“空能指”的政治之维:从列维-斯特劳斯到齐泽克

The Political Dimension of “Empty Signifier”: From Levi-Strauss to Zizek

能指的政治维度是贯穿结构主义到后马克思主义的隐秘线索。空能指是没有所指,但又能吸纳一切所指的能指。语言系统的差异性与任意性、拉康的能指链、锚定点、对象a是其理论基础。列维-斯特劳斯对萨满治疗术中"能指过剩"和"玛纳"的分析已具有空能指的内涵。拉克劳认为漂浮的能指通过"链接"凝聚到主能指的过程,就是领导权的争夺与形成的过程,占主导地位的能指不得不吸收其他能指的内涵,并由特殊过渡到普遍。齐泽克否认了拉克劳的乐观态度,更强调特殊性霸权和被排除在多元民主之外并占据主导地位的资本逻辑。空能指与主能指是对立转化的统一体,前者强调虚空性、普遍性,后者强调主导性、特殊性,齐泽克对拉克劳的批判就是从主能指维度对空能指的批判。马克思、齐泽克的意识形态批判与拉克劳对霸权形成的分析可视为两种不同的政治分析模式,前者致力于纵向探究表象背后的本质,后者则在平面维度描绘多元因素的彼此争夺。

The political dimension of signifier is a hidden clue that runs through structuralism to post-Marxism. Empty signifier has no specific signification but can embrace all signifiers. Its theoretical foundations are the difference and arbitrariness of language systems, the signifier chain, anchor point, and object a as developed by Lacan. Levi-Strauss’ analysis of the "excess of signifier" and "Mana" in treatment of shamanism has the connotation of empty signifier. Laclau believed that the process of cohesion from floating signifiers to the master signifier with "articulates" is the process of leadership competition and formation, where the dominant signifier has to absorb the connotation of other signifiers and transforms from particularity to universality. Zizek rejects Laclau’s optimism. He emphasizes more on particular hegemony and the capital logic that has been excluded from plural democracy and occupied a dominant position. Empty signifier and master signifier are the unity of opposites. The former emphasizes emptiness and universality, while the latter emphasizes dominance and particularity. It is from the perspective of the latter that Zizek criticizes the empty signifier emphasized by Laclau. Marx’s and Zizek’s ideological criticism on ideologies and Laclau’s analysis of the formation of hegemony can be regarded as two different political analysis models. The former focuses on the vertical exploration of the nature beneath the surface, while the latter describes the contestation among multiple factors in the planar dimension.