Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser as Responses to Vichy France The Second World War seems to have had an enormous impact on theorists writing on literary theory. While their arguments are usually confined to a structure that at first blush seems to only apply to theory, a closer examination finds that they contain an inherently political aspect. Driven by the psychological trauma of the war, theorists, particularly French theorists, find themselves questioning the structures that led to
emotional defense. What I want to do is pull two separate and different works together and focus on the impact of gender in media and film. First I will summarize my position then address the two selected works. One work is from noted Marxist Louis Althusser where he points out eight different Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) of which I will focus on two for this writing, the family ISA and the culture ISA. The second is from noted Canadian activist and trans-gender celebrity Holy Devore. She/he
robots rule the land (Althusser 68). It is true that they rule by force (sentinels and agents) and these constitute the Repressive State Apparatus, but their primary force of subjugation is the matrix, their ISA. The film traces the path of one man, Neo, in his painful progress from the ideology of the matrix to the "real world," or the ideology of the "real."2 The matrix, unlike the ideology of the "real," is explicitly defined along Althusserian lines as an ISA. Althusser identifies ISAs as
Ideological State Apparatus institutions according to the Louis Althusser’s 1970 article “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Toward an Investigation” (Dan Scanlon, 2013). The two main lines of that movie are Education and Culture institutions of ISA (Althusser, 1970). This film shows how Education and Culture institutions teach monsters to live effectively in the monster’s society and follow the ideology’s norms and rules. According to the Louis Althusser's theory Repressive State Apparatus (RSA)
French philosopher Destutt de Tracy originally coined the term "ideology" at the end of the 18th century to create a science that would provide a rational foundation for the study and critique of ideas. Instead, the term has become an extremely challenged and changeable concept. The term "ideology" is used to refer to a system of mutually dependent ideas, principles, traditions, gatherings, and even folklore that functions as a routine frame of reference. These routine ideas are taken for granted
child-as-consumer to a patriarchal Capitalism. Althusser asks it this way: Why do [people] "need" this imaginary transposition of their real conditions of existence in order to "represent to themselves" their real conditions of existence? (241) In the case of Old Navy, the answer lies in the combined natures of Capitalism and the infantilist regression it engenders. Capitalist objectification of the self, the subjectification of Althusser, begins with the Old Navy ad. Here, kindly old
form the stifling obligations and expectations that oppress her, but finds that she is unable to live the free life she desires. This realization causes her to seek freedom in death, instead. In Marxist theory, particularly as subscribed to by Louis Althusser, it is the role of the repressive state apparatuses (RSAs) and the ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) to provide willing workers and supplies to the base and enable a system to reproduce itself. It is the ideological state apparatuses, however
-- an ironically alienating end to a movement that began in an attempt to unite with the universe. Bibliography Abrams, M.H, General Ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 4th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton and Company, 1979. Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses." Lenin and Philosophy and other essays. Translated from the French by Ben Brewster. London: New Left Books, 1971. 121-173. Wordsworth, William. "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey."
Marxism Marxist criticism is inherently existentialist. One cannot know anything without having been exposed to it as some sort of life experience. There is no knowledge a priori, as some of the ancient philosophers would have us believe. Rather, knowledge is accumulated a posteriori, through actual experience. Therefore, there is almost nothing that is inherent and absolute in our knowledge. It can never be purely objective, as knowledge is absorbed through the grid of our own perceptions
Throughout the development of sociology as a discipline, the main backdrop to both sociological field-work and theory has been the distinction between Self and Other – or subject and object – expressed more broadly through the study of the interplay between individuals and institutions. With the advent of poststructuralist thinking, also known as postmodernism, the preference toward this distinction has come under suspicion by some contemporary sociologists and philosophers. Critics typically charge
The film The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012) offers supportive view of Althusser’s theory of the state ideological apparatus and how they function. Two main Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) are depicted through President Coriolanus Snow residing in Panem and his peacekeepers which comprise a gendarmerie controlled by the Capitol and are tasked with maintaining order throughout the nation of Panem. The education curriculum of District 12 is centered on coal mining. Haymitch Abernathy is mentor to Katniss
Ideological State Apparatuses”, Althusser says that, “the resistances of the exploited classes is able to find means and occasions to express itself there” (99), by which he means in the Ideological State Apparatuses. In the second half of the essay, Althusser argues there are places that can be found in the ISA that allow expression of the exploited class, but this expression is an illusion as they can only express themselves in terms of being subjects. Althusser separates the State Apparatus into
1. Substructural capitalist theory and postdialectic Marxism The main theme of Werther's[1] essay on cultural theory is a subpatriarchial reality. But if capitalist destructuralism holds, we have to choose between semanticist pretextual theory and the preconstructivist paradigm of reality. "Sexual identity is fundamentally elitist," says Sartre. Cultural theory states that the collective is impossible. It could be said that Reicher[2] holds that we have to choose between neopatriarchialist feminism
In his introduction to the term “Orientalism,” Edward Said begins by paraphrasing the writing of a French journalist’s view of the present-day Orient in order to express the major common Western misconception about the East. This misconception exists in the Western mind, according to Said, as if it were irrelevant that the Orient itself was actually sociologically affected. He then goes on to describe the basis of Orientalism, as it is rooted in the Western consciousness. Said uses the phrase
A Psychoanalytic Analysis of Pretty Woman In the introduction to his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology, Slavoj Zizek acquaints readers with his book’s tripartite aim. He plans, among other things, to illustrate concepts fundamental to Lacanian psychoanalysis – an intention which will serve to further his more ambitious goal “to reactualize Hegelian dialectics by giving it a new reading” in the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis – and “to contribute to the theory of ideology via a new reading
On the Futures of the Subject ABSTRACT: This paper is intended as an inquiry regarding contemporary critical assays of subjectivity. In response to the contemporary politics of representation, both in expressions of essentialist identity politics and in versions of social constructivism, and their implication of all pedagogical practices in transfers of power, I wish to project the question of the subject’s futures. I choose to discuss the limits of the interior, monadic subject for consideration
brighter than the movie. Besides, the book leaves a reader some ideas and thoughts to think about and to consider. Resources: Althusser L. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.". 1970. La Pensee. Gramsci A. “Prison letters”. 1996. Pluto Press. Horkheim M., Adorno T. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” Original copywrite 1944 Resources: Althusser L. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.". 1970. La Pensee. Gramsci A. “Prison letters”. 1996. Pluto Press. Horkheim M
The notion of culture and communication are important in understanding society and further comprehend its problems. Different theoretical paradigms of mass culture and mass media are never coequal viewing the matter antagonistically with another. Some theoretical approach regards the notion of communication positively whereas other considers it as having a negative impact on culture. Three of the most significant theoretical ideas on the subject are the liberal-democratic, Althusserian and governmental
Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses theory can be seen through representing the influence of ideology by Ideological State Apparatus’ institutions that mostly impact on characters rather than influence of Repressive State Apparatus (Louise Althusser, 1970). From the beginning of formation of society its members are both taught the society’s norm and controlled by who had a power over them by using two different forms in which the government control is preserved. In other words, these norms and
people. According to Stuart Hall; ideology is ‘the frameworks of thinking and calculation about the world’ and by this he means how the audience uses ‘ideas’ to figure out how the world works and what role they have to play in it. Fellow Marxist, Althusser goes on from this idea to write, ‘Ideology…is the medium through which all people experience the world’ and this essay