Language and Materialism: Developments in Semiology and the Theory of the Subject (Routledge Library Editions: Semantics and Semiology) - Hardcover

Coward, Rosalind; Ellis, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1138690562 ISBN 13: 9781138690561

Publisher: Routledge, 2016

Synopsis

First published in 1977, this book presents a comprehensive and lucid guide through the labyrinths of semiology and structuralism ― perhaps the most significant systems of study to have been developed in the twentieth century. The authors describe the early presuppositions of structuralism and semiology which claim to be a materialist theory of language based on Saussure’s notion of the sign. They show how these presuppositions have been challenged by work following Althusser’s development of the Marxist theory of ideology, and by Lacan’s re-reading of Freud. The book explains how the encounter of two disciplines ― psychoanalysis and Marxism ― on the ground of their common problem ―language ― has produced a new understanding of society and its subjects. It produces a critical re-examination of the traditional Marxist theory of ideology, together with the concepts of sign and identity of the subject.

About this title

About the Author

Rosalind Coward, John Ellis

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138690562
• ISBN 13: 9781138690561
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 178