Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses

Louis Althusser’s renowned short text ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’ radically transformed the concept of the subject, the understanding of the state and even the very frameworks of cultural, political and literary theory. The text has influenced thinkers such as Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek.
The piece is, in fact, an extract from a much longer book, On the Reproduction of Capitalism, until now unavailable in English. Its publication makes possible a reappraisal of seminal Althusserian texts already available in English, their place in Althusser’s oeuvre and the relevance of his ideas for contemporary theory. On the Reproduction of Capitalism develops Althusser’s conception of historical materialism, outlining the conditions of reproduction in capitalist society and the revolutionary struggle for its overthrow.
Written in the afterglow of May 1968, the text addresses a question that continues to haunt us today: in a society that proclaims its attachment to the ideals of liberty and equality, why do we witness the ever-renewed reproduction of relations of domination? Both a conceptually innovative text and a key theoretical tool for activists, On the Reproduction of Capitalism is an essential addition to the corpus of the twentieth-century Left.
"acques Bidet and the Presses Universitaires de France have invited me to contribute an additional introduction to the second edition efAlthusser's posthumously published book Sur la reproduction, which theyfmt published in 199 5. Since then, there has been steady demandfor the book. I am touched and honoured by their invitation, and am very happy that they have accepted, by way ef a contribution to their enterprise, a text that is not absolutely new, because it was written some time ago and has already been published, albeit not in French. It is the preface that I wrote for Ariella Azou lay's Hebrew translation ef the chapter from Althusser's text entitled 'On Ideology'.1 I do not wish to modify it. TI1e reason is that I was already trying to formulate the questions that I myself have about the construction and implications ef an ensemble the most striking part c?f which is, like it or not, the discussion ef the 'Ideological State Apparatuses', even as I was doing my best to recall and reconstruct the circumstances ef the text's composition and partial publication; for it so happens that I was rather closely associated with both. I also welcome the opportunity to associate our readings ef Althusser with a colleague whose own work (which bears, in particular, on the 'rnode ef production' c?f the visual m1s) holds an important place in the field ef contemporary theory', and whosejightfor justice at the side ef the Palestinian people, oppressed by the state ef Israel, is in my view quite admirable. Tiwt certain ef Althusser's works, produced in a very dffferent context that is, by now, forty years behind us, should seem to people here and in other places across the ,r.;lobe to be an intellectual, moral and political resource is, I think, a lovely lesson c?f hist01y, truly."