Episode
Ernesto Laclau and the Making of Post-Marxism (feat. Oliver Marchart)
- Podcast
- Emancipations Podcast
- Published
- Sep 14, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 5709
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Summary
I'm very pleased to welcome the philosopher Oliver Marchart to discuss the thought of Ernesto Laclau and his book Thinking Antagonism: Political Ontology After Laclau. In this work, Marchart proposes that Laclau's thought be supplemented and expanded with a robust account of political ontology. Marchart is known for his incisive studies on contemporary political philosophers and for developing the concept of "post-foundational political thought." We begin with a discussion on Laclau's thought and the philosophers that influenced him, from Derrida, Lacan, Althusser, Heidegger, Schmitt to Gramsci. Deeply shaped by the experience of the populist leader Juan Perón in Argentina, Laclau's career is marked by the development of a sophisticated system of political thought which completely re-theorized Marxism. We then turn to a discussion of Marchart's book Thinking Antagonism, which is interested in expanding Laclau's rhetorical foundation of society towards a post-foundational social and political ontology that is no longer purely grounded in language. He argues that Laclau reinvents and re-defines the concept of antagonism in the Marxist tradition and that this concept, even more than hegemony, stands as Laclau's most important contribution. We also address the limits of Laclau's thought, the legacy of post-Marxism in practice and the challenges with left-populism. Please learn more about Marchart's book Thinking Antagonism: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/thinking-antagonism/FBE1DFCBA99C8BF948AC8110730B1340 Oliver Marchart is Professor of Sociology at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He is author of Post-Foundational Political Thought: Political Difference in Nancy, Lefort, Badiou and Laclau (Edinburgh University Press, 2007) and co-editor (with Simon Critchley) of Lacla…