The sublime absolute: Althusser, Žižek, and the critique of ideology

Abstract

Slavoj Žižek’s relation to Louis Althusser is ambiguous.1 There is always something perplexing about Žižek’s reference qua critique to Althusser; tensions arise precisely in those points that, in Žižek’s view, mark the impasse of Althusser’s project. Although, both philosophers try to articulate a Marxistbased ideology-critique: that is to say, Marx is the departing point for both (to a certain degree, of course) in which they both take the same path, but separate in different direction. As a result, we get two Marxes: the Spinozist and a Hegelian Marx. On one hand, there is a Marx who could not get fully rid of his Hegelian "remainders." On the other hand, there is a Marx who is not sufficiently Hegelian. In this chapter, I will leave aside the ontological and/or metaphysical commitments of the two philosophers and limit myself to the concept of ideologiekritik and hereby introduce Althusser as another of the most important interlocutors of Žižek in this enterprise. In doing so, Žižek becomes an "Althusserian critic of Althusser." That is to say, through his critique directed at Althusser, Žižek arrives at Althusserian conclusions.2.