Signifying the People. Can the Social Majority be represented?
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http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4905-6550
Abstract
The People is usually enunciated as immutable. Too frequently it is assumed that this notion refers to the social majority as if it was a unit. Behind this homogeneous view of reality, however, are hidden modes of discourse that legitimise the class structure. In this text I reflect on the political value of referring to the People by reviewing some of the most suggestive theoretical assumptions of contemporary critical thought. From a post-marxist and psychoanalytical approach, I define the popular as an «Empty Signifier» that makes its total identification impossible. At the same time, I also argue that its incompleteness does not deny the emancipatory potential of oppressed groups when the idea of the People is sustained by their symbolic and material experience. I conclude by affirming that the antagonism on which our societies are founded still makes viable forms of self representation based on the assumptions of Other Popular Identity.
How to Cite
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people, popular, identity, post-marxism, psychoanalysis
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