3J Deconstruction and Discourse Theory as Method

Module Content:

Deconstruction and Discourse Theory as Method is aimed at research students and young researchers, who wish to learn more about deconstruction and discourse theory of the Essex School kind and how to use them for research in the social sciences. The course examines deconstruction and discourse theory as methods for political analysis broadly conceived. We read examples of analyses by Jacques Derrida, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and others, and we discuss the methodological implications of deconstruction and discourse theory as well as the philosophical assumptions behind them. The course examines the usefulness of deconstruction and discourse theory for the study of politics not only by reading about them, but also by looking at how they can be put to use in the analysis of texts, events and political phenomena. Each session is organised around set texts and will focus on methodological issues as well as substantial political concepts and phenomena. We will examine how Laclau and Mouffe deconstructed the concept of hegemony, and how Laclau deconstructed the concept of populism. We also look at Laclau and Mouffe’s notion of radical democracy in comparison with Derrida’s democracy to-come. We read texts by Derrida and others on the political concepts of democracy, sovereignty, hospitality and representation, which is also an opportunity to discuss how we use concepts as political theorists and social scientists. Across the course and in separate sessions, we study the question of method and what this means for deconstruction and discourse theory as well as the concepts of truth and post-truth.

Discussion of Participant’s Research Projects: Participants are encouraged to submit a short 1500 word outline of their own research projects and the sorts of challenges they face, methodological or otherwise. Outlines should be emailed to the course instructor Lasse Thomassen at least one week before the start of the course, so that they can be built into the programme and potentially shared with other participants.

Course Aims & Objectives: Participants will become familiar with the basic assumptions, concepts and strategies of deconstruction and discourse theory, exploring their implications for conducting social and political analysis. At the end of the course, participants will:

• be conversant in the major literatures and debates in the field of deconstruction and discourse theory;
• have acquired a solid grounding in deconstruction and discourse theory and their application to social and political analysis;
• be well-grounded in theoretical and methodological issues arising in this field and surrounding the use of methods in the social sciences more generally;
• be familiar with the research designs and research strategies most relevant to deconstruction and discourse theory and be familiar with concrete uses of these methods for political and social analysis;
• be familiar with the political implications of these approaches.

Module Prerequisites: No specialised background knowledge is presupposed, but an interest in theoretical questions and debates and some knowledge of post-structuralist theory will be assumed. The sessions will run on the assumption that participants have done the set readings in advance of the session.

Key Texts

Derrida, J. 2003. ‘Autoimmunity: Real and Symbolic Suicides – A Dialogue with Jacques Derrida’, in G. Borradori, Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida. University of Chicago Press, pp. 85-136
Derrida, J. 2005. Rogues: Two Essays on Reason. Stanford University Press.
Derrida, J. 2008. ‘Letter to a Japanese Friend’, in Psyche: Inventions of the Other, Volume II, eds. P. Kamuf and E. Rottenberg. Stanford University Press, pp. 1-6. Also in D. Wood and R. Bernasconi (1988) (eds), Derrida and Différance. Northwestern University Press, pp. 1-5.
Glynos, J. and D. Howarth. 2007. Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. Routledge.
Laclau, E. 2005. On Populist Reason. Verso
Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe. 1985. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. Verso.
Thomassen, L. 2010. ‘Deconstruction as method in political theory’, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 39(1): 41-53.
Thomassen, L. 2026. Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory. Edinburgh University Press.
Representative Background Reading

Derrida, J. 1988. Limited Inc. Northwestern University Press.
Derrida, J. 2002. Positions, 2^nd ed. Continuum.
Gasché, R. 1986. The Tain of the Mirror: Derrida and the Philosophy of Reflection. Harvard University Press.
Glynos, J. and Howarth, D. 2008. ‘Critical Explanation in Social Science: A Logics Approach’, Swiss Journal of Sociology, 34(1): 5-35.
Howarth, D. 2000. Discourse. Open University Press.
Howarth, D. 2005. ‘Applying Discourse Theory: The Method of Articulation’, in D. Howarth and J. Torfing (eds), Discourse Theory in European Politics. Palgrave, pp 316-50.
Howarth, D. 2013. Poststructuralism and After: Structure, Agency and Power. Palgrave.
Laclau, E. (forthcoming 2026). ‘Representation and Social Movements’, New Political Science 48.
Marchart, O. 2007. Post-Foundational Political Thought: Political Difference in Nancy, Lefort, Badiou and Laclau. Edinburgh University Press.
Thomassen, L. 2005. ‘Discourse Analytical Strategies: Antagonism, Hegemony and Ideology after Heterogeneity’, Journal of Political Ideologies 10(3): 289-309.
Thomassen, L. 2017. British Multiculturalism and the Politics of Representation. Edinburgh University Press.
Thomassen, L. 2019. ‘Representing the People: Laclau as a Theorist of Representation’, New Political Science, 41(2): 329-44.

Course Structure

The course comprises ten sessions over two weeks, where each session is made up of roughly two one-and-a-half hour halves with a half hour break in between.

Sessions start at 10 am and end at 1:30 pm.

10.00-11.30     Session

11.30-12.00     Break

12.00-13.30     Session

Sessions are a mixture of lectures and discussion, and participants will be involved actively in course activities.

The course will draw on a range of texts, but Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory is a key text. In addition, we read texts by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (especially Hegemony and Socialist Strategy and On Populist Reason) and by Jacques Derrida (‘Autoimmunity’, Rogues, and others). The readings listed under ‘Readings’ for each session are essential, and course participants should read them ahead of the session. Readings under ‘Further Readings’ for each session are background readings for those who wish to read more on the topic of the session.

Participants are encouraged to submit a short max 1500 word outline of their own research project and the sorts of challenges they face, methodological or otherwise. Outlines should be emailed to both the course instructor Lasse Thomassen at least one week before the start of the course, so that they can be built into the programme and potentially shared with other participants.

1./2. Deconstruction, Discourse Theory and the Question of Method

In the first two sessions, we look at deconstruction and discourse theory as methods. Is it possible to teach deconstruction? Is it possible to learn deconstruction? What do the philosophical assumptions of deconstruction and discourse theory mean for the way we research and write, for instance, a PhD-thesis or a book? What is a good deconstructive reading? A good discourse analysis? We examine these questions, using the example of the (concept of the) event. This then takes us to the notion of articulation as a way to account for the research process.

Readings

Derrida, Jacques, ‘Letter to a Japanese Friend’, in Psyche: Inventions of the Other, Volume II, eds. Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth Rottenberg (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008), pp. 1-6. Also in David Wood and Robert Bernasconi (eds), Derrida and Différance (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1988), pp. 1-5.

Derrida, Jacques, ‘Autoimmunity: Real and Symbolic Suicides – A Dialogue with Jacques Derrida,’ in Giovanna Borradori, Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003), pp. 85-136, at pp. 85-92.

Glynos, J. and D. Howarth. 2007. Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. Routledge, chapter 6.

Thomassen, L. 2026. Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory. Edinburgh University Press, Introduction and chapter 6.

Further Readings

Bennington, G. 1994. Legislations: The Politics of Deconstruction. Verso, Chapter 1.

Derrida, J. 1988. Limited Inc. Northwestern University Press.

Derrida, J. 2002. Positions, 2^nd ed. Continuum.

Derrida, J. Of Grammatology. Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 171-8 (‘The Exorbitant. Question of Method’).

Gasché, R. 1986. The Tain of the Mirror: Derrida and the Philosophy of Reflection. Harvard University Press, especially pp. 212-17.

Howarth, D. 2000. Discourse. Open University Press.

Howarth, D. 2005. ‘Applying Discourse Theory: The Method of Articulation’, in D. Howarth and J. Torfing (eds), Discourse Theory in European Politics. Palgrave, pp 316-50.

Howarth, D. 2013. Poststructuralism and After: Structure, Agency and Power. Palgrave.

Marchart, O. 2007. Post-Foundational Political Thought: Political Difference in Nancy, Lefort, Badiou and Laclau. Edinburgh University Press.

Thomassen, L. 2010. ‘Deconstruction as method in political theory.’ Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 39(1): 41-53.

Thomassen, L. 2026. Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory. Edinburgh University Press, chapter 1.

3. Deconstructing Hegemony

This section examines how Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe deconstructed the concept of hegemony as it had been used in the Marxist tradition. We look at the deconstructive moves they made, and we then see how, out of this deconstruction, they developed the key notions of discourse theory: hegemony, discourse, antagonism, and the logics of equivalence and difference.

Readings

Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe. 1985. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. Verso, chapter 3.

Further Readings

Howarth, D. 2015. (ed.) Ernesto Laclau Post-Marxism, Populism and Critique. Routledge.

Laclau, E. 1990. New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time. Verso.

Laclau, E. 1996. Emancipation(s). Verso.

Laclau, E., ‘Constructing Universality’, in J. Butler, E. Laclau and S. Žižek, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left (London: Verso, 2000), pp. 281-307.

Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe. 1987. ‘Post-Marxism without Apologies’, New Left Review 166; reprinted in E. Laclau, 1990. New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time. Verso, Chapter 4.)

Marchart, O. 2007. Post-Foundational Political Thought: Political Difference in Nancy, Lefort, Badiou and Laclau. Edinburgh University Press.

Martin, J. 2013. Chantal Mouffe: Hegemony, Radical Democracy, and the Political. Routledge.

Thomassen, L. 2005. ‘Discourse Analytical Strategies: Antagonism, Hegemony and Ideology after Heterogeneity’, Journal of Political Ideologies 10(3): 289-309.

Thomassen, L. 2016. ‘Hegemony, Populism and Democracy: Laclau and Mouffe Today’, Revista Española de Ciencia Política 40: 161-76.

4. Deconstructing Populism

This section examines how Ernesto Laclau deconstructed the concept of populism. We look at the deconstructive moves he makes in the process, and we then see how his theory of populism provides a way to analyse populist discourse while avoiding problematic distinctions made by many academics and laypersons when talking about populism.

Readings

Laclau, E. 2005. On Populist Reason. Verso, Preface; pp. 117-24; and Chapter 6.

Further Readings

Howarth, D. 2015. (ed.) Ernesto Laclau Post-Marxism, Populism and Critique. Routledge.

Laclau, E. 2005. ‘Populism: What’s In a Name?’, in Populism and the Mirror of Democracy, ed. F. Panizza. Verso, pp. 32-49.

Laclau, E. 2006. ‘Why Constructing a People Is the Main Task of Radical Politics’, Critical Inquiry 32(4): 646-80.

Mouffe, C. 2017, For a Left Populism. Verso.

Thomassen, L. 2016. ‘Hegemony, Populism and Democracy: Laclau and Mouffe Today’, Revista Española de Ciencia Política 40: 161-76.

Thomassen, L. (ed.) 2020. New Reflections on Ernesto Laclau’s Theory of Populism, Symposium, Theory & Event 23(3): 734-833.

Thomassen, L. 2022. ‘The “populist” foundation of liberal democracy: Jan-Werner Müller, Chantal Mouffe, and post-foundationalism’, Philosophy & Social Criticism 48(7): 992-1013.

‘Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and the Discourse Theoretical Approach’, in Y. Stavrakakis and G. Katsambekis (eds), Elgar Research Handbook on Populism (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2024), pp. 142-53 (Chapter 12).

5. Europe and Exemplarity

What role do examples play in our research? How does one choose good examples/cases/texts? What is the relationship between particularity and universality? Returning to some of the questions about method from the first two sessions, we examine these questions starting from Derrida’s deconstruction of the idea of Europe. This also serves to connect deconstruction to the discourse theoretical notion of identity.

Readings

Derrida, J. 1992. ‘The Other Heading,’ in The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe. Indiana University Press, pp. 1-83, at pp. 4-20 and 75-83.

Derrida, J. and J. Habermas. 2003. ‘February 15, or What Binds Europeans Together: A plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in the Heart of Europe’, Constellations 10(3). Also in The Derrida-Habermas Reader, ed. L. Thomassen, Edinburgh University Press, 2006, pp. 270-7; and in J. Habermas. 2006. The Divided West. Polity, pp. 39-48.

Thomassen, L. 2026. Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory. Edinburgh University Press, Introduction and chapter 6.

Further Readings

Caraus, Tamara, ‘Jacques Derrida and the “Europe of Hope”’, openDemocracy 23 June 2014, available at https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/jacques-derrida-and-europe-of-hope/.

Derrida, Jacques, ‘Différance’, in Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), chapter 1. Also in Jacques Derrida, Speech and Phenomena, trans. D. Allison (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973).

Flyvbjerg, B. ‘The Power of Example’, in Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again, ed. Bent Flyvbjerg and Steven Sampson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Glynos, J. and D. Howarth. 2007. Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. Routledge, chapter 6.

Harvey, I. E. ‘Exemplarity and the Origins of Legislation’, in Unruly Examples: On the Rhetoric of Exemplarity, ed. Alexander Gelley (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), 252–3.

Harvey, I. E. Labyrinths of Exemplarity: At the Limits of Deconstruction (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002),

Hollander, D. Exemplarity and Chosenness: Rosenzweig and Derrida on the Nation of Philosophy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008).

Kuhn, T. S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970).

Levy, Daniel, Max Pensky and John Torpey (eds), Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe: Transatlantic Relations After the Iraq War (London: Verso, 2005).

Naas, Michael B., ‘Introduction: For Example’, in Jacques Derrida, The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), pp. vii-lix.

Naas, Michael, Derrida From Now On (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008), chapter 4.

Ragin, C. C. ‘“Casing” and the Process of Social Inquiry’, in What Is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry, ed. Charles C. Ragin and Howard S. Becker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

Wittgenstein, L. 2009. Philosophical Investigations, 4^th ed. Blackwell

6. Hospitality: Conditional and Unconditional

What is the difference between conditional and unconditional hospitality? Is unconditional hospitality possible? What about tolerance? Starting from Derrida on hospitality, we discuss these questions. The session also serves as a first introduction to conditionality/unconditionality, which is important for thinking deconstructively about a number of political concepts (democracy, sovereignty, among others).

Readings

Derrida, Jacques, ‘Autoimmunity: Real and Symbolic Suicides – A Dialogue with Jacques Derrida’, in Giovanna Borradori, Philosophy In a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), pp. 124-30.

Jacques Derrida, ‘Hostipitality’, trans. Barry Stocker and Forbes Morlock, Angelaki vol.5, no. 3 (2000): 3-18. Reprinted in Lasse Thomassen (ed.), The Derrida-Habermas Reader (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), pp. 208-30.

Further Readings

Bulley, Dan, Migration, Ethics and Power: Spaces of Hospitality in International Politics (London: Sage, 2016).

Derrida, Jacques (1999), Adieu to Emmanuel Levinas, trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Derrida, Jacques, Of Hospitality: Anne Dufourmantelle Invites Jacques Derrida to Respond, trans. Rachel Bowlby (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).

Derrida, Jacques, ‘Hostipitality’, in Gil Anidjar (ed.), Acts of Religion (New York: Routledge, 2002).

Derrida, Jacques, ‘The Principle of Hospitality’, Parallax 11:1 (2005), 6-9. Also in

Jacques Derrida, Paper Machine, trans. Rachel Bowlby (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), chapter 6.

Derrida, Jacques, Hospitality. Volume I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023).

Jacques Derrida, Hospitality. Volume II, trans. P. Kamuf (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Friese, Heidrun, ‘The Limits of Hospitality’, Paragraph 32:1 (2009) 51-68.

Kakoliris, Gerasimos, Jacques Derrida and the Aporias of Hospitality (London: Palgrave, 2024).

Naas, Michael, ‘Hospitality as an Open Question: Deconstruction’s Welcome Politics’, in Taking on the Tradition: Jacques Derrida and the Legacies of Deconstruction (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 154-69.

Naas, Michael, Derrida From Now On (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008), chapter 1.

Michael Naas, Threshold Phenomena: Derrida and the Question of Hospitality (New York: Fordham University Press, 2024).

Miller, J. Hillis (2004), ‘The Critic as Host’, in Harold Bloom et al., Deconstruction and Criticism, London: Continuum, pp. 177-208.

Rosello, Mireille (2001), Postcolonial Hospitality: The Immigrant as Guest, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Still, Judith, Derrida and Hospitality: Theory and Practice (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010).

Thomassen, Lasse, ‘The Inclusion of the Other? Habermas and the Paradox of Tolerance’, Political Theory 34:4 (2006), 439-62.

Thomassen, Lasse, British Multiculturalism and the Politics of Representation (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017), chapter 5.

7. Deconstructing Sovereignty

What do claims to sovereignty ‘do’, and what makes them successful? What is the relationship between sovereignty and performativity? What are the implications of the deconstruction of sovereignty for how we think about democracy and the state? And the university? We examine the concept of sovereignty through the pair conditionality/unconditionality, and we connect it to current events such as Covid-19.

Readings

Derrida, Jacques, Rogues: Two Essays on Reason (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), Preface (xi-xv), introduction to Part 1 (1-5), §6 (63-70), §8 (78-94), §9 (95-107).

Further Readings

Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998).

Giorgio Agamben, Where Are We Now? The Epidemic as Politics (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021)

Kevin Attell, Giorgio Agamben: Beyond the Threshold of Deconstruction (New York: Fordham University Press, 2015)

Bartelson, Jens, A Genealogy of Sovereignty (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 1-21, 49-52.

Jens Bartelson, Sovereignty as Symbolic Form (London: Routledge, 2014).

Brown, Wendy, ’Sovereign Hesitations’, in Pheng Cheah and Suzanne Guerlac (eds), Derrida and the Time of the Political (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), pp. 114-32.

Butler, Judith, Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (London: Routledge, 1997), chapter 2.

Giorgio Agamben: Sovereignty and Life, ed. Matthew Calarco and Steven DeCaroli (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007)

Jacques Derrida, ‘Unconditionality or Sovereignty: The University at the Frontiers of Europe’, Oxford Literary Review 31, no. 2 (2009)

Derrida, Jacques, The Beast & the Sovereign: Volume I and II (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009 and 2010).

Gasché, Rodolphe, ‘“In the Name of Reason”: The Deconstruction of Sovereignty’, Research in Phenomenology 34 (2004), 289-303.

Don Herzog, Sovereignty, RIP (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020)

Leitch, Vincent B., ‘Late Derrida: The Politics of Sovereignty’, Critical Inquiry 33 (Winter 2007): 229-47.

Patton, Paul, ‘Deconstruction and the Problem of Sovereignty’, Derrida Today 10:1 (2017): 1-20.

Pusterla, Elia R.G., The Credibility of Sovereignty – The Political Fiction of a Concept (Bern: Springer, 2016), Chapter 2 (‘Deconstructing Sovereignty’).

Thomassen, L. 2026. Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory. Edinburgh University Press, chapter 2.

Wendt, Alexander and Raymond Duvall, ’Sovereignty and the UFO’, Political Theory 36:4 (2008): 607-33

8. Deconstructing Representation

In this session, we look at Derrida’s and Laclau’s respective deconstructions of the concept of representation. Both argued that representation is not simply a reflection of existing states of affairs, but itself helps constitute social identities and interests. We examine what this means when we analyse representative claims, and we examine what it means for making normative judgements about representations, for instance populist representative claims about the people. Examining the concept of representation is also an opportunity to see what distinguishes deconstruction and discourse theory from other approaches, such as those by Jacques Rancière and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.

Readings

Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason (London: Verso, 2005), pp. 157-64.

Laclau, E. (forthcoming 2026). ‘Representation and Social Movements’, New Political Science 48.

5. F. Pitkin, The Concept of Representation (University of California Press, 1967), chapter 5.

Further Readings

Claire Colebrook, Ethics and Representation: From Kant to Post-Structuralism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999).

1. Derrida, Speech and Phenomena: And Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs (Northwestern University Press, 1973).
2. Derrida, Of Grammatology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976).
3. Derrida, ‘Sending: On Representation’, Social Research 49:2 (1982): 294-326.

Lisa Disch, “The Impurity of Representation and the Vitality of Democracy,” Cultural Studies 26:2-3 (2012), pp. 207-22.

1. Disch, Making Constituencies: Representation as Mobilization in Mass Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 2021)

Prentoulis, M. and L. Thomassen. 2013. ‘Political Theory in the Square: Protest, Representation and Subjectification’ (with Marina Prentoulis), Contemporary Political Theory 12:3 (2013), 166-84.

Thomassen, L. 2007. ‘Beyond Representation?’, Parliamentary Affairs 60:1 (2007), 111-26.

Thomassen, Lasse, British Multiculturalism and the Politics of Representation (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017).

‘Poststructuralism and representation’, Political Studies Review 15:4 (2017), 539-50.

Lasse Thomassen, ‘Representing the People: Laclau as a Theorist of Representation’, New Political Science, 41:2 (2019), 329-44.

9. Democracy to-come and radical democracy

This session examines the concept of democracy. We look at Derrida’s notion of democracy to-come and at Laclau and Mouffe’s notion of radical democracy. We then focus on the differences between these two notions of democracy and liberal and deliberative notions of democracy.

Readings

Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe. 1985. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. Verso, chapter 4.

Jacques Derrida, Rogues: Two Essays on Reason, trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), Part I (except §10).

Further Readings

Judith Butler and Ernesto Laclau, “The Uses of Equality,” in Simon Critchley and Oliver Marchart (eds), Laclau: A Critical Reader (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 329-44.

Jacques Derrida, ‘Force of Law: The “Mystical Foundation of Authority”’, in Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice, ed. Drucilla Cornell, Michel Rosenfeld, and David Gray Carlson (New York: Routledge, 1992), 3–67.

Derrida, Jacques, ‘Spectres of Marx’, New left Review 205 (May/June 1994): 31-58.

Derrida, J. 1994. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International. Routledge.

Derrida, Jacques, Rogues: Two Essays on Reason (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005).

Fritsch, Mathias, ‘Derrida’s democracy to come’, Constellations 9 (2002), 574-97.

Keenan, Democracy in Question. Democratic Openness in a Time of Political Closure (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003)

Ernesto Laclau, ‘Democracy and the Question of Power’ Constellations (2001) 8:1.

Mouffe, C. 2000. The Democratic Paradox. Verso.

Mummery, J. 2016. Radicalizing Democracy for the Twenty-First Century. Routledge.

Norval, Aletta (2012). ‘”Writing a name in the sky”: Rancière, Cavell and the possibility of egalitarian inscription’, American Political Science Review, 1-17.

Thomassen, L. ‘Radical Democracy’, in Rosi Braidotti (ed.), The History of Continental Philosophy. Vol. 7: After Poststructuralism: Transitions and Transformations (London: Acumen, 2010), pp. 169-86.

Thomassen, L. ‘Democracy in a Provisional Key’, in J. Tully et al. (eds), Democratic Multiplicity: Perceiving, Enacting and Integrating Democratic Diversity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), Chapter 3.

Thomassen, L. 2026. Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory. Edinburgh University Press, chapter 3.

Thomson, Alex, Deconstruction and Democracy (London: Bloomsbury, 2005).

Tønder, L. and L. Thomassen (eds.), Radical Democracy. Politics Between Abundance and Lack (Manchester University Press, 2005)

10. (Post-)Truth

In debates about post-truth, deconstruction is often referred to as a postmodernist precursor for post-truth, for instance by Michiko Kakutani and Lee McIntyre. This session examines the relationship between deconstruction, truth and post-truth, connecting it to contemporary world politics, above all Donald Trump. Derrida was adamant that deconstruction requires an unconditional defence of truth and reason, and that this requires us to ask, ‘what is truth?’ Therefore, truth is inherently provisional, open-ended. What is more, there will always be a performative aspect to truth discourse, so truth is always also about truth-effect or force. What, then, is the status of deconstruction as a discourse of truth? And, if truth discourse is also performative, how can we defend truth against lies and demagogy?

Readings

Derrida, J. 1987. The Truth In Painting. University of Chicago Press, pp. 1-9.

Thomassen, L. 2026. Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory. Edinburgh University Press, chapter 5.

Trump, D. and M. Scherer. 2017. ‘Trump’s Interview with TIME on Truth and Falsehoods’, Time, 22 March, https://time.com/4710456/ donald-trump-time-interview-truth-falsehood/.

Further Readings

Jacques Derrida, Limited Inc (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1988).

Jacques Derrida, ‘History of the Lie: Prolegomena’, in Without Alibi, ed. Peggy Kamuf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), pp. 28-70.

Jacques Derrida, ‘The University without Condition’, in Without Alibi, ed. Peggy Kamuf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 202–37.

Jacques Derrida, ‘Unconditionality or Sovereignty: The University at the Frontiers of Europe’, Oxford Literary Review 31, no. 2 (2009).

Glynos, J. and D. Howarth. 2007. Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. Routledge.

Laclau, E., ‘Discourse’, in R. E. Goodin and P. Pettit (eds), A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), pp. 431-7. Also in D. Howarth (ed.). 2015. Ernesto Laclau Post-Marxism, Populism and Critique. Routledge.

Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe. 1985. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. Verso, Preface.

Laclau E. and C. Mouffe, ‘Post-Marxism without Apologies’, New Left Review, 1987, no. 166, pp. 79-106. Reprinted in Laclau, E. New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time.

Lee McIntyre, Post- Truth (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018).

Saul Newman, ‘Post-Truth, Postmodernism and the Public Sphere’, in Europe in the Age of Post-Truth Politics: Populism, Disinformation and the Public Sphere, ed. Maximilian Conrad et al. (London: Palgrave, 2023), 13–30.