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Mapping Ideology
Not so long ago, the term “ideology” was in considerable disrepute. Its use had become associated with a claim to know a truth beyond ideology, a radically unfashionable position. What then explains the sudden revival of interest in grappling with the questions that “ideology” poses to social and cultural theory, as well as to political practice?
Mapping Ideology presents a comprehensive sampling of the most important contemporary writing on the subject. Slavoj Žižek’s introductory essay surveys the development of the concept from Marx to the present. Terry Eagleton, Peter Dews and Seyla Benhabib assess the decisive contributions of Lukács and the Frankfurt School. A different tradition is revealed in an essay by the French post-structuralist Michel Pêcheux, while the study of ideology is exemplified in classic texts by Theodor Adorno, Jacques Lacan and Louis Althusser. An intersection of Gramscian and Althusserian motifs appears in a now famous debate over “the dominant ideology thesis,” reprinted here. Pierre Bourdieu succinctly formulates his departure from this tradition in an interview with Eagleton. Further readings of the ideological are explored by Richard Rorty and Michèle Barrett. Finally Fredric Jameson supplies an authoritative statement of the nature and position of the ideological in late capitalist society. Mapping Ideology is an invaluable guide to what is now the most dynamic field of cultural theory.
Mapping Ideology presents a comprehensive sampling of the most important contemporary writing on the subject. Slavoj Žižek’s introductory essay surveys the development of the concept from Marx to the present. Terry Eagleton, Peter Dews and Seyla Benhabib assess the decisive contributions of Lukács and the Frankfurt School. A different tradition is revealed in an essay by the French post-structuralist Michel Pêcheux, while the study of ideology is exemplified in classic texts by Theodor Adorno, Jacques Lacan and Louis Althusser. An intersection of Gramscian and Althusserian motifs appears in a now famous debate over “the dominant ideology thesis,” reprinted here. Pierre Bourdieu succinctly formulates his departure from this tradition in an interview with Eagleton. Further readings of the ideological are explored by Richard Rorty and Michèle Barrett. Finally Fredric Jameson supplies an authoritative statement of the nature and position of the ideological in late capitalist society. Mapping Ideology is an invaluable guide to what is now the most dynamic field of cultural theory.
348 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
70 people are currently reading
1310 people want to read
About the author
Slavoj Žižek
653 books7,625 followersSlavoj Žižek is a Slovene sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic.
He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia). He received a Doctor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and studied psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII with Jacques-Alain Miller and François Regnault. In 1990 he was a candidate with the party Liberal Democracy of Slovenia for Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia (an auxiliary institution, abolished in 1992).
Since 2005, Žižek has been a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Žižek is well known for his use of the works of 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in a new reading of popular culture. He writes on many topics including the Iraq War, fundamentalism, capitalism, tolerance, political correctness, globalization, subjectivity, human rights, Lenin, myth, cyberspace, postmodernism, multiculturalism, post-marxism, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País he jokingly described himself as an "orthodox Lacanian Stalinist". In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he described himself as a "Marxist" and a "Communist."
He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia). He received a Doctor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and studied psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII with Jacques-Alain Miller and François Regnault. In 1990 he was a candidate with the party Liberal Democracy of Slovenia for Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia (an auxiliary institution, abolished in 1992).
Since 2005, Žižek has been a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Žižek is well known for his use of the works of 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in a new reading of popular culture. He writes on many topics including the Iraq War, fundamentalism, capitalism, tolerance, political correctness, globalization, subjectivity, human rights, Lenin, myth, cyberspace, postmodernism, multiculturalism, post-marxism, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País he jokingly described himself as an "orthodox Lacanian Stalinist". In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he described himself as a "Marxist" and a "Communist."
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 25, 2019
Only Zizek could have compiled such a comprehensive hodgepodge of these dusty ass, perennially bickering Europeans without bogging the whole thing down (given their ubiquitous tendency to be as pedantic and rhetorically dense as possible).
Most of the compilation is great: the selected Adorno, Althusser, Rorty, Lacan, and Jameson especially deserve praise.
The French asshole Pêcheux was incomprehensible and unbearable.
The last “essay” with which Zizek concludes the collection is just a subchapter extracted from his earliest book, “The Sublime Object of Ideology”.
Decontextualized from its original setting (and the long-winded Lacanian primer that it came with), it’s still kinda hard to read as a non-psychoanalyst.
Either skip the last essay in this one, or read the whole of “Sublime Object,” or else you’ll get bookended with more questions to be explicated than answers.
Most of the compilation is great: the selected Adorno, Althusser, Rorty, Lacan, and Jameson especially deserve praise.
The French asshole Pêcheux was incomprehensible and unbearable.
The last “essay” with which Zizek concludes the collection is just a subchapter extracted from his earliest book, “The Sublime Object of Ideology”.
Decontextualized from its original setting (and the long-winded Lacanian primer that it came with), it’s still kinda hard to read as a non-psychoanalyst.
Either skip the last essay in this one, or read the whole of “Sublime Object,” or else you’ll get bookended with more questions to be explicated than answers.
March 16, 2018
March 15
25. Slavoj Žižek, ed., Mapping Ideology [2012] 353 pages [Kindle]
An anthology of writings on the theory of ideology, this book was one of the required readings for one of my friend's courses, although they only read the selection by Althusser, which is probably the one selection that would be understandable without quite a bit of background. The book consists of a rather obscure introduction by the editor -- who seems to always write obscurely, perhaps by choice -- and fourteen selections by various writers, some of which are classic texts by authors such as Theodor Adorno, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, etc. while others are highly polemical and assume a knowledge of the writers they are polemicizing against. This is definitely a book for specialists and not general readers; although I have a degree in Philosophy and a strong interest in Marxist theory, much of this polemic concerned writers I have not read and some I had never heard of. The introduction alone alluded without explanation to more than twenty authors, of whom I had read five and heard of about half.
The three selections I found the most useful were "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" by Althusser; "Ideology and its Vicissitudes in Western Marxism", an excerpt from Terry Eagleton's book Ideology, which traces the history of the concept and which I would suggest reading first, in place of the opaque introduction by Žižek; and "Postmodernism and the Market", an excerpt from Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. By the end of the book, and particularly after reading the selection by Eagleton, I had some idea who most of the writers the book was dealing with were, and some of the disputes were interesting, while others were less so.
Mainly what I came away with was a somewhat different priority for my future readings in the subject -- I now have more interest in reading more of Lukacs, Gramsci, and Jameson, and far less in reading more of Adorno and the Frankfurt School; I won't say anything of Lacan, Derrida and the postmodernists because I only read that tradition out of obligation to know something about them and not out of any sympathy for that school of thought.
25. Slavoj Žižek, ed., Mapping Ideology [2012] 353 pages [Kindle]
An anthology of writings on the theory of ideology, this book was one of the required readings for one of my friend's courses, although they only read the selection by Althusser, which is probably the one selection that would be understandable without quite a bit of background. The book consists of a rather obscure introduction by the editor -- who seems to always write obscurely, perhaps by choice -- and fourteen selections by various writers, some of which are classic texts by authors such as Theodor Adorno, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, etc. while others are highly polemical and assume a knowledge of the writers they are polemicizing against. This is definitely a book for specialists and not general readers; although I have a degree in Philosophy and a strong interest in Marxist theory, much of this polemic concerned writers I have not read and some I had never heard of. The introduction alone alluded without explanation to more than twenty authors, of whom I had read five and heard of about half.
The three selections I found the most useful were "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" by Althusser; "Ideology and its Vicissitudes in Western Marxism", an excerpt from Terry Eagleton's book Ideology, which traces the history of the concept and which I would suggest reading first, in place of the opaque introduction by Žižek; and "Postmodernism and the Market", an excerpt from Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. By the end of the book, and particularly after reading the selection by Eagleton, I had some idea who most of the writers the book was dealing with were, and some of the disputes were interesting, while others were less so.
Mainly what I came away with was a somewhat different priority for my future readings in the subject -- I now have more interest in reading more of Lukacs, Gramsci, and Jameson, and far less in reading more of Adorno and the Frankfurt School; I won't say anything of Lacan, Derrida and the postmodernists because I only read that tradition out of obligation to know something about them and not out of any sympathy for that school of thought.
December 9, 2019
Lo que he leído de este libro:
·La introducción de Zizek hace un buen trabajo de recopilación del desarrollo del concepto de ideología. Utiliza sus armas de siempre: paradojas locas.
·Althusser: la teoría de los Aparatos Ideológicos Estatales parece sumar a la teoría marxista que no había desarrollado del todo bien el concepto de ideología. La versión marxista de las instituciones de disciplina de Foucault.
·Rorty: breve reflexión sobre las categorías discursivas y la pérdida de voluntad política en la descripción. En relación al feminismo.
·Barrett: interesantísima reflexión sobre la importancia de Gramsci en la izquierda contemporánea y en el desarrollo de ideas como hegemonía poniendo en valor los sistemas culturales. La parte de Laclau y Mouffe es difícil de seguir para alguien con poco leído de estos autores.
·La introducción de Zizek hace un buen trabajo de recopilación del desarrollo del concepto de ideología. Utiliza sus armas de siempre: paradojas locas.
·Althusser: la teoría de los Aparatos Ideológicos Estatales parece sumar a la teoría marxista que no había desarrollado del todo bien el concepto de ideología. La versión marxista de las instituciones de disciplina de Foucault.
·Rorty: breve reflexión sobre las categorías discursivas y la pérdida de voluntad política en la descripción. En relación al feminismo.
·Barrett: interesantísima reflexión sobre la importancia de Gramsci en la izquierda contemporánea y en el desarrollo de ideas como hegemonía poniendo en valor los sistemas culturales. La parte de Laclau y Mouffe es difícil de seguir para alguien con poco leído de estos autores.
June 3, 2024
Biraz conspiracy teorisyeni gibi bi dili var ama kafamıza yattı.
Asıl önemli olan 76.sayfadaki paragrafın atatürkü koruma kanunu sebebiyle sansürlenmiş olması 👍👍👍
Asıl önemli olan 76.sayfadaki paragrafın atatürkü koruma kanunu sebebiyle sansürlenmiş olması 👍👍👍
July 11, 2017
No se puede ver este libro como un todo, puesto que está compuesto de muchos artículos y capítulos de libros de distintos autores. Aunque Zizek los seleccionó y ordenó de una forma en que vayan "dialogando".
Mis favoritos son los del propio Zizek, Althusser y Eagleton. También interesantes los relativos a la Escuela de Francfort. No creo que sea eso si una muy buena forma de introducirse a la ideología, la mayoría de los textos son complejos, y están inmersos dentro de discusiones filosóficas de larga data, que si no se tiene un mínimo conocimiento de ellas, se puede mal interpretar o entender a medias todo.
Mis favoritos son los del propio Zizek, Althusser y Eagleton. También interesantes los relativos a la Escuela de Francfort. No creo que sea eso si una muy buena forma de introducirse a la ideología, la mayoría de los textos son complejos, y están inmersos dentro de discusiones filosóficas de larga data, que si no se tiene un mínimo conocimiento de ellas, se puede mal interpretar o entender a medias todo.
June 29, 2014
Great selection, many are classics of what I suppose is meant by the designation "Western Marxism." Lucacs, Althusser, Jameson, Eagleton, Bourdieu.. more. Problem: Zizek introduction does not serve the reader very well, except as an ok encounter with his writing. Does not set up the essays, how they relate, reception,etc..
Publisher Verso did not add any help here either. Very minor attention to where they first appeared, where they stand in relation to the rest of authors work.
Publisher Verso did not add any help here either. Very minor attention to where they first appeared, where they stand in relation to the rest of authors work.
December 21, 2012
A good step up for those who want to think beyond the paradigm.
April 12, 2018
It's a good book, comprising essays / articles of different authors on the topic of ideology.
I really enjoyed the approach in the essays, avoiding total relativism in the form of 'everything is ideology, what to do' and resignation because of it on one hand, and steering clear from a certain naïveté in the form of 'let's do good and true things and not bad ideology' on the other. The ideas are fresh and nuanced -
but, as other reviewers have already mentioned, there's a notable lack of some kind of introduction to the essays (together or separately). When were they written? In response to what text? How do they connect to each other and how do they fit into their authors' broader worldview?
You either have to know this information, or gather it up piece by piece as you go along, which is also a fair option, but I feel this book would profit from providing at least small amount of background to the reader.
I really enjoyed the approach in the essays, avoiding total relativism in the form of 'everything is ideology, what to do' and resignation because of it on one hand, and steering clear from a certain naïveté in the form of 'let's do good and true things and not bad ideology' on the other. The ideas are fresh and nuanced -
but, as other reviewers have already mentioned, there's a notable lack of some kind of introduction to the essays (together or separately). When were they written? In response to what text? How do they connect to each other and how do they fit into their authors' broader worldview?
You either have to know this information, or gather it up piece by piece as you go along, which is also a fair option, but I feel this book would profit from providing at least small amount of background to the reader.
November 27, 2016
Mapping Ideologies explores the development of the concept of ideology through a series of essays written by or about the most important western Marxist philosophers of the twentieth century. The essays address three main tenets of Western Marxist treatment of ideology. The concept as a material condition of advanced industrial capitalism in the works of Lukacs, Adorno, Althusser and Gramsci; ideology as a Lacanian linguistic structure; ideology and feminist theory relative to Marxism. The essays are written by some of the great theorists of the second half of the twentieth century including Eagleton, Rorty, Jameson and Benhabib as well as original source material by Adorno, Lacan and Althusser. This is well worth the read.
May 19, 2021
Excelente livro, Zizek é um autor que se utiliza ostensivamente de Lacan para suas teorias sociais, e esse livro não é diferente. A ideologia é subjacente na cultura atual. E é desejada pelas pessoas, essa subversão da verdade.
May 25, 2022
To be honest I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. The topics discussed throughout the essays can barely be contained by the title (though that may just be an effect of the subject matter). I think the starting point of the work are three essays, one each from Theodor W. Adorno, Louis Althusser, and Jacques Lacan. These three essays were all written about 20+ years before the others, which all involved at least one of the three writers from the previous generation. By fleshing out what their quite divergent theories have to say about ideology, including those who are in favor of dropping the notion altogether, what is produced is a very good map of the territory.
July 8, 2023
"'The market is in human nature' is the proposition that cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged; in my opinion, it is the most crucial terrain of ideological struggle in our time. If you let it pass because it seems an inconsequential admission or, worse yet, because you've really come to believe in it yourself, in your 'heart of hearts,' then socialism and Marxism alike will have effectively become delegitimated, at least for a time."
January 17, 2021
Not much use for people not familiar with the ins and outs of critical theory (me) but there was a few semi-readable chapters and a decent text by Althusser.
May 3, 2021
literalmente te da un repaso por el marxismo desde marx y de vuelta a marx. nice
April 9, 2007
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