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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

211792

Reconstituting the subject of political discourse

from Lacan to Castoriadis

Caroline Williams

pp. 103-120

Abstract

This essay proposes to enter the space occupied by a number of intersecting levels of thought and analysis: philosophy, psychoanalysis and aspects of Marxist political theory. It will do so in order to consider the possible shape or form that the subject of political discourse may take. Conceptions of subjectivity are always the product of a constellation of concepts and critical questions which, in turn, furnish a philosophical and political perspective. It is perhaps the reframing of these questions which ceaselessly reconstitutes social and political criticism. The critical thought of Cornelious Castoriadis has certainly reconstituted the question of the subject, not by announcing a wholesale rejection or transcendence of past conceptualizations, but rather by reconstituting the framework within which the question concerning the constitution of the subject may be posed.

Publication details

Published in:

MacKenzie Iain, O'Neill Shane (1999) Reconstituting social criticism: political morality in an age of scepticism. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 103-120

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-27445-1_7

Full citation:

Williams Caroline (1999) „Reconstituting the subject of political discourse: from Lacan to Castoriadis“, In: I. Mackenzie & S. O'neill (eds.), Reconstituting social criticism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 103–120.