Page 127 - Decoding Culture

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

Agreeing that, as Hall (1978: 28) put it, ' [ iJdeology is one of the
least developed "regions" in marxist theory', they examined the
work of Althusser, Gramsci, Lukacs and Poulantszas with a view to
developing a more cogent conceptualization of ideology for the
purposes of cultural studies. These were hectic years in British
'new left' thought. Althusserianism had swept all before it in the
first half of the 1970s, reviving a well established tradition of fierce
debate within left politics and promoting much more interest in
matters of theory and epistemology. The CCCS, like all groups
with a claim to developing a leftist critical analysis of modern soci­
ety, was caught up in this widespread recovery of marxist theory
and in its evident concern with ideology and with 'superstructural'
elements more generally.
That said, the CCCS also recognized that none of the competing
frameworks offered a ready-made solution to the 'problem of ide­
ology'; hence the need to examine the wide variety of marxist
theories then in circulation rather than immediately commit all
resources, as some of the 'purer' Althusserians had, to one
approach above all others. Of course, given the CCCS' culturalist
inheritance it makes sense (in retrospect, at least) that they should
be attracted by the more 'active' elements in Gramsci's thought and
somewhat resistant to the deterministic aspects of Althusser's
'structuralist' appropriation of it. But they were still significantly
influenced by Althusser's account of ideology, while also recogniz­
ing that ' [ tJhere is no systematic theory of ideology in the work of
Antonio Gramsci' (Hall et al. , 1978: 45) and therefore that the task
of developing an adequate understanding of the role of ideology in
culture would not be easy. Indeed, right through the period of
CCCS concern with these issues it is possible to see quite deep
conceptual divisions, both among those who were engaged in
developing the general theory itself and between these theorists
and others within the Centre whose work had a different focus.

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