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Ideology, Marxism & the State

 Hi Everyone,


Here are my questions for the week:

1. What are the particular interventions Hall makes with Marxist thought? I’m wondering what Hall finds useful and what Hall identifies as not useful in Marx’s work. In short, what is Hall’s intervention? What is Hall referring to when he says “Marxism without final guarantees” and what is that relationship to do with the concept of determinacy/determinate? (44) What role does Gramsci play in this intervention? I guess I am trying to understand how Hall understands Marx as useful to a cultural studies project.

2. Althusser’s reading unpacks the structure and function of ideology. In it he states, “I shall say rather that every State Apparatus, whether Repressive or Ideological, ‘functions’ both by violence and by ideology.” (154) How does the work of Althusser connect with Hall? What is the relationship between the State, ideology, and cultural studies? Do questions of ideology necessitate us to begin with questions concerning the State? What does this approach afford us? Are there limits to this approach?

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