”
Feminist anti-essentialism and political discourse theory
Since the publication of Laclau’s and Mouffe’s Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, issues related to
gender and discourse have been a recurring yet not central theme in discourse theory (DT). Not only are the authors’ formulation
of an anti-essentialist theory of hegemony explicitly influenced by feminist theoretical debates, but also much subsequent work
has engaged with feminist theory. In Mouffe’s more recent work on left populism, however, references to feminist theory and
politics are almost entirely absent — while at the same time issues of gender, reproduction and sexuality have become increasingly
central to politics both in many national contexts and geopolitically. Against this background, this article argues that it is
today urgent for DT to re-engage with feminist theory — not least in relation to issues of anti-essentialism — and to revive the
exchange between the two theoretical fields, focusing especially on issues related to the specificities of bodily materiality.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Discourse, gender, ideology: Conceptual clarifications
- 3.Discourse, gender, and the emergence of neoliberal hegemony
- 4.From progressive neoliberalism to anti-gender politics — gender and the populist moment
- 5.Gender, discourse and contemporary boundary struggles
- 6.An anti-essentialism for our times — understanding the articulation of a ‘people’
- 7.Concluding discussion
- Notes
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References
