Althusser Louis 1918 1990 Marxism Base Superstructure Ideology

Althusser, Louis (1918 -1990) Marxism: Base & Superstructure Ideology & Hegemony Antonio Gramsci(1891 -1937)

Marxism: Topics & Schools on Focus Vulgar Marxism: Dialectic Materialism, Karl Marx; Lenin, Engel, Georg Class & Commodification Lukacs Russian Formalism Prague school Frankfurt School [Beginning] Adorno, Benjamin Consumer Society, Mass Culture Western Marxists: Literature & Society Althusser’s theory of Ideology & Gramsci’s Hegemony American & British Marxism: Jameson and Marxist Literary Criticism Eagleton Foucault Literature as Discourse

Outline • Marx: Q & A & Key words A. Superstructure and Base: Debates and Related Issues B. Ideology 1. Ideology defined ν ν 2. L. Althusser 3. Examples of Ideology ν C. Social Structure vs. Social Formation and Overν Determination D. A Marxist Reading: More Examples for Analysis; The Great Gastby (excerpt) • A. Gramsci • Examples of hegemony • References

Marx: Q & A • What is materialist determinism? (chap 5: 82 -) • What are the evils of capitalism according to Marx? (e. g. chap 5: 83; chap 6: 83) • Is class relation—or relation of production—still relevant today? • Why do we desire more than we need? Why are commodities fetishized?

Key Words • Materialist determinism • Base and superstructure -- reflection, homology and relative autonomy • Relations of production, means of production, mode of production • Exchange value, use value and symbolic value • Laborer and labor power, Alienation and reification • Ideology and hegemony

Superstructure vs. Economic Base in the History of Marxism: 1. Marx, Lenin Stalin’s politicization of literature; 2. Marx, Lenin Western Marxism (e. g. Lukacs, Brecht, Benjamin, Adorno) (chap 5: 84; chap 6: 84) 3. Poststructuralist Marxism -- Althusser; 4. Neo-Marxists’ use of Gramsci (after 70’s) 1. (lit. as propaganda) 2. Realism vs. Modernism debate; their critique of culture industry and belief in human agency (variations of reflectionism) 3. Over-determination 4. Conflicting Hegemonies

Literature & Society (1) • Literature of Commitment & Reflectionism (chap 5: 87 -89)– • Functions: criticizing the wrong, and bringing changes. (critics as a warning system or a mentor) • Mode: realism as a preferred genre? (88) Related questions about “political correctness” -- What are the functions of literature? -- Is good literature politically committed literature? -- Does literature have to “reflect” its society, or help promote a certain political cause? (e. g. The Education of Little Tree; ref. Forrest Carter 1, 2) -- On the other hand, can literature or art works be completely un-political or negative?

Literature & Society (2) • Ways of reflecting society indirectly – not through content but through forms (e. g. fragmentary form as a way to reflect social fragmentation); – incorporating different ideologies – the political “unconscious. ”

Are we blind to our own ideologies? Why?

Ideology Defined • “rigid set of ideas”; e. g. somebody refrains from eating meat “for practical rather than ideological reasons. ” 落入意識形態之爭 –-(general usage) negative • ruling ideology: legitimating the power of the dominant group — (Marx) negative (chap 5 86) • sets of ideas to justify certain organized social actions --could be positive or negative ( like “hegemony”) (chap 5 86) • ＊sets of ideas to misrepresent the world (and our relations) to us, in order justify certain actions while masking their real nature. – negative They look natural. (chap 6: 84 -85)

Althusser, Louis (1918 -1990) • Born 1918 in Algiers; • Joined the Communist Party in Paris in 1948. • Attempted to reconcile Marxism with Structuralism. • Influential works: For Marx (1965) and Lenin and Philosophy (1969). – Note: Murdered his wife in 1980, and was confined to an asylum till his death in 1990. (source)

Althusser’s Revision of Marxism 1. Ideology: • • Sees Ideology – not as just ideas or “false consciousness” (which implies “true consciousness”); Subjectivation: Explains both social structure and individual’s subject position in relation to ideology. 2. Social Formation: • Against reflectionism, argues for Literature’s “relative autonomy” from Base; it is determined by Base in the last instance (ultimately) (more later)

Why is it natural? Why are we blind? • Natural– – We are born into ideologies, “always already interpellated” as subject (We take different subject positions in ideologies. ) – Ideologies speak to us and for us. • Blind – – ideologies disguise real relations; present ‘imaginary’ relations.

Ideology: Subjectivation (Defined by Althusser) • Subject = Being subject to Ideology: Ideology has the function of constituting individual as subjects. – (not used) Interpellation –a. 正式質問(官員) the formal right of a parliament to submit formal questions to the government – (used) Interpellation the police act of interpelling someone; a policeman hailing us “hey you!” guilty subject. Ref. ) • Systematic Control by Consent: Ideology is not any idea; it should be a system of ideas (representation) produced by some institutions (state apparatuses 國家機器) ISA • (chap 6: 85)

Ideology: Misrepresentation (Defined by Althusser) • Ideology as Misrepresentation: Ideology is a ‘Representation’ of the Imaginary Relationship of Individuals to their Real Conditions of Existence. (Mis-Representation, or Mis-Recognition from Lacan’s idea of mirror stage. Society produces us as subject in its own image. Chap 6 p. 86) • (chap 6: 85)

Ideologies: Examples • • Ideology not a singular in aideology system Which of is the following areidea; part it ofworks a certain to justify some support some relations. -- produced by power, some ISA, distorting reality ? 1. 我以身為台灣人為榮。 1. 我以身為美國人為榮。 2. 我是世界公民。 3. 2. 阿扁是台灣之子，是全 民的總統。 4. 3. 一日為師，終生為父。 4. God is truth. 5. 5. The Earth is round. 6. It is human to love. 6. 7. Men are from Mars; 7. women from Venus. Nationalism; patriotism; cosmopolitanism used in ads “The Taiwanese” populism; Supporting the school as an ISA in patriarchal society; Supporting the authorities of a certain Church or priest; confirmed by church services. --so the myth of 女媧補天 is a mere superstition. --so I can love anyone I’d like. --so we should not expect men to comfort or support others.

Social Structure— of Vulgar Marxist Ideology: the ruling ideas of the ruling class imposed on the other classes. ÜSuperstructure Üe. g. Literature of the middle class, Üof proletariat Base(as foundation, center) relations of production, means of production Parallel, reflect

Social Formation — for Althusser 1. Literature/Culture & Economic Base relatively autonomous from; • reflect, embody, perform, transform, critique Multiple Ideologies Social Levels 2. Social Multiple Causality: Over-determination

Social Formation -- de-centered • State Apparatuses (Repressive & Ideological) School Police Superstructure Court ISA Literature Family Base Army RSA

Lit. work: Relative autonomous • over-determined; • economic influences mediated (媒介) through various ISA’s Lit. History, Genre Ideologies Superstructure Text Publisher Author/Reader Promotion School Literary MP； Lit. RP； Base

How do we do a Marxist reading? ? Power/Class Relations shown in the text, its character relations, setting, as well as its background 2. The role of capitalism, workers, commodities 3. ideologies -- identifying them and the social practices which support them; -- discover contradictions between different ideologies 1. (ref. chap 5– p. 88 -89)

Ideology: an Artistic Example • From Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538)

Venus of Urbino (1538) 1. Revises Giorgione's The Sleeping Venus (1510) 2. Titian’s: “a flesh-and-blood beauty, awake and fully aware of the viewer's presence. ” (ref) 1. An allegory of “lustful love” (with signs of her hand, rose) 2. Celebration of marital love (with signs of praying, white dress, the dog—loyalty, and myrtle (桃金娘)— constancy

Ideology: an Artistic Example • To Manet’s Olympia (1863) pay attention to her gaze, her hand, the black woman and the black cat.

Ideology: an Artistic Example • Manet’s Olympia --multiple ideologies: 1) sexual capitalism (prostitution) presented, and critiqued? -- Not Venus, nor Eve or Danaë, a real prostitute; -- the woman’s direct stare and upright pose, the strong hand 1) The blackness inscribed as a contrast. (no backdrop to suggest any symbolic or mythic depth of this space,

Ideology: some CF’s • 創蘋記 https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=7 a. ZSd. TWYbp. U

Contemporary Ideology of Love : stereotypes • Love = motorcycle or car supporting tolerant and strong men vs. wayward or weepy women

Commodification of Love – no fixed or human object of love • 遠傳電信-預付卡-愛情告白 (cell phone as my dear ) https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=p 1 lxj. X 0 Ssb. Q • 遠傳電信-i拉列 369費率-愛情無價 (because the cell phone rate is cheap)

The Great Gatsby: General Introd. • Setting: in New York City and Long Island in 1922. – 1920’ (Roaring 20’s): is a time when the American society experienced a cultural and lifestyle revolution. In the economic arena, the stock market boomed, the rich spent money on fabulous parties and expensive acquisitions, but they are morally irresponsible. (e. g. ) • Narrator: Nick Carraway going to the East as an initiation to the world of wealth and corruption.

Jordan Baker’s “carelessness” • Nick: You're a rotten driver, either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn't to drive at all. • Jordan: I am careful. • Nick: No you're not. • Jordan: Well, other people are. • Nick: What's that got to do with it • Jordan: They'll keep out of my way, It takes two to make an accident • Nick: Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself? • Jordan: I hope I never will, I hate careless people. That's why I like you.

The Great Gatsby: General Introd. (2) • Symbols: East Egg (the rich area for the aristocrats) and the West Egg (the newly rich ) on Long Island, parties, green light and, the valley of ashes • The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg: “blue and gigantic ---… They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. ”

The Great Gatsby: General Introd. (3) • Nick– refrain from judgment at the beginning rejecting humans at the end. – “I would want no more privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only my neighbour, Gatsby, would be exempt from my reaction. … For Gatsby turned out all right in the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dream. ”

G’s Passion vs. the Moral Desert & Paralysis • Foul dust -- undesirable desire – Daisy and Tom’s marriage – The superficial parties – Tom’s for Myrtle (his mistress, who fight with him all the time); – Nick’s relationship with Jordan Baker; • How about Gatsby’s love for Daisy? • And Nick's interest in Gatsby the bootlegger, hoodlum, millionaire and what he represents The American Dream (green backs + Nature)? ?

Literary Example -- The Great Gatsby –first reunion (clip 51: 00) • How are images of romance and money intertwined in the first excerpt? Contradiction 1: • Images of wealth: D’s brass buttons, G’s gold toilet • Images of romance: beauty, tears, light, flowers, • Images of social power + nature: Images of nature + names, guests in G’s mansion which represents his social power • G’s romantic sentiments throwing clothes at Daisy

Literary Example -- The Great Gatsby –first reunion (clip 51: 00) Contradiction 2: alienation or splitting of the signifiers (their exchange values) from the signified (the black market). • S-ier (1): G’s house catching light, splendor S-ied: how he earns the money. • S-ier (2): Daisy’s evaluation matters. (“Rich girls don’t marry poor boys”) The symbol: the green light --1. green pasture, 2. green light (= Daisy), 3. green bills

Literary Example -- The Great Gatsby –the past • What does “the past Daisy” mean to Gatsby? • He has to go back to the past to sort things out. – Images of ascendance (ladder) to life and wonder (“milk of wonder”); – Daisy– “perishable, ” only an incarnation of something else. social position or fullness of life, or both? • Nick’s response: An elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words (Dream –regressive, inarticulate)

The Great Gatsby –the ending • Green light –again more important than Daisy “And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believes in the green light, the orgiastic (狂飲 作樂的) future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms out farther. . . so we beat on, boats against the current, born back ceaselessly into the past. ”

The Great Gatsby: undesirable desire (2) Daisy—actually undesirable, too. • G (about Daisy): “Her voice is full of money” • N: “It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the cymbals’ song of it. . . High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl. ” • The undesirable to replace the unnamable. • The American Dream for Fitzgerald – pure at first but polluted by materialism • But is American Dream desirable?

GG in the context of Modernism (for your reference) • The moderns -- a simultaneity of incongruities and paradoxes. • Modernism was defined as a time of "refusal"--of middle-class pieties, scientific or philosophic certainty, propriety, tradition, and faith (Hoffman 32 -33, 40 qtd Kaplan 145). • setting up untraditional tradition; looking for undesirable desire.

GG in the context of Modernism (for your reference 2) • Undesirable desire is a guilty pleasure, not a mere paradox or incongruity. • The trope of undesirable desire provided a covert means of getting in on cultural debates over national belonging, of participating--through the construction of desirable and undesirable love objects--in the national debate over who was and was not a desirable American and why. (Kaplan 147) American Dream as a means of self-justification

The Great Gatsby and The Ideology of American Dream • The Dream’s Material Base: Capitalist pursuit and acquisition. (the real condition) • Imaginary Relation represented by Gatsby and the green light – the fallible but desirable “We [The Americans] turn out alright at the end. ” • Daisy and Tom, the undesirable. • But the problem is that it’s hard to distinguish them from each other.

From Ideology to Hegemony 1. Gramsci: considers the role of the organic intellectual and competing hegemonies (heterogeneous and always being modified). 2. Hegemony = Dominant Ideology, but not always controlling us.

Antonio Gramsci (1891 -1937) • • Supporter of Russian revolution and activist in socialist transformation throughout the advanced capitalist world. • Arrested in 1926, kept in prison 1928 – 1937, where he wrote the Prison Notebook.

Hegemony: control by consent • Chap 6: 88 -89) • Ideological leadership; consensual control; • ". . . Dominant groups in society, including fundamentally but not exclusively the ruling class, maintain their dominance by securing the 'spontaneous consent' of subordinate groups, including the working class, through the negotiated construction of a political and ideological consensus which incorporates both dominant and dominated groups. " (Strinati, 1995: 165) • (source http: //www. theory. org. uk/ctrgram. htm#hege )

Gramsci– hegemony not secure • not given to the dominant group, but "has to be won, reproduced, sustained. " • Hegemony can only be maintained so long as the dominant classes succeed in framing all competing definitions within their range. . . so that the subordinate groups [get] either controlled or contained within an ideological space. . (13; Norton 2455. )

Hegemony: examples –images of the Blacks • Winning spontaneous consent through granting of superficial 'concessions' (Strinati, 1995: 167 qtd Mystry). • This involves the dominant group making 'compromises' that are (or appear as) favourable to the dominated group, but that which actually do nothing to disrupt the hegemony of the dominators.

black images in US Culture • I. Three stereotypes: Mammy, slaves, clown (e. g. TV minstrel show) spontaneous consensus to their slavery or inferiority. • II. Positive images based on normative white ideals • Images in late 80’s: e. g. • --the middle-class household of The Cosby Show points out that there is 'nothing black' about the Huxtable's lifestyle (Mercer 1989: 6 qtd in Mystry).

Strategies of containment Sympathy shown for the minorities, but with the whites as the real heroes. e. g. Cry Freedom; The Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves Counter Hegemonic Practices: e. g. Hip Hop.

References • Louis Althusser Archive http: //www. marxists. org/reference/archive/althusser/ • Kaplan, Carla “Undesirable Desire: Citizenship and Romance in Modern American Fiction” Modern Fiction Studies 43. 1 (1997) 144 -169. • An Introduction to Gramsci's Life and Thought http: //www. marxists. org/archive/gramsci/intro. htm • Antonio Gramsci http: //www. theory. org. uk/ctrgram. htm • Mistry, Reena. “Can Gramsci's theory of hegemony help us to understand the representation of ethnic minorities in western television and cinema? ” http: //www. theory. org. uk/ctr-rol 6. htm

References Chap 5. “Marxism” Dobie, Ann B. Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. Boston: Heinle, 2002. Chap 6 “Political Reading” Literary Theory: The Basics. Hans Bertens. NY: Routledge, 2001. • Karl Marx Life and Philosophy https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Fosfv. Od. Xrrw • The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock – Song “Suicided by Society” http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=c. QJGh. YTh 7 Rs – animation: Love. Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Rev. Animation http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=6 Ls. Hkr 2 b-b 0