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Article published In:
Discourse Theory: Ways forward for theory development and research practice
Edited by Benjamin De Cleen, Jana Goyvaerts, Nico Carpentier, Jason Glynos, Yannis Stavrakakis and Ilija Tomanić Trivundža
[Journal of Language and Politics 20:1] 2021
► pp. 22–46

Moving discourse theory forward

A five-track proposal for future research

ORCID logo | Vrije Universiteit Brussel
| Vrije Universiteit Brussel
| Charles University
| University of Essex
| Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

This article assesses the current state of play of the poststructuralist and post-Marxist discourse theory associated with Laclau and Mouffe and the ‘Essex school’, and identifies ways forward at the level of theory development, research practice and critique. The article starts by disentangling the different meanings of the notion of ‘discourse’ in ‘discourse theory’, clarifying the specificities of discourse theory as a theoretical and analytical framework and situating discourse theory in, but also beyond, critical discourse studies. It then moves to an assessment of the current state of discourse theory, its main contributions, and the identification of shortcomings and ways forward. This discussion is organized around five topics: methodology and the theory-analysis dialectic; the logics approach; the discursive-material relation; the role of fantasy and other psychoanalytic categories; and populism.

Keywords: discourse theory, discourse analysis, discourse, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, poststructuralism, populism, psychoanalysis, discursive-material
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.On the meanings of discourse in discourse theory
    • 2.1A discursive perspective: Discourse as an ontological category (level 1)
    • 2.2Discourses as relational structures of meaning (level 2)
    • 2.3Texts and the embodiment of discourses (level 3)
  • 3.From theory to method and back again
  • 4.Social, political and fantasmatic logics
  • 5.The discursive and the material
  • 6.Fantasy, identification, psychoanalysis
  • 7.Populism and beyond
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20076.dec
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