Lack and jouissance in hegemonic discourse of identification with the state
Journal
Organization : the critical journal of organization, theory and society
ISSN
1350-5084
ISSN-Digital
1461-7323
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2013-03
Author(s)
Mueller, Martin
Abstract
This paper shows how hegemonic discourses are sustained through the play of lack and jouissance. Lack refers to the symbolic limits of discourse and is both the condition of possibility and of impossibility of hegemony: while it vitiates the realization of a full identity, it at the same time keeps spurring the search for it. Jouissance describes the paradoxical satisfaction in dissatisfaction that subjects procure from this lack, from the failure to attain the enjoyment that hegemonic discourse promises. Looking at how organizations become enmeshed with the formation of state subjects, the paper considers identification with the discourse of a strong Russia at a Russian elite university as an empirical illustration. This discourse becomes hegemonic in students' identification not only because it proposes a comprehensive project that unifies a range of diverse signifiers and promises enjoyment, but also because it fails to provide a full symbolic suture and subjects are unable to obtain the promised enjoyment. This constant lack forms the basis for repeated acts of identification that strive to overcome it and provides a jouissance that keeps subjects attached to the illusory quest for real enjoyment - and thus to identification with a strong Russia.
Language
English
Keywords
Identities
discourse
lack
hegemony
jouissance
poststructuralism
psychoanalysis
Russia
Laclau
Lacan
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SHSS - Kulturen, Institutionen, Maerkte (KIM)
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Sage Publ.
Publisher place
London [u.a.]
Volume
20
Number
2
Start page
279
End page
298
Pages
20
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
210727
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