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The constitution of the subject and the resurrection of the object : a materialist critique of Althusserian and post-Althusserian theories of ideologyWatson, Ian, n/a January 1982 (has links)
This thesis has examined several of the most recent
advances in the theory of ideology. These have developed
in the wake of the seminal work of the French Marxist
philosopher, Louis Althusser. They have attempted to continue
the insights found in Althusser's attack on empiricist
epistemoloqy and in his theory of the formation of human
subjectivity.
The central argument of this thesis is that the theory
of ideology, in terms of the "constitution of the subject",
is a valuable breakthrough which allows the concept of
ideology to be extended beyond its traditional (class)
parameters. However, the anti-empiricist epistemology which
has removed the object (ie. the material referent) from the
theory of ideology, has been a regressive step since it has
rendered the whole enterprise idealist. The standpoint of:
this thesis is a materialist one which forcefully maintains
that the real world is directly implicated in the knowledge
produced by social practices. Therefore, the theory of
ideology must include a concept of representations of that
real world if it is to be fully materialist.
This thesis does not explicitly present a materialist
theory of ideology. Instead, it examines the theoretical
principles of these recent advances and shows how they
ultimately degenerate into idealism at crucial points. The
thesis then employs some of my empirical interview material
and proceeds to show that the concrete application of these
theoretical principles also leads to idealist research
practices. The thesis concludes by suggesting that there
is, nevertheless, something of value in these recent
advances which a materialist research practice can incorporate.
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Ideology and Narrative Realism : a Critique of Post-Althusserian Anti-RealismPrenzler, Timothy James, n/a January 1991 (has links)
This thesis defends the potential of the realist form of narrative for contesting, as well as reproducing, ideology. The common form of realism consists of a loose ensemble of conventions. The key components are omniscient, evaluative narration; an empiricist objectivism; the construction of individuals as agents of action and bearers of natural attributes; cause and effect sequencing; conflict leading to resolution; mystery leading to disclosure; and the effacement of these techniques in the interests of illusion. In one critique of realism post-Althusserian anti-realism - these practices constitute ideology both in a general sense - as manipulation - and a specific sense - as transmitters of capitalist presuppositions. A 'social realism' or critical realism, which attempts to invalidate ideology by the presentation of countervailing data, is said to be undercut by its encoding within this alleged inherently ideological form. This critique of realism is based on an unsustainable, formalist, reduction of content to form. The role of observation in knowledge production and the significance of inductively generated propositions are replaced by a sophisticated, but ultimately reductive, discursive determinism. From its conventionalist epistemological premises, post-Althusserian anti-realism ignores the capacity of empiricism to break with preconceptions. By dismissing the convention of accountability to evidence, the critique is forced back onto criteria of internal consistency - a position even more vulnerable to prejudice than empiricism. The thesis then argues that the concomitant view of the subject of narrative realism as a construct of liberal-individualism ignores how realist texts have questioned ideas of autonomy and a fixed human nature. Anti-realist methods have usefully exposed some of the means by which constructions of freedom and self-determination mask the subordination of labour in free -market economies. However, this frequently entails undervaluing gains made under a rubric of human rights. The replacement of human subjectivity with discursive or economic determinism tends to expel dialogue, volition and human needs as factors in the ideational and practical repudiation of ideology. A narrow approach to realism is therefore inadequate for determining the relation of realism to ideology. The alternative position defended here is that realisms relation to capitalism - like that of liberalism and empiricism - is tangential, not homologous. The variability of content in realism makes realist techniques - as abstract form - politically neutral (but claimed by anti-realists to be intrinsically authoritarian). Realist conventions which construct a point of view are open options for making judgements that will vary in empirical rigour and opposition to different ideologies. The thesis sets the authoritarian aspects of realisms attempted manipulation of the reader against the potential in realism for a dialogic plurality of perspectives, the possible defensibility of a point of view, the need for coherence and judgement in political dialogue and action, and the frequency of content-based reader resistance. The realist form is not an absolute of representation, but nor is it a mere reflex of capitalism. By the same token, the anti-realist concept of the anti-ideological function of anti-realist texts imposes a reverse, homogeneous, inherently oppositional role onto politically heterogenous cultural forms. The thesis argues, furthermore, that by rejecting empiricist modes of substantiation and adopting a mechanistic view of ideology, the post-Althusserian critique of realism fails to engage adequately with the theoretical defence of capitalism. The harmony thesis of free enterprise can only be given a pejorative label ideology on the basis of comparative and historical considerations of the performance of capitalism. In practice, the natural tendency of the market to cyclical instability with attendant unemployment, impoverishment and the compounding of class-based inequalities has only been mitigated by extensive government intervention. The thesis concludes then with a case study of Dickenss Hard Times as an example of the above, more effective, approach to capitalist legitimation. Hard Times employs empiricist, semi-fictional, realist techniques to demonstrate the ideological nature of theories of free enterprise. The critical edge of this novel is blunted by a liberal-romanticism that is ambivalent about legal-institutional solutions to social problems. Despite this fault, Hard Times shows some of the possibilities offered by the realist form for viable social critique.
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