Page 101 - Decoding Culture

94 D E C O D I N G C U L TURE

assessed. Theory becomes, as it were, its own arbiter; a 'theoreti­
cal practice' sufficient unto itself. This understanding of
theoretical activity as all-embracing marked Screen theory in the
1970s and has continued to (mis) inform the use of theory in cul­
tural studies to this day.
In this context, let us turn to Althusser's account of ideology, a
reformulation of the marxist concept which was to prove timely in
meeting Screen theory's need to add a further social dimension to
its semiotics of film. Twentieth-century marxism had been
increasingly concerned to understand the limits of economic
determinism (the 'base', forces of production, relations of pro­
duction) and the concomitant importance of the 'superstructure'
(the state, legal, political and ideological forms) . In this Althusser
was no exception, developing a complex account of the interrela­
tions of these elements in terms of 'overdetermination' and the
'relative autonomy' of superstructures. He calls for a 'theory of the
specific effectivity of the superstructures' (Althusser, 1969: 1 1 4) ,
noting that only Gramsci had really tried to develop marxist think­
ing in this respect, and in his much-quoted 1970 essay 'Ideology
and Ideological State Apparatuses' (Althusser, 1977: 123-173) he
begins to develop that project. This involves identifying a number
of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) , additional to the more
familiar Repressive State Apparatus, in such areas as religion, edu­
cation, the family, communications, and culture. The basic
difference between the two is simple enough: 'the Repressive
State Apparatus functions "by violence", whereas the Ideological
State Apparatuses /unction "by ideology'" (ibid: 138). But what is
ideology?
Althusser's theory of ideology is distinctive first of all in that it
is primarily a theory of ideology in general rather than of the spe­
cific ideologies which are realised in the ISAs. Conventional
accounts of ideology (both marxist and non-marxist) often focus

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