Limits, frontiers, antagonism

Abstract The paper deals with the role of antagonism within post-structuralist discourse theory, and does so by revisiting the genesis and transformations of the conceptual couple limit/frontier. The first paragraphs introduce the conception of discourse put forward by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, and explain why they envisaged the necessity of discursive closure in antagonistic terms. The central sections deal with the emergence of the concept of antagonism in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985) and its connection with the notions of limit and frontier, highlight the theoretical problems arising thereof and follow the refinements advanced by discourse-theoretical critics and scholars. The last paragraph draws the consequences of this debate and argues for a rehabilitation of the concept of antagonism: not to be intended as a fate inherent to the constitution of any discourse, but as a useful political tool for questioning concrete discursive formations.