ABSTRACT
All the thinkers discussed in this section retain the primacy of the concept of society as an analytical category. For that reason, their version of the linguis-- tic turn typically pivots on the work of Saussure, for whom language was a social construction. They generally ignore the work of Chomsky, which dis-- counts the role of society and awakens the slumbering, or anesthetized giant of biologically determined human nature. Those who come to ideology by way of psychoanalysis are in a far better position to construct a subject-centered account of ideology. One might think that the work of Chomsky, a linguist who is also a critic of ideology-the preeminent linguist and the most famous and committed critic of ideology in the world-would interest them. In fact, however, these thinkers, too, are committed to Saussure; moreover, they are not just indifferent to Chomsky, but aggressively indifferent, for reasons that may be both ideological and psychological.
