ABSTRACT
Marx and ideology 120
Marxism and political economy 125
The limits of political economy 130
Althusser’s theory of ideology and structuralist Marxism
Althusser’s Marxism: economic determinism and ideology
Gramsci, Marxism and popular culture 148
Gramsci’s concept of hegemony 153
Conclusions: Marxism, Gramscian Marxism and popular culture
THIS CHAPTER WILL critically assess contemporary Marxism’s analysis of popular culture.1 It will consider, in particular, approaches to the study of popular culture which have emerged from within the Marxist tradition in the last thirty years or so. These involve the Marxist theory of political economy, the Marxist structuralist theory of ideology associated with the work of Althusser, and the concept of hegemony derived from the writings of Gramsci.
