From: David Galbraith <galbrait-AT-epas.utoronto.ca> Subject: Re: Althusser Date: Sat, 13 Aug 1994 11:20:29 -0400 (EDT) It is nice to see Althusser discussed seriously. It's a body of work which seemed remarkably resistant to the techniques of reading and appropriation which have been performed on so many of his contemporaries. To try to look for a single concept which is "most significant" seems to me a bit misplaced. Gene Holland is certainly right in questioning the concept of the break in Marx's work; it's rather more relevant, though, to Althusser's. His work is susceptible to periodization. In addition, different texts (and concepts) had very different receptions and afterlives. The ideology/science opposition is associated with the early texts; the interpellation thesis with the manuscript which ended up as the "isa" paper. This (and the Freud/Lacan article--if only for its metaphor of the continents, and its attempt to align his own and Lacan's concepts of the imaginary) had the greatest impact on cultural studies. The earlier work enters literary studies for the most part only in a very mediated way, through Macherey's early sixties essays. I understand that Althusser's writing on psychoanalysis (including his correspondence with Lacan) has been published in France. Does anyone have the reference for this? -- ***************************************************************************** David Galbraith (416) 585-4406 Dept. of English galbrait-AT-epas.utoronto.ca Victoria College University of Toronto 73 Queen's Park Cres. Toronto, M5S 1K7, Ontario, Canada ***************************************************************************** ------------------
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