Althusser, Louis (1918-1990)
Marxism 2:
Ideology & Hegemony
Antonio Gramsci(1891-1937)
Marxism: Topics & Schools on Focus
Vulgar Marxism:
Karl Marx
Dialectic Materialism,
Class &
Commodification
Western Marxists :
Literature & Society
Althusser’s theory of
Ideology & Gramsci’s
Hegemony
American & British
Marxist Literary
Marxism: Jameson and Criticism
Eagleton
Foucault &文學社會學
的多重互動模式
Literature as Discourse
Outline
• Marx: Q & A
A. Superstructure and Base: Debates and Related
Issues
B. Ideology
1. Ideology defined ν
2. L. Althusser
ν
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 and for next time
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?
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
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 prefer 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 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.)
• Ideology as Misrepresentation: Ideology is a
‘Representation’ of the Imaginary Relationship of
Individuals to their Real Conditions of Existence.
• 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)
(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
somesome
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.
Superstructure
e.g. Literature of the middle class,
of 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)
學校
警察
Superstructure
法院
ISA
文學
家庭
Base
軍隊
RSA
Lit. work: Relative autonomous
• over-determined;
• economic influences mediated (媒介) through
various ISA’s
Ideologies
文學史；文類
文學
作
品
書
局 作者／讀者
行銷
Superstructure
學
院
文學生產方式；
生產關係；
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
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 )
•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 band 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
• 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-rol6.htm
Next time: Marxist Literary
Criticism
• (Reader: chap 5 & chap 6 review)
• F. Jameson & T. Eagleton as a focus.
• "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock“ 
ideologies of the author, the genre and the
time?
• Find an example of an ideology yourself.
• Ref.
•
•
Song “Suicided by Society”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQJGhYTh7Rs
animation: LoveSong of J. Alfred Prufrock Rev. Animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LsHkr2b-b0