| This dissertation examines the evolution of the Marxist concept of ideology within the field of cultural studies, Marx's critique of ideology, and the interplay between the two. Through a comparative reading of British cultural studies' influential texts on ideology and Marx's The German Ideology, it explores and addresses the theory of ideology, the social construction of subjectivity, the Marxist politics of ideology, and the political and intellectual activism of cultural studies.;Three arguments are advanced in this work. First, I argue that British cultural studies' paradigm of ideology as the social practices of signification and articulation does not correspond to Marx's conceptualization of ideology. Examining the discursive development of the concept of ideology within British cultural studies, I find that cultural studies' theorization of ideology is a revision of the legacy of Lenin and Gramsci. By highlighting the connection between the Leninist-Gramsician discourse on the politics of ideology and British cultural studies' conceptualization of the organic intellectual, I problematize the political practice of organic intellectual and ideology in the field of cultural studies.;Second, I argue that Marx uses ideology to refer to the epistemological framework of German idealist philosophy, which approaches social reality through abstract and universal concepts that uphold the virtues of Enlightenment Man. The discourse of Man impacts reality by providing theoretical accounts that enable the practice of assimilating, discriminating, and annihilating difference. In a Marxist sense, the politics of ideology entails the production of intellectual works and political actions that interrogate, challenge, and deconstruct the discursive practices grounding the universal validity of Enlightenment Man.;Third, I argue that French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser's theorization of ideology through psychoanalysis radicalizes the politics of ideology in a positive way. In particular, through a close reading of Althusser's works on ideology, I argue that he complicates Marx's critique of ideology as the discourse of Man and challenges the construction of individuals' self-identity. Finally, I argue that Althusser's interpretation of Marx illuminates the politics of a Marxist cultural studies scholar, and in particular the politics of alterity. I argue that, when contexualized within Althusser's interpretation of Marx, such a politics offers new ways of analyzing the universalizing tendency within the power relations of modern global capitalism, post-colonialism, and heteronormativity, as well as suggesting political actions that may change them. |
