Althusser’s Theory of Ideology and Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman

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Department of English Language and Literature College of Languages ​​and Translation Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University

Abstract

In his important contribution to ideological theory, Louis Althusser develops what he terms Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) in contrast to what he calls Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs).  RSAs are ways in which the state controls people directly through established and institutionalized means such as the police, the armed forces, and the penal system and so on.  ISAs are different in that they are not directly or extremely imposed forms of ideological repression but rise from within the society.  They include areas such as education, culture, the media, the various conventions of the family life, etc.
My paper will explore the applicability of Althusser’s theory to Manual Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, and how this theory may allow us to understand terms like “power,” “interpellation” and “reproduction” in the novel in question.  I will examine how the novel lets us perceive the very ideology in which it is held. 
 
 
       

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