Superstructure influence the base Ideology

Hegemony

Dialectical Theory: contradictions revealed within the lit

Lit and language itself as possessing seeds for altering base and superstructure relationship

Au contraire - How does the Superstructure change the base?○

Literature reveals "gaps" lacunae in ideology

Literary forms (Plato) themselves (not the content) are ideological and laden with meaning (The Novel - narrative structure)

Even mas contraire - remember literature has to be part of the superstructure ○

Evolving Marxism•

Was kind of a quiet nerd - anxiety about women - fell in love with a cougar

Develops crazy paranoia about her - jealous fights etc.

He accidentally strangles her trying to give her a massage oops

Althusser○

Layman's meaning - beliefs, values, linked to groups or agendas - NOT THIS IS IN THIS CLASS

Ideology - two meanings○

No hope

Makes sense of the world - LIKE BARTHES' MYTHOLOGY YOU WERE RIGHT HELL YEAH

"Common Sense" - We don't question it, we just do it

Naturalization of the way things are

"It has always been this way"

We are fundamentally blind to ideology □

It just is what it is□

Like the matrix□

We don't process the labor goes into things - we don't use labor to justify ownership□

Use money to justify property□

false or fake relationships to what is real

Conditions of existence - materials, resources, labor - the Base□

What determines the value of the paper we call money?

Ideology - we blindly trust that it has value

Do you question that McDonalds will accept your paper in exchange for food? No, you do this unconsciously - exchange value

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The things that we have are real, but the extent to which we elevate them to is imaginary

Very Lacan

Commodity fetishism

Why is "relations" important?□

Imaginary - not real - BUT for Marxist, it's a particular kind of imaginary relationship - imaginary relationships "to conditions of existence" - imaginary relationship to the base

Sci-fi - always trying to make up new systems of exchange - new exchange values□

Maybe sometimes you're critical of it - "Man I can't believe I'm paying this much for gas" - but we still just trust into it

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Money is material - weirder still with credit cards□

Exchange value is entirely ideological

Blind to the conditions of its existence□

We think things are ours because you gave a few pieces of paper about it □

We believe that we went through escrow, we paid the loan, therefore this bit of land, I own

It's not your house, it's your parents house - do your parents own you?

I sit in the same desk every class, it's mine - why?

Property - you get a piece of paper that says you own the land - do you own the land underneath the surface? Do you own the air above? Do you own someone when they step across the threshold to your house?

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Commodity fetishism - we constantly ignore the process of production and say "look, a thing!"

It seems like it has always been this way□

Has no history

How we do things□

When people don't get in line, people are upset◊

We have a belief that if we were there, first we should be served first◊

Why? Creates system that is fair, safe

We're not worried there won't be anymore double doubles ◊

In countries with scarcity, you haggle, you cut in line - exchange value isn't determine based on surplus

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In America we can charge the same thing for every item ◊

We have so much in our country, there's not really a scarcity of resources -capitalism/plenty

First thing you do at in-n-out - get in line□

"It's safer"

How many cars can you actually fit in this width?

Why do we have paint on the road?

Why do we follow lanes on the road? Common sense □

We have rights when it comes to ownership - we're born with them

Marriage - what is a right?□

Found in/leads to practices - what we do with our bodies/time

Theoretical meaning - THIS IS THE CLASS WAY ○

Ideology•

Sr

Sd

Sign

We're talking about the line between them - the imaginary relationships are the glue that holds them together - THE IDEOLOGY - and it determines what the signified is

Shoe for semiotics - civilization, other shoes, walkingShoe for Freud - Dad, penis, Mom

Shoe for Commodity Fetishism -status, hotness - erases real signified

Shoe for Marx - leather, cotton, metal, labor, supplies - repressed by consumers

Late MarxismTuesday, April 09, 20132:47 PM

Lit Theory H Page 1

We have rights when it comes to ownership - we're born with them

These rights did not evolve

People talk about tradition - it's always been this way

Man and woman produce children - children are a means of production

Why do we link those two things? I'm having sex with you so I get rights to your stuff and if we stop having sex then I get half your crap

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What it marriage? - proving your love to the institution - linking sex and property

We need children to promote consumption ◊

Consumption = love, status◊

Bring children into the system◊

Most terrible crime - killing/raping a child - why is this the worst in capitalism? - this is not the appropriate way to consume them - your parents have this investment in you as an investment

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Sex is a commodity - we exchange it for goods - but why?

Acceptable when they adopt and spend money on them - modern family◊

Marriage causes shared resources - if two men marry, they pull income out of the capitalist system - if two women marry, they have no money at all

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Gay marriage is not a religious issue, it's a materials issue

Domination, a physical force OR Subjugation, beliefs

Your willingness to submit to power structures

Every time you do your practices, you reinforce it

Return of the bathroom door! ◊

Every time you walk into the girls room, you're reinforcing it ◊

"You are always already subjects"

A Method of Control□

Ideological State Apparatus□

Later connects to Foucault and discourse□

School, government, marriage, church □

These apparatuses reflect in our practices how ideology functions □

Embodiment of ideology will show up in institutions - ISA

Becomes most clear when going to a foreign country□

You'll never really understand it though□

Ideology is a representation of the imaginary relationship of Individuals to their Real Conditions of Existence

No Big brother making you believe in paper money□

The illusion of Big Brother actually fuels ideology - if you get rid of it, you'll just buy into something else

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In order to change things, you have to change them on an ideological level□

Theoretical scapegoating - I'm going to blame this group, and it's going to protect the structure□

Not enough to say "masters are pulling strings" - 695

Ideology exists in its practices

"Kneel down, moves your lips in prayer, and you will believe"

"Ideas have disappeared as such… to the precise extent that it has emerged that their existence is inscribed in the actions of practices governed by rituals defined in the last instance by an ideological apparatus"

Ideology has no history

Here's the slide○

"There is no ideology except by the subject and for the subjects"○

There isn't any difference between you and Ideology

Ideology creates you - there is no Self without this

Ideology needs the fiction of a Self in order to act on you

"All ideology has the function of constituting concrete individuals as subject"○

There's no real you that you're fighting Ideology to find, you're just part of Ideology

Pregnancy - baby is just a glob of cells, but parents are already projecting the gender, the name, the ideals by which you're going to raise you

Even before you are born, the ISAs are already working on you

"You and I are always already subjects, and as such constantly practice the rituals of ideological recognition, which guarantee for us that we are indeed concrete, individual, distinguishable and (naturally) irreplaceable subjects"

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You can't escape Ideology because it always has something that pulls you back in

If someone talks directly at you, you'll respond even if you don't want to - defines you at the moment

Every time you walk into the bathroom, you are interpellated as woman

"All Ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, by the functioning category of subject"

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Interpellation and the Individual•

Goes together with Ideology○

Normally think of artists and intellectuals as "Removed" from ideology or from politics○

Not the best form of power

If you step on something, you may hurt it, but it's eventually going to ooze out from under your shoe - you're not going to absorb all of it

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People consciously want to resist it

That "power" manifests itself through force, fear, deprivation○

"Oh no, no" says Gramsci, that's not the most efficient form of power○

Real power is not about force, it's about getting people to consent to your power

Recognize your power is legitimate

Hegemony - Power is given by "spontaneous consent"○

On the level of Ideology, we're not conscious that we're giving in to that power

Ex. On the first day of class, you picked a desk - lowly, plebian, powerless desks - we unconsciously

Belief in that power's "natural right" - believe that power has legitimacy ○

Hegemony•

"Better to live fast and die young"-hippie mantra, better to rebel and die than conform and live a long life -this sucks and ends up supporting the status quo-just reinforce the system - either they die and are expelled or are held up as poor examples-if you're getting shitfaced every night, you're just consuming to excess-veils that keep you from investigating

Lit Theory H Page 2

Why? - Ideology removes the burden of proof□

We trust that she is legitimate □

We don't ask about her credentials, we just "spontaneously consent" to her being an authority□

Why is it weird???

Reveals that the power is imaginary

Doesn't make sense for the apparatus, but you still want to give power to teacher

The thing that determined legitimacy is gone

Practices shift so how we hail each other is different - but it's uncomfortable

If you met the president at the bar, it wouldn't be weird because you haven't given individual power to the president

Only exists in this room - what happens when you bump into a teacher outside of school?□

Ex. On the first day of class, you picked a desk - lowly, plebian, powerless desks - we unconsciously submitted to the authority of the teacher - we opted to sit here and we legitimate that Karen has power over you - through this practice, we legitimate Karen's right and power to stand up and teach

Legitimacy is defined by Ideology - Hegemony and Ideology created at the same time - no chicken/egg○

Revolution - If you get rid of the person holding legitimacy, you're only replacing it with a new person, not changing what gives it legitimacy

RESISTANCE - temporary□

Subversive resistance provokes thought□

If you're always trapped by Ideology and you can't revolt against it:

Defanging - makes it less scary□

Ex. Reggae - started totally resistance - we get bob marley and we like him and now we listen to it at the beach while we exploit the natives

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Cooptation - the system swallows and adapts resistance - makes it a part of the system

Resistance and cooptation○

Lit Theory H Page 3