Abstract
Althusser's achievement is that he redefined Marxism. He reconceptualizes history and totality in terms of different times, construes knowledge as the outcome of a process of construction, and interprets subjectivity as an effect of ideology and unconscious processes. Unfortunately, Althusser's functionalist view of ideology claims that the subject recognizes itself as a subject because it duplicates— reflects—an absolute subject. However, Lacan's notion of the mirror stage remedies this fault. Lacan's subject always misrecognizes itself in a process of contradiction that threatens the stability of any given social order. Moreover, unlike Foucault's subject, which is limited in that subjectivity is folded back into a vaguely expanded notion of "power," this revised Althusserian subject allows careful reading of texts. The critic does not simply read against the grain; he or she exposes the multiple points of identification offered the reader. For example, Wordsworth's "The Solitary Reaper" installs the reader in multiple positions: a devotee of high culture and the national canon, a lover of the verbal signifier and its play, a consumer of confessional discourse, and a masculine "I" desiring a laboring, singing woman.
Keywords:
- Keyword: Althusser
- Keyword: marxism
- Keyword: redefined marxism
- Keyword: history
- Keyword: totality
- Keyword: construction
- Keyword: knowledge
- Keyword: time
- Keyword: subjectivity
- Keyword: ideology
- Keyword: unconscious
- Keyword: subject
- Keyword: subject recognizes itself
- Keyword: duplicates
- Keyword: reflect
- Keyword: reflects
- Keyword: absolute subject
- Keyword: mirror stage
- Keyword: Lacan
- Keyword: misrecognizes
- Keyword: itself
- Keyword: self
- Keyword: contradiction
- Keyword: social order
- Keyword: stability
- Keyword: power
- Keyword: Althusserian subject
- Keyword: careful reading
- Keyword: identification
- Keyword: Wordsworth
- Keyword: The Solitary Reaper
- Keyword: high culture
- Keyword: national canon
- Keyword: verbal signifier
- Keyword: masculine I
- Keyword: woman
- Keyword: confessional discourse
How to Cite:
Easthope, A., (1994) “Text and Subject Position after Althusser”, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 18(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1341
Downloads
Download PDF