2. Louis Althusser
Louis Pierre Althusser (Born: 16 October 1918) was
a French Marxist philosopher. He also was a
Professor of Philosophy.
Althusser was a long time member of the French
Communist Party, although sometimes he was a
strong critic.
Althusser’s arguments and thesis were set against
the threats towards the foundations of Marxism.
Althusser is often referred to as a structural Marxist,
even though his relationship to other schools of
French structuralism was critical.
Althusser was mentally ill. During one of his bouts,
he strangled his wife to death.
3. Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitute one's goals, expectations and actions.
An ideology is a vision, a way of looking at things or a set of ideas proposed by the
dominant class of a society to all members of this society.
Ideologies are thought-systems applied to public matters, like politics.
Every political or economic tendency leads to an ideology whether or not it is
propounded as an explicit system of thought.
There are many forms of ideology.
It basically means what you believe to be the right, it is something that the media has
told us is right. It has done so by continuous demonstration of normal things, stereotypes
etc.
4. Hegemony
The term hegemony was used by Gramsci to denote the predominance of one social class
over others.
Not only is political and economic control represented, but also the ability of the media to
project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are using it in their everyday life
accept it as 'common sense' and 'normal'.
For example, someone who is slim and tall is beautiful. That’s what we see in the media all
the time and is represented as beauty.
In the renaissance being fat meant being pretty, because it showed wealth.
