Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
Home> Volumes> Volume CHR Vol.116> Article
Research Article

Ideology, Subject and Reproduction——A Study of Althusser's Ideological Theory

Yuxuan LuMinzu University of China*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Althusser's ideological theory occupies an important position in the critical theory of ideology. Facing the reality that the mode of modern capitalist domination has shifted from external coercion to subject identification, he takes "ideology has no history" and "ideology is material" as theoretical foundations, defines ideology as the structural condition of the existence of subjects, and reveals the generation mechanism of subjects through the theory of "interpellation" to explain the reproduction of capitalist relations of production. This theory deepens the Marxist understanding of the subject issue and state theory, and provides a new perspective for analyzing the mechanism of modern capitalist domination. However, while emphasizing the structural power of ideology, his structuralist stance weakens the historical generation process of ideology, compresses the practical agency of subjects, and deviates to a certain extent from the fundamental logic of social development in historical materialism. Therefore, the investigation of ideology still needs to return to Marx's view of practice and the perspective of historical materialism, and understand the formation of subjects and the possibility of their transcendence of capitalist social relations in the movement of social contradictions and real practice.

Keywords: subject; ideology; reproduction; historical materialism
Published: July 6, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.35081
Volume: CHR Vol.116
pp. 77-83
Download PDF

References

  1. Michael Burawoy. Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under Monopoly Capitalism [M]. Trans. Li Rongrong. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2008.
  2. Marx, Engels. The German Ideology (Selected Edition) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2003.
  3. Louis Althusser. Philosophy and Politics (Volume Ⅱ) [M]. Trans. Chen Yue. Changchun: Jilin People's Publishing House, 2011.
  4. Luke Ferret. Louis Althusser [M]. Trans. Tian Yan. Chongqing: Chongqing Publishing House, 2014.
  5. Zhang Guoqi. A Micro-power Interpretation of Althusser's Ideological Theory [J]. Marxism & Reality, 2013, (2): 138-143.
  6. Slavoj Žižek, et al. Mapping Ideology [M]. Trans. Fang Jie. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2002.
  7. Perry Anderson. Considerations on Western Marxism [M]. Trans. Gao Xian, et al. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1981.
  8. Wang Yuchen, Yang Xiaofei. On Althusser's Political Philosophy and Its Contemporary Value [J]. Journal of Ningbo University (Liberal Arts Edition), 2026, 39(3): 2-11.
  9. Tang Zhengdong. The Dual Dimensions of Marx's Ideological Theory: Political and Historical [J]. Philosophical Research, 2015, (8): 3-9+128.
  10. Zhao Chuanzhen, Liu Tongfang. British Cultural Marxism: The Debate between Humanism and Structuralism [J]. Philosophical Trends, 2011, (9): 30-36.
  11. Dai Zhiyun. An Analysis of Althusser's Ideological Theory [J]. Marxist Philosophical Research, 2019, (2): 226-232.
  12. Collected Works of Marx and Engels (Volume 44) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2001.