Hegemonies of knowledge. Records of Ernesto Laclau under the Chilean post-dictatorship (Santiago, 1997-2007).

Abstract

Introduction: In the context of transitional policies in Chile (1997), the dialogues presented here -by way of interview- some contents of the hegemonic theory of Ernesto Laclau, deciphering a reconstruction program that includes the relations between the postMarxism, deconstruction, and political analysis of discourse. Methodology: The interview was not structured by criteria of time nor the argumentative progression of a unitary structure, but in an open and recursive sense that illuminates political problems and categories referred to the construction of critical identities. Results: From an epistemic and conceptual perspective, the contents give an account of the explanatory contemporaneity of categories such as antagonism, Metaphorisation, equivalences, indecibility, and sedimentation in the discursive conformation of political identities in Latin America. Discussion: Hegemonic theory has been central to broadening political analysis of discourse, as well as deciphering popular demands under the cycle of national-popular governments in Latin America during the 1998-2016 period and the emergence of authoritarian leaders in Latin America. Conclusions: Laclausian theory, as a political analysis of discourse, questions modernizing paradigms focused on economic growth and allows us to decipher new forms of collective action from a political hermeneutic that helps to investigate the articulation of "political subjects," including conservatives, within the neoliberal order.