Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory has theoretical antecedents in Saussurian semiotics, Lacanian psychoanalysis and Gramscian political theory. Yet the bulk of its legacy lies within the field of the latter and the broader family of post-Marxist theorising, and could be characterised as ‘discourse theory of the political’. However, the rich theoretical resources of Laclau’s general schema may also lead towards what we could dub a ‘political theory of discourse’ – a thoroughgoing conceptual account of the relations between politics, signification, meaning, practice, affect and subjectivity. I argue that what has prevented the flourishing, notwithstanding some work within rhetorical studies, of this aspect of Laclauian theory are unresolved aspects of Laclau’s materialism, particularly his problematic insistence on the shared discursive character of signs and matter. These problems are, however, not the aporia they may appear to be. In fact, the resources for resolving them already exist within Laclau’s oeuvre.
