WASSOUF, Dennis. Fantasy and Ideology of Legal Form – Laclau and Žižek Debate Revisited. In Legal Form Workshop 2023. 2023.
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Basic information
Original name Fantasy and Ideology of Legal Form – Laclau and Žižek Debate Revisited
Name in Czech Fantasma a ideologie právní formy – přehodnocení debaty Laclaua a Žižeka
Authors WASSOUF, Dennis.
Edition Legal Form Workshop 2023, 2023.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Presentations at conferences
Field of Study 50501 Law
Country of publisher Poland
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
Organization unit Faculty of Law
Keywords (in Czech) fantazma;forma; formalismus; ideologie; právo; psychoanalýza; textualita
Keywords in English Fantasm; Form; Formalism; Ideology; Law; Psychoanalysis; Textuality
Tags International impact
Changed by Changed by: Mgr. Dennis Wassouf, učo 458644. Changed: 22/6/2023 10:13.
Abstract
This paper aims to analyse the significance of fantasy for the ideological function of legal form, based on the theoretical differences between the works of Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek. Although both conceptualize ideology as an open and incomplete linguistic system, they differ in their approach to how ideology is able to create the appearance of consistency and thus legitimacy. Laclau's explanation of this ideological operation rests on the notion of the empty signifier, that is, a generic sign that is capable of containing any particular meaning. Laclau's ideological critique, in turn, points to the fact that the connection between specific content and the generic sign is contingent, and ideology is called into question at the very moment when this contingency is revealed. Žižek's approach emphasizes a concept familiar to Lacanian psychoanalysis (which Laclau is also inspired by to some extent), namely fantasy. Fantasy performs the function of a fictional narrative that conceals the incompleteness of our reality, or the fictional nature of reality itself. My intention is to show that Laclau and Žižek, as leading exponents of a strand of ideology critique, offer a methodological apparatus for understanding the ideology of legal form. Therefore, the notion of legal form and its ideological basis will first be explained and then the theories of ideological critique according to Laclau and Žižek will be confronted in order to solve their disagreements and to show the methodological applicability of the fantasy for the ideology studies, namely, that of traversal of fantasy.
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