Althusser’s structural approach to Marxism was one of the most disputed discussions for the New Left thinkers of the 1960s. However, the universal reception of Althusser’s theory of ideology and subjectivity has led to the marginalization of major Althusserian concepts. Althusser’s attempt to remove all Hegelian traces from Marx ultimately resulted in a limitation for his theory of subjectivity. This webinar examines those critical standpoints that have attempted to develop the Althusserian theories of interpellation and subjectivity. An attempt is thus made to employ the psychoanalytical and Hegelian notions in reading the Althusserian concepts of interpellation and the subject/Subject model. Whereas Žižek provides a twofold response to Althusser, Judith Butler’s reference to interpellation as happening within the subject’s identity proves to be Hegelian in manner. The Althussrian subject/Subject model could be positioned in a Hegelian context in which the lacks both in subjectivity and between the subject and Subject are further explored.
