著者

伊藤 高史

出版者

日本マス・コミュニケーション学会

雑誌

マス・コミュニケーション研究 (ISSN:13411306)

巻号頁・発行日

no.44, pp.1-14, 190, 1994-03-25

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This paper focuses on the works of Luis Althusser, especially his early works such as Reading Capital and For Marx. Althusser is known as structural Marxist but his works contain various elements including psychoanalysis, epistemology, and linguistics. I reevaluate his early works from the viewpoints of mass communication study. What is most important in Althusser's work is that it shows the way of empirical analysis of"discourse". Therefore, to reevaluate Althusser is to make clear his way of analysing discourse, "symptom reading". Nowadays, the concept of discourse draws much attention from sociologists in various fields. Some structuralists and post-structuralists have explored a variety of techniques for the analysis of discourse. Althusser's method is the most important one among them. According to Tim Dant, sociological analysis of knowledge and ideology is possible through the empirical analysis of discourse. He explains the meaning of discourse in his Knowledge, Ideology and Discourse as follows. By discourse, he means"the material content of utterances exchanged in social contexts that are imbued with meaning by the intention of utterers and treated as meaningful by other participants."And"the meaning is a property of the structural feature."In the field of mass communication study, Althusser is known for his theory of ideology which is explored in his latter works. The Cultural Studies Group is deeply effected by his theory of ideology. Althusser viewed the ideology as a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals with the real condition of their existence. However, in his latter works, discourse is explained only in terms of reproduction of class society. On the contrary, structuralists think that discourse has its inherent power which bind human recognition and act. Althusser's early works are examples which exposes such power in the realm of human recognition. And his contribution to mass media study is made clear when we understand his way of exposing such power through his discourse analysis.