On Louis Althusser’s Ideology and Structure A Survey of Writings in Thai and a Proposal for a Re-reading

Abstract

Louis Althusser (1918-1990), one of the most eminent French Marxist philosophers, received scant attention from Thai Marxists, let alone Thai academia in general. When he did – Thai academics began publishing on his thoughts in the late 1970s – time had changed and structuralism fell out of fashion in the West. The most well-known thesis of his in Thailand, and probably worldwide, arguably remains Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA). Meanwhile, his complex thinking in other significant texts has largely been ignored, and only a sprinkle of Thai texts on these exists. This research article attempts to fill in this lacuna, beginning with a survey of the state of knowledge about Althusser in Thailand. It finds that Thai scholarship tends to emphasize his considerations on “ideology” while that on his reflections on “structure,” which appear in many of his major works, such as For Marx (1965) and Reading Capital (1968), is few and far between. His influence on this and other issues has had a profound impact, to the point where some have called it an "Althusserian revolution." Rereading his works, especially through the interpretations of such later Marxists as Slavoj Žižek and Fredric Jameson, will help us understand Althusser more comprehensively and will help expand and enrich the frameworks for understanding Thai history and society, particularly those based on Marxism.