Lacan Contra Althusser: Dialectical Materialism Vs Nominalism
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Althusser and Ideological Criticism of the Arts
Swarthmore College Works Philosophy Faculty Works Philosophy 1993 Althusser And Ideological Criticism Of The Arts Richard Thomas Eldridge Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-philosophy Part of the Philosophy Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Richard Thomas Eldridge. (1993). "Althusser And Ideological Criticism Of The Arts". Explanation And Value In The Literary And Visual Arts. 190-214. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511659492.010 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-philosophy/255 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Althusser and ideological criticism of the arts RICHARD ELDRIDGE Louis Althusser's 1970 essay "Ideology and ideological state appar- atuses"1 is arguably the most influential and important document in contemporary critical practice and its theory. In one way this is puzzling, for the essay contains almost nothing that can be recog- nized as an argument. It does not put forward a causal theory of the rise and fall of forms of social life. It offers no deductions, and it contains only a few sketchily described examples of ideologies. The essay is instead filled with oracular pronouncements, couched in a terminology partly invented and partly cobbled together from the Marxist tradition and from Lacan. Yet there it is. Althusser's work receives more extended discussion — thirty-five consecutive pages, plus numerous occasional references — in Fredric Jameson's 1981 The Political Unconscious,2 perhaps the most important American text in so-called New Historicist criticism, than any of the literary works Jameson considers except Conrad's Lord Jim. -
Machiavelli After Althusser
420 Bargu Chapter 22 Machiavelli after Althusser Banu Bargu At the end of Machiavelli and Us, Louis Althusser salutes Machiavelli as ‘the greatest materialist philosopher in history’.1 Machiavelli, he posits, is the ‘equal of Spinoza, who declared him “acutissimus”, most acute’.2 But he quickly adds: ‘Spinoza considered him acutissimus in politics. He would appear not to have suspected that Machiavelli was also most incisive in materialist philosophy’.3 Formulated thus, what appears as an assertion of the parity of importance of both figures turns out to affirm Machiavelli’s indisputable, though unrecog- nised place in the history of philosophy. In positing Machiavelli on par with Spinoza, Althusser redefines him as a materialist philosopher. Further, by evok- ing the inadequacy of Spinoza’s appreciation of Machiavelli (limited, as it was, only to politics), Althusser also insinuates that Machiavelli is not only ‘most incisive in materialist philosophy’, but, in effect, the ‘most incisive’ materialist philosopher, whose importance went unsuspected or unrecognised or, at least, not fully recognised, by the greatest minds that came after him. This is a claim not to be taken lightly, if only because the same Althusser, rejecting the charge of structuralism, confesses to being ‘guilty of an equally powerful and compromising passion’ – that of being Spinozist.4 Explaining this passion, Althusser clarifies: ‘we made a detour via Spinoza in order to im- prove our understanding of Marx’s philosophy. To be precise: since Marx’s ma- terialism forced -
Theory, Totality, Critique: the Limits of the Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity
Studies in 20th Century Literature Volume 16 Issue 1 Special Issue on Contemporary Spanish Article 11 Poetry: 1939-1990 1-1-1992 Theory, Totality, Critique: The Limits of the Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity Philip Goldstein University of Delaware Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/sttcl Part of the German Literature Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Goldstein, Philip (1992) "Theory, Totality, Critique: The Limits of the Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity," Studies in 20th Century Literature: Vol. 16: Iss. 1, Article 11. https://doi.org/ 10.4148/2334-4415.1297 This Review Essay is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in 20th Century Literature by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Theory, Totality, Critique: The Limits of the Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity Abstract Theory, Totality, Critique: The Limits of the Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity by Douglas Kellner. Keywords Frankfurt School, WWII, Critical Theory Marxism and Modernity, Post-modernism, society, theory, socio- historical perspective, Marxism, Marxist rhetoric, communism, communistic parties, totalization, totalizing approach This review essay is available in Studies in 20th Century Literature: https://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol16/iss1/11 Goldstein: Theory, Totality, Critique: The Limits of the Frankfurt School Cr Review Essay Theory, Totality, Critique: The Limits of the Frankfurt School Philip Goldstein University of Delaware Douglas Kellner, Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity. -
On the Reproduction of Capitalism
LOUIS AL THUSSER was born in Algeria in 1918 and died in France in 1990. He taught philosophy for many years at the Ecole N ormale Superieure in Paris and was a leading intellectual in the French Communist Party. His books include For Marx; Reading Capital (with Etienne Balibar); On Ideolo,u; Politics and History: ,\1ontcsquieu, Rousseau, A1arx; 1\1acl1iavelli and Us; and The Specture efHegel. On the Reproduction of Capitalislll Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses LOUIS ALTHUSSER PREFACE BY ETIENNE BALIBAR INTRODUCTION BY JACQUES BIDET TRANSLATED BY G. M. GOSHGARIAN VERSO London • New York This Engfoh-lJ11gu.1ge edition published by Verso 21114 TL1nsLition £: G. M. Goshgarian 2()14 First published as Sur la reprod1w1011 ,:G:. Presses Universitaires de France 1995 Preface£: Etienne l:lalibar 21114 Introduction£: Jacques Bidet 21114 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses' first appeared in Louis Althusser. Lc11i11 <111d P!tilosoplt)' a11d Otltcr Essays. tram. Ben Brewster. London. New Lett Books. 1971. The translation has been modified. 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,' translation 1;; Ben Brewster 1971. 1994, 2U14 All rights reserved The moral rights of the authors have been asserted 135791118642 Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1 F OEG US: 211Jay Street, Suite 111111, Brooklyn, NY 112111 W\V\V. versobooks.con1 Verso is the imprint of New Left Books ISBN-13: 978-1-78168-164-11 (PBK) ISl:lN-13: 978-1-78168-165-7 (HBK) e!SBN-13: 978-1-78168-215-9 (US) eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-524-2 (UK) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. -
Prospects for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Law Richard E
Washington and Lee Law Review Volume 54 | Issue 3 Article 9 Summer 6-1-1997 Does Law Need an Analyst? Prospects for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Law Richard E. Redding Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr Part of the Jurisprudence Commons, and the Law and Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Richard E. Redding, Does Law Need an Analyst? Prospects for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Law, 54 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1119 (1997), https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol54/iss3/9 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington and Lee Law Review at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington and Lee Law Review by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Book Review Does Law Need an Analyst? Prospects for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Law LACAN AND THE SUBJECT OF LAW: TOWARD A PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITI- CAL LEGAL THEORY. By David S. Caudill. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1997. 206 pp. $15.95 paper, $49.95 cloth. Reviewed by Richard E. Redding The debate continues over the merits of French psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan - was he a "charlatan"' or an "intellectual hero?"2 Enter David Caudill's book, Lacan and the Subject oftaw: Toward a Psychoana- lytic CriticalLegal Theory.3 In providing practical applications of Lacan to the law, the book will no doubt be seen as an important contribution in resolving the debate. Caudill, a law professor with a Ph.D. -
The Frankfurt School's Neo-Marxian Critiques Of
The Frankfurt School’s Neo-Marxian Critiques of Capitalism and Consumer Culture Dustin Garlitz University of South Florida November 2005 1 In this study, I move to make the point that the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School, in their reinterpretation and extension of social philosopher Karl Marx, were responsible for the entry of two "key-terms" in the realm of cultural theory: "The Culture Industry” and “Aura”. The term “The Culture Industry” first appeared in the West-Coast collaboration of Institute members Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno titled Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944). The romantic notion of “Aura” first appeared in an essay by affiliate-member Walter Benjamin titled “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936). Although the critical writings of the Frankfurt School are incredibly diverse and span the range of multiple traditional disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, I want to examine the social commentary of the Institute for Social Research from an interdisciplinary perspective, spanning cultural sociology to continental philosophy to psychoanalytic thought. This examination will place special emphasis on the Institute's legacy to the interdisciplinary field of contemporary cultural studies. I would like to pay a great deal of interest on the Institute’s critiques of ideology, specifically capitalism and political economy. "The Culture Industry" and "Aura" are important terms to consider in such a study1 because they are the very cultural consequences of unrestrained, stringent American capitalism: it is the capitalist marketplace which festishizes "aura" and standardizes art. Since a capitalist line of inquiry will be taken, it only makes sense to examine the Frankfurt School’s writings on consumer culture as well (consumer culture being derivative of the dominant ideology that we call "capitalism"). -
Effects of the Agrégation De Philosophie on Twentieth- Century French Philosophy
Effects of the Agrégation de Philosophie on Twentieth- Century French Philosophy AL A N D . S C HRI ft much attention has been paid to developments in French philosophy over the past half century, and it has been frequently noted that the recent history of French philosophy differs significantly from its counterparts in England, Germany, and the United States. While many reasons for these differences have been suggested, in what follows I would like to suggest that there is an important and unique French institution—one with no equivalent in the English-speaking or German academic systems—that has had a significant impact on developments in French philosophy throughout the twentieth century. This institution is the Agrégation de Philosophie, and its effects are virtually unknown among philosophers outside France. Even within France—while knowledge of and experience with the agréga- tion is part of the intellectual formation and career of virtually every academic educated in France, including every philosopher teaching in a university and the majority of philosophers teaching the classe de philosophie in French lycées—French philosophers themselves seem relatively unaware and uninterested in the history of the agrégation and the effects that this history has had on philosophical practices in France. What I hope to do in the following pages is explain how the agréga- tion de philosophie works, and suggest that its impact on the education of French philosophy students and the teaching corps in both the university and lycée helps explain a number of developments in French philosophy over the past century. I will also explain why the French philosophical tradition differs from its American counterpart in some very significant ways. -
Marx and Freud in Latin America
Critique of Planned Obsolescence: Marx and Freud in Latin America bruno bosteels cornell university oday, the least that we can say about Marxism is that, if it were not for the Tuse of attenuating prefixes such as ‘‘post’’ or ‘‘neo,’’ its mere mention has become an unmistakable sign of obsolescence. Thus, while in second-hand book- stores from Mexico City to Tierra del Fuego, the old manuals of historical and dialectical materialism from the Soviet Academy of Sciences keep piling up, almost nobody really seems to be referring to Marxism anymore as a vital doc- trine of political or historical intervention. Rather, Marx and Marxism in the eyes of the not-so-silent majority have become things from the past. In the best scenarios, they simply constitute an object for nostalgic or academic commemo- rations; in the worst, they occupy the bench of the accused in the world-historical tribunal for the trial of crimes against humanity. A´ lvaro Garcı´a Linera, the current Vice-President of Bolivia under Evo Morales, in an important text from 1996, written from prison where he was being held under maximum security rule on charges of subversive and terrorist activity, a text titled ‘‘Tres retos al marxismo para encarar el nuevo milenio’’ (‘‘Three Chal- lenges for Marxism to Face the New Millenium’’) and included in the collective volume Las armas de la utopı´a. Marxismo: Provocaciones here´ticas (The Arms of Utopia. Marxism: Heretical Provocations), describes the situation as follows: Yesterday’s rebels who captivated the poor peasants with the fury of their subversive language, today find themselves at the helm of daz- zling private companies and NGOs that continue to ride the martyred backs of the same peasants previously summoned. -
Sartre, Freud, and Lacan
Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Dissertations (2009 -) Projects The Fantastic Structure of Freedom: Sartre, Freud, and Lacan Gregory A. Trotter Marquette University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Trotter, Gregory A., "The Fantastic Structure of Freedom: Sartre, Freud, and Lacan" (2019). Dissertations (2009 -). 892. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/892 THE FANTASTIC STRUCTURE OF FREEDOM: SARTRE, FREUD, AND LACAN by Gregory A. Trotter B.A., M.A. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin December 2019 Abstract THE FANTASTIC STRUCTURE OF FREEDOM: SARTRE, FREUD, AND LACAN Gregory A. Trotter B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2019 This dissertation reassesses the complex philosophical relationship between Sartre and psychoanalysis. Most scholarship on this topic focuses on Sartre’s criticisms of the unconscious as anathema both to his conception of the human psyche as devoid of any hidden depths or mental compartments and, correlatively, his account of human freedom. Many philosophers conclude that there is little common ground between Sartrean existentialism and psychoanalytic theory. I argue, on the contrary, that by shifting the emphasis from concerns about the nature of the unconscious to questions about the role of imagination in psychical life, we can see that Sartre and Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalytic theory develop strikingly similar accounts of human subjectivity. After establishing the historical background of Sartre’s career-long engagement with psychoanalysis, I demonstrate the proximity of Sartre and Lacan on the nature of unconscious thought. -
Juno Moneta: on the Erotics of the Marketplace Jeanne Lorraine Schroeder
Washington and Lee Law Review Volume 54 | Issue 3 Article 5 Summer 6-1-1997 Juno Moneta: On the Erotics of the Marketplace Jeanne Lorraine Schroeder Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr Part of the Law and Gender Commons, and the Law and Society Commons Recommended Citation Jeanne Lorraine Schroeder, Juno Moneta: On the Erotics of the Marketplace, 54 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 995 (1997), https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol54/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington and Lee Law Review at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington and Lee Law Review by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Juno Moneta: On the Erotics of the Marketplace Jeanne Lorraine Schroeder* Table of Contents I. Introduction ................................ 996 II. Hegelian Property and Lacanian Sexuality ........... 1001 A . Hegel ................................ 1001 B. From Hegel to Lacan ...................... 1007 C. Lacan ................................ 1008 1. Sexuality as the Response to Loss ........... 1008 2. The Three Orders of Subjectivity ............ 1010 D. Sexuality as the Response to Castration .......... 1011 1. The Masculine ........................ 1012 2. Hegelian Versus Lacanian Contract .......... 1012 3. The Feminine ........................ 1015 E. Sexuality and Anatomy ..................... 1016 F. The Necessary Repression of the Feminine by the Masculine and the Law ..................... 1020 m. Applications in Law and Jurisprudence ............. 1022 A. The Masculine and Feminine Phallic Metaphors For Property .............................. 1022 B. Thanatos of the Perfect Market ............... 1025 1. Eros and Thanatos ..................... -
(An)Other Gender : a Cross-Cultural Analysis of War-Torn France and Great Britain in Which Simone De Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf Redefine "Woman"
University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2011 (An)other gender : a cross-cultural analysis of war-torn France and Great Britain in which Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf redefine "woman". Anna Stamp 1979- University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Stamp, Anna 1979-, "(An)other gender : a cross-cultural analysis of war-torn France and Great Britain in which Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf redefine "woman"." (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1371. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1371 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. (AN)OTHER GENDER: A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF WAR-TORN FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN IN WHICH SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR AND VIRGINIA WOOLF REDEFINE "WOMAN" By Anna Stamp B.A., University of Louisville, 2001 M.A., University of Louisville, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty ofthe College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Humanities University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky August 2011 (An)Other Gender: A Cross-Cultural analysis of war-torn France and Great Britain in which Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf redefine “Woman” By Anna Stamp B.A., University of Louisville, 2001 M.A., University of Louisville, 2003 A Dissertation Approved on July 25, 2011 by the following Dissertation Committee: Dissertation Director (Suzette Henke) Annette Allen Osborne P. -
William S. Lewis
WILLIAM S. LEWIS Position: Professor, Department of Philosophy, Skidmore College, Address: 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA Phone: (518) 580 5402 email: [email protected] AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION • Contemporary Anglophone Political Philosophy • American Pragmatism • French Marxism AREAS OF COMPETENCE • Ethics • Philosophy of the Social Sciences • Philosophy of Race & Gender • Environmental Philosophy ACADEMIC POSITIONS • Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY o Professor, Department of Philosophy, 2017-present o Professor & Chair, Department of Philosophy, 2016-17 o Professor & Chair, Department of Philosophy & Religion, 2014-2016 o Director of Fall Paris Program, 2013-2014 o Associate Professor & Chair, Department of Philosophy & Religion, 2008-2013 & 2014-2015 o Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, 2002-2008 o Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, 2001-2002 • Georgetown University, Washington, DC, o Adjunct Professor and Visiting Researcher, Department of Philosophy, 2000- 2001 • The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA o Fellow, Lecturer, and Research Assistant, 1995-2001 EDUCATION • Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy, The Pennsylvania State University, 2001 • Auditeur, University of Paris-XII, Val-de-Marne, 1995 • Bachelor of Arts, Skidmore College, 1994, cum laude, honors in philosophy. Major: Philosophy; Minor: Government • Undergraduate, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1992-1993 CV: William S. Lewis PUBLICATIONS • “A New ‘International of Decent Feelings’? Cosmopolitanism and the Erasure of Class.” in Cosmopolitanism and Place. Wahman, Medina, and Stuhr editors. Indiana University Press. August 2017: 264-79. • “Althusser’s Science and Aleatory Materialism.”Décalages. Vol.2, No.1 (2016). • “Is There Less Bullshit in For Marx than in Reading Capital?” Crisis and Critique Vol. 2, No, 2 (November 2015).