master signifier

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Calque of French signifiant-maître as used by French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

Noun

master signifier (plural master signifiers)

  1. (sociology, philosophy) A signifier, i.e. a linguistic sign, with no determinate content beyond itself, serving as a nodal point dominating and grounding the content of a chain of other signifiers.
    Near-synonyms: empty signifier, floating signifier
    • 2006, Slavoj Žižek, The Parallax View, →ISBN, page 37:
      The same reversal that gives rise to a new Master-Signifier is at work in ideology: in anti-Semitism, all fears (of economic crisis, of moral degradation …) are exchanged for fear of the Jew […] And is not the same logic also discernible in a horror film like Spielberg’s Jaws? I fear the shark, my friend, and have no other fears. …
    • 2021, Tahir Abbas, Countering Violent Extremism: The International Deradicalization Agenda‎, →ISBN:
      It is the broader umbrella concept of cultural re-birth that acts as a master signifier suturing the vast spectrum of Islamism, from its peaceful articulations to its more violent manifestations.
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