More than any other figure in the latter half of the twentieth century, Louis Althusser is associated with the post-cold war re-emergence of Marxism as a powerful theoretical force in the study of culture. It was indisputably he who gave Marxism a new prestige and, even more, a new relevance, showing that, read correctly, that is with great care and attention to the properties of the original languages, the supposedly familiar works of Marx, Engels and Lenin would appear as if unread, each a territory waiting to be explored. From the perspective they offered, the fundamental concepts of Marxism, class struggle, base and superstructure, ideology, even the idea of materialism itself, took on new meaning. Althusser offered a reading so powerful that an entire generation of intellectuals…
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Citation: Montag, Warren . "Louis Althusser". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 July 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=95, accessed 23 November 2024.]
