master signifiers

Noun

master signifier (plural master signifiers)

1. 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.
   • 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...2006, Slavoj Žižek, The Parallax View, →ISBN, page 37

   Synonyms:

   empty signifier, floating signifier