Page 102 - Critical and Cultural Theory

IDEOLOGY
of production and consumption have radically decentred the
subject. Even if we do not read this dislocation, as Arthur Kroker
does, as an omen of 'schizoid behaviour and the implosion of all
signs of communication' (Kroker and Cook 1988: xvii), we must
nonetheless consider its impact on humanist idealizations of the
coherence of the self. Patricia Waugh sums up postmodern redefi-
nitions of identity thus: 'If Modernism had tried to anchor in
consciousness a centre which could no longer hold - the
conscience of the heroic, socially alienated artist', Postmodernism
has gone further by showing 'that there is nothing for conscious-
ness to be anchored to: no universal ground of truth, justice, or
reason' (Waugh 1992: 178). Whatever we make of Althusser's
reflections on ideology and subjectivity in relation to debates on
Postmodernism, his interrogation of economic determinism has
had one undeniable effect: it has systematically exposed the ficti-
tiousness of social identities. Whether the subject constructed by
ideology is now intended to be a unitary or rather a fragmented
artefact remains, at least for the time being, a moot point.

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