A Study Of Althusser On The Relationship Between Art And Ideology

As a great Marxist philosopher of the twentieth century,Louis Althusser’s ideas are of great significance for the exploration and contribution of ideological theory,and the study of his theoretical legacy has never ceased in the current academic world.Most of the relevant texts left by Althusser express his views on literary and artistic issues through theatre criticism and painting criticism,which is a new critical practice and has also promoted the development of contemporary critical theory,and in order to further sort out Althusser’s thinking on literary and artistic issues and eventually move towards the purpose of materialist criticism,clarifying Althusser’s discussion on the relationship between literature and art and ideology becomes a necessary precondition.In the introductory part of this essay,the current state of research and research ideas are presented,outlining the state of Althusser’s literature and the general direction of research at home and abroad,including the specific state of publication in the French-speaking and English-speaking worlds,the research and sorting out of Althusser’s thought by scholars,the influence of Althusser’s thought,the translation and publication of Althusser’s works in China,and the main contents and characteristics of Althusser’s research at different aspects.The first chapter starts from the concept and characteristics of ideology,pointing out that ideology as a system of "representations" brings about fiction and illusion,and leads people into the misunderstanding that literature and art are subordinate to ideology.The identity of literature is discovered in the process of self-image confirmation from the individual to the subject,emphasising that literature is a process of constant interaction rather than a single dominant process of ideology,and that literature,in the process of self-confirmation by the subject,allows the subject to constantly question ideology,providing awareness of it and thus dismantling the static subordination between literature and ideology.The second chapter examines Althusser’s play reviews and his different views on the structure of theatre,emphasising the dynamic development of the relationship between literature and ideology.Starting with Althusser’s theatrical criticism of the playwrights Bertolassi and Brecht,he analyses the difference between the structural content and temporal rhythm of the play and the bourgeois melodrama,pointing out that theatrical practice is subject to changes in terms of the strangeness of language,the arrangement of props and the performance of actors,and that these changes are ultimately changes in the internal structure of the theatre,and that it is these changes that distance and bring about a dynamic development between literature and ideology.The third chapter builds on the previous work.The third chapter builds on the previous section and further explores the relationship between literature and ideology,noting that true literature is not ideological but performs a specific function.By comparing the presence or absence of consciousness distortion in the creative process of different writers,it is shown that great literary works are able to ’perceive’certain things,and further comparisons are made with the intervention of science,highlighting the specificity of literature and art.The fourth chapter deals with Althusser’s study of the relationship between literature and ideology with the ultimate aim of moving towards materialist criticism.From the perspective of the reproduction of literary art and the relations of production,Althusser stresses the indispensability of literature and art to the proletariat’s seizure of revolutionary positions,points out the difference between symptomatic reading and the ordinary way of reading and its importance,and emphasises that symptomatic reading is an indispensable means of moving towards materialist criticism.