| Sumario: | Amidst the current political turmoil in America, a fresh look at a forgotten bestseller like All the King's Men provides new insights on the recurrent phenomenon of "populism," which is on the rise throughout the world. In this novel, Robert Penn Warren demonstrates that the sphere of personal relationships corresponds to that of politics. Willie, the novel's populist leader, is the object of desire for those closest to him. In terms of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, he functions as the signifier that holds the promise of fullness and power for the split subjects around him. This dialectic of desire, analyzed through a combination of politics with personal and sexual relationships in All the King's Men, can be generalized to offer a precise diagnosis of the many-sided realities that underpin populist politics.
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