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Simon Fraser University
School of Communication
Media and Ideology
Cmns 410 Reading Schedule Spring 2009
Weekly course reading assignments are listed below. All readings are either available
electronically or they are available on 24 hour reserve in the Library. In addition, I’ve
included a list of supplementary readings to help build a useful bibliography for essays on
various aspects of media and ideology.
Jan. 9
Introduction
PART ONE:
THE MAKING OF ‘MODERN’ THEORIES OF IDEOLOGY
Jan. 16
Early Critical Thinking about Reality, Representation, Truth and
Power: From Antiquity to “Enlightenment”
Reading:
David Hawkes, Ideology (1 st edition), chapters 1 and 2, pp. 13-57.
Supplementary:
John Thompson, Ideology and Modern Culture, ch., 1, pp. 28-33.
Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction, pp. 63-70.
Jorge Larrain, The Concept of Ideology, pp. 1-34.
Jan. 23
Inventing the ‘Modern’ Concept of Ideology: From the Enlightenment
to Marxism
Reading:
David Hawkes, Ideology (1 st edition), chs. 3 and ch. 4, from page 58-115.
Karl Marx and Frederic Engels, The German Ideology. Read portions online
--“Preface” and from Part A: “The Illusions of German Ideology;” and from
Part B, “Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas.” All online at Marxists.org.
http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01.htm
Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1.Read the section on “The Fetishism of
Commodities and the Secret Thereof,” online at Marxists.org.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm#S4
Supplementary:

Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction, pp. 63-91.
John Thompson, Ideology and Modern Culture, pp. 33-44.
Jorge Larrain, The Concept of Ideology, pp. 35-67.
Louis Dupre, Marx’s Social Critique of Culture, pp.216-275.
John Torrance, Karl Marx’s Theory of Ideas, pp. 191-216.
Slavoj Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, pp. 11-53.
Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature, ch. 4, pp. 55-71 in the
Oxford Press edition (1977).
January 30
Differing Concepts and Theories of Ideology in the Early Twentieth
Century: From Marx, Engels and Lenin, to Lukacs, Mannheim and
Gramsci
Reading:
Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction, pp. 93-123
David Hawkes, Ideology, chapter 4, pp. 115-120.
Robert Bocock, Hegemony, chapter 2, pp. 40-54.
Georg Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness, read section I of Lukac’s
chapter on “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” on “the
Phenomenon of Reification.” Available online at http://marxists.org/archive/
lukacs/works/history/hcc05.htm
Supplementary:
Terry Eagleton, “Ideology and its Vicissitudes in Western Marxism,” in S.
Zizek (ed.), Mapping Ideology, pp. 179-200 (this is a shortened and
abridged version of the Eagleton chapter noted above).
Nicholas Abercrombie, Class Structure and Knowledge, pp. 32-53
John Thompson, Ideology and Modern Culture, ch., 1, pp. 44-52.
Goran Therborn, Critical Theory and the Legacy of Twentieth Century
Marxism, in Bryan turner (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory,
pp. 53-82.
Jorge Larrain, The Concept of Ideology, pp. 68-129.
Bertold Brecht, “Against Georg Lukacs,” in Ernest Bloch et al., Aesthetics and
Politics, (Schocken books edition), pp. 68-85.
Gareth Stedman Jones, “The Marxism of the Early Lukacs,” in New Left

Review (eds.), Western Marxism: a Critical Reader, pp. 11-60, in the Verso
edition.
Carl Boggs, Gramsci’s Marxism, chs. 1 and 2, pp. 21-55.
PART TWO:
THE RETREAT FROM ‘IDEOLOGY’ IN MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY WESTERN
SOCIAL THOUGHT AND THE ‘REDISCOVERY’ OF IDEOLOGY IN THE 1960S
Feb. 6
The Emerging Mid-Twentieth Century ‘Orthodox Consensus’ in
North American Social Theory and Media Studies:
Reading:
Dan Schiller, Theorizing Communication, ch. 2, pp. 39-87.
Daniel Czitrom, Media and the American Mind, ch. 5, pp, 122-146.
Daniel Bell, “America as a Mass Society: A Critique,” in Bell, The End of
Ideology, pp. 21-38.
Supplementary:
Alan Swingewood, The Myth of Mass Culture, pp. 1-23
C.W. Mills, The Power Elite, pp. 298-324.
James Curran et al., “The Study of Media: Theoretical Approaches,” in
Gurevitch et al., Culture Society and the Media, see pp. 30-41.
Dennis McQuail, “The Influence and Effects of Mass Media,” in James
Curran et al., Mass Communication and Society, pp. 70-94 (especially pp.
70-78).
Jesse Delia, “Commucation Research: A History,” in Charles Berger and
Steven Chaffee (eds.). Handbook of Communication Science, ch. 2, pp.
20-98.
Feb. 13
The ‘Rediscovery’ of Ideology: Postwar Radical Political Economy,
‘New Left’ Cultural Politics and the Revival of Critical Theory
Reading:
Max Horkheimer, “Traditional and Critical Theory.” In Paul Connterton
(ed.), Critical Sociology, pp. 206-224
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, “Constituents of a Theory of Media,” in The
Consciousness Industry, pp. 95-128.
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, read theses 35-53 and 212-221,
available at http://marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm

Dallas Smythe, Dependency Road: Communications, Capitalism and
Consciousness in Canada, ch. 11, pp. 249-269.
Supplementary:
Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man. Ch. 1 on “New Forms of Control,”
available at http://marxists.org/reference/archive/marcuse/works/onedimensional-man/index.htm
Dominic Strinati, “The Frankfurt School,” in Strinati, An Introduction to
Theories of Popular Culture, (1996 edition), pp. 51-85.
Tom Bottomore, Critics of Society: Radical Thought in North America,
pp. 51-65.
David Hawkes, Ideology (1 st edition), pp. 136-146.
Wallace Clement, The Canadian Corporate Elite, pp. 270-286.
Vincent Mosco, The Political Economy of Communication, pp. 140-172.
Ralph Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society, pp. 196-236.
Schiller, H.I., Mass Communication and American Empire.
Schiller, H. I. The Mind Managers.
Armand Mattelart and Seth Seiglaub, Communication and Class Struggle
(Vols. 1-3).
Feb. 20
Structuralism, Semiology and the ‘Linguistic Turn’ in the Postwar
Study of Ideology
Reading:
R. DeGeorge and F. DeGeorge (eds.), The Structuralists: From Marx to Levi-
Strauss, “Introduction,” pp. xi-xxix..
Jonathan Culler, “Semiology: the Sausserian Legacy.” In Tony Bennett, et.
al., Culture, Ideology and Social Process, pp. 129-143.
Roland Barthes, “Myth Today,” in Terry Eagleton (ed.) Ideology, pp.
162-172.
Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” in Lenin and
Philosophy and Other Essays, available online at http://marxists.org/reference/
archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm
Jean Baudrillard, “Requiem for the Media,” ch. 9, in Toward a Critique of the
Political Economy of the Sign, pp. 164-184. Available online at http://
www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol4_1/levin.htm
Supplementary:

Dominic Strinati, An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture, (1996
edition), ch. 3, pp. 88-128, and pp. 146-159..
Janet Woolacott, “Messages and Meanings,” in Michael Gurevitch et al.,
(eds.), Culture, Society and the Media, pp. 91-110.
Edmund Leach, Levi-Strauss, pp. 36-53
David Hawkes, Ideology (1 st edition), pp146-154,
Michel Foucault, The Archeology of Knowledge, ch. 2 on “Discursive
Formations.” (1972, Penguin edition), pp. 31-38.
Alex Callinicos, Althusser’s Marxism, 1976.
R. Lapsley and M. Westlake, Film Theory: An Introduction, pp. 32-66.
John Sturrock, Structuralism, ch.s 2 & 3, pp. 33-102.
Terence Hawkes, Structuralism and Semiotics, ch. 4, pp. 123-160.
Michael Gardiner, The Dialogics of Critique, ch. 3, pp. 58-80.
Feb 27
The Birmingham CCCS, Stuart Hall’s Theory of Ideology, and the
‘Return’ to Gramsci in Postwar Critical Media Studies
Reading:
Dick Hebdige, “From Culture to Hegemony,” in Subculture, the Meaning of
Style, ch. 1, pp. 5-19.
Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of Ideology: The ‘Return of the Repressed’ in
Media Studies", in Gurevitch et al., Culture, society and the Media, pp.
55-90.
Stuart Hall, ‘Encoding/Decoding,” in Culture, Media, Language, pp.
128-138.
Chris Rojek, Stuart Hall, ch. 2 on “Representation and Ideology,” pp.
91-131.
Supplementary:
Stuart Hall, “Introduction to Media Studies at the Centre,” and “Recent
Developments in Theories of language and Ideology: A Critical Note,” in
Hall et al., Culture, Media, Language, pp. 117-121 and 157-162.
Stuart Hall, “Cultural Studies; Two Paradigms,” in Tony Bennett et al.,
Culture, Ideology and Social Process, ch. 1, pp. 19-37.
Robert Bocock, Hegemony, ch. 1, on “The Concept of Hegemony,” pp.
21-39.

Chantal Mouffe (ed.), “Hegemony and Ideology in Gramsci,” in Gramsci
and Marxist Theory, ch. 5, pp. 168-204.
Stuart Hall et al., Policing the Crisis, pp. 53-77.
Stuart Hall, Cultural Studies and its Theoretical Legacies, in L. Grossberg et
al.,
(eds), Cultural Studies, pp. 277-286.
Angela McRobbie, “Settling Accounts with Subcultures: A Feminist Critique,”
in Screen Education, no. 34, 1980, and reprinted in Tony Bennett et al,
Culture, Ideology and Social Process, ch. 4, pp. 111-123.
Tony Bennett, “Introduction: The Turn to Gramsci,” in Tony Bennett et al.,
Popular Culture and Social Relation..
Todd Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching, ch. 10.
Todd Gitlin, “Television’s Screens: Hegemony in Transition,” in D. Lazere
(ed.), American Media and Mass Culture: Left Perspectives, pp. 240-265.
Stuart Hall, et al., “Politics and Ideology: Gramsci,” in CCCS, On Ideology,
pp. 45-76.
Nicholas Abercrombie, “Popular Culture and its Ideological Effects,” in N.
Abercrombie et al., (eds.), Dominant Ideologies, pp. 199-228.
PART THREE:
AMBIVALENCE AND RETREAT FROM THE CONCEPT OF IDEOLOGY IN LATE
TWENTIETH CENTURY SOCIAL THEORY, CULTURAL STUDIES,
AND MEDIA STUDIES
March 6
Poststructuralism, Discourse Theories, and the Retreat From Neo-
Marxian Perspectives on Media and Ideology
Reading:
Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1 st edition, University
of Minnesota Press), pp. 127-150.
Chris Weedon, “Feminism and the Principles of Poststructuralism.” In C.
Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory.” Reprinted in
John Storey (ed.) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, pp. 554-566.
Jorge Larrain, Ideology and Cultural Identity, ch. 4, pp. 90-104.
Terry Eagleton, Ideology, An Introduction, ch. 7, pp. 193-220.
Supplementary:
“Critical Theory: From Structuralism to Poststructuralism and Beyond”
http://science.jrank.org/pages/8894/Critical-Theory-From-Structuralism-

Poststructuralism-Beyond.html
David Harris, “Discourse Theories and Critical Cultural Analysis, in A Society
of Signs, pp. 64-86.
David Hawkes, Ideology (1 st edition), 155-176.
Jacques Derrida, “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human
Sciences.” In J. Derrida, Writing and Difference (Routledge edition), pp.
278-294.
Stuart Hall, “Signification, Representation, Ideology: Althusser and the Post-
Structuralist Debates,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 2, 1985.
John Sturrock, Structuralism, pp. 135-136.
Sari Thomas, “Dominance and Ideology in Cultural Studies,” in M. Ferguson
and P. Golding (eds.), Cultural Studies in Question, pp. 74-85.
Richard Rorty, “Feminism Ideology and Deconstruction: A Pragmatist View,”
in Slavoj Zizek (ed.), Mapping Ideology, ch. 10, pp. 227-234.
Gary Hall, “Cultural Studies and Deconstruction,” in Gary Hall and Clare
Birchall (eds.), New Cultural Studies: Adventures in Theory.
March 13
Postmodernism, Anti-Essentialism and the Post-Marxist Politics of the
Sign: “New Times,” and the “End of Ideology” (Again) in the 1980s
and 1990s.
Readings:
Yuezi Zhao, “The ‘End of Ideology’ Again The Concept of ideology in the
Era of Postmodern Theory,” Canadian Journal of Sociology, 18(1) 1993.
Jorge Larrain, Ideology and Cultural Identity, ch. 4, pp. 104-118.
Krishan Kumar, From Post-Industrial to Post-Modern Society, Ch. 5, pp.
101-148.
Nick Witheford and Richard Gruneau, “Between the Politics of Production
and the Politics of the Sign: Postmodernism, Post-Marxism and ‘New Times,’
Current Perspectives in Social Theory, 13, 1993, pp. 69-91.
Supplementary:
David Harris, “Postmodernism, Anti-foundationalism and the Aversion
Against the Universal,” in Harris, A Society of Signs, pp. 116-149.
Dick Hebdige, “Postmodernism and ‘The Other Side,’ Journal of
Communication Inquiry, vol 10-2, pp.78-97.
Jean Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Conditions: A Report on

Knowledge, (selections) available at:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/lyotard.htm
Frederic Jameson, Postmodernism, (selections) available at:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/jameson.htm
Chris Barker, Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. Ch. 5, pp 130-161.
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, pp.
93-148.
Michelle Barrett, “Ideology, Politics, Hegemony: From Gramsci to Laclau
and Mouffe,” in S. Zizek, (ed.), Mapping Ideology, 235-264.
Robert Bocock, Hegemony, ch. 5, pp. 103-119.
John Corner, “Postmodernism: The Rough Guide,” in J. Curran, D. Morley,
and V. Walkerdine (eds.), Cultural Studies and Communication, ch. 3.
David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, pp. 39-65.
Christopher Norris, Uncritical Theory – Postmodernism, Intellectuals and the
Gulf War, see ch. 6, “the End of Ideology Revisited.”
Mike Cormack, “Postmodernism, Ideology and Politics,” Media, Culture and
Society, 12, 1990, pp. 545-553.
March 20
Identities, Ideologies, ‘Difference’ and Performance: Mapping Late
Twentieth Century Debates around Imperialism, Race, Gender and
Sexual Preference
Reading:
Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, read section on “Knowing the
Oriental,” pp. 31-49.
Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture, selections from the book’s
“Introduction,” http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bhabha/location1.html
and “Conclusion,” http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bhabha/
location2.html
Gyan Prakash, “Postcolonial Criticism and Indian Historiography,” in Linda
Nicholson and Steven Seidman, Social Postmodernism, pp. 87-100.
Rita Felski, “The Doxa of Difference,” in John Hartley and Roberta E.
Pearson (eds.), American Cultural Studies: A Reader (originally published in
Signs, 23(1), 1997), pp. 208-217.
Supplementary:
Gayatari Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak,” in Cary Nelson and Lawrence
Grossberg, (eds), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, pp. 66-111.

Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and
Colonial Discourses". In Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism,
in Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (eds.), pp.
51-80.
Gayatari Spivak and Sneja Gunew, “Questions of Multiculturalism,” in Simon
During (ed.), The Cultural Studies Reader, pp. 193-202.
Arif Dirlik, “The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism in the Age of
Global Capitalism,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 20, #2, Winter, 1994.
Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” in John Storey (ed.).
Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, pp. 255-270.
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Feminist Encounters: Locating the Politics of
Experience,” in Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman, Social
Postmodernism, pp. 68-86.
Jorge Larrain, Ideology and Cultural Identity, chs. 1 and 6, pp. 6-32, and
141-166.
Sinesa Malesevic, Identity as Ideology, ch. 4., pp. 83-108.
Homi Bhabha , “Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences,” in Bill
Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin (eds.), The Postcolonial Studies
Reader, pp.206-211.
Sara Sulari, “Women Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition,”
in Bill Ashcrot, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin (eds), The Postcolonial
Studies Reader, pp. 273-282.
PART FOUR:
CONCEPT AT THE CROSSROADS: IDEOLOGY, SOCIAL THEORY
AND CRITICAL MEDIA STUDIES IN THE EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
March 27
Re-discovery and Re-assessment of the Concept of Ideology in Western
Social Thought from the 1990s Through the early Twentieth Century
Reading:
John B. Thompson, Ideology and Modern Culture, section on “Rethinking
Ideology, a Critical Conception,” pp. 52-73.
Teun A. van Djik, Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach, pp. 1-14.
Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction, ch. 2, pp. 33-61.

Supplementary:
Slavoj Zizek, “The Spectre of Ideology,” in Slavoj Zizek (ed.), Mapping
Ideology, pp. 1-33.
John Corner, “Ideology: A Note on Conceptual Salvage,” Media, Culture and
Society, 23(4), 2001, pp. 525-533.
Fabio Vighi and Heiko Feldner, Zizek: Beyond Foucault, see Part One, pp.
7-73.
Pierre Bourdieu and Terry Eagleton, “Doxa and Common Life: An
Interview,” in Slavoj Zizek, Mapping Ideology, pp. 265-277.
Slavoj Zizek, “How Did Marx Invent the Symptom” in Slavoj Zizek,
Mapping Ideology, pp. 296-331.
Slavoj Zizek, “Welcome to the Desert of the Real,” (2001), http://
web.mit.edu/cms/reconstructions/interpretations/desertreal.html
Tim Dant, Knowledge, Ideology and Discourse, pp. 228-236.
Jacques Derrida, “What is Ideology” in Jacques Derrida, Spectres of Marx,
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/derrida2.htm
Robert Porter, “A World Beyond Ideology Strains in Slavoj Zizek’s
Ideology Critique,” in Sinesa Malesevic and Iain MacKenzie (eds.), Ideology
After Poststructuralism, ch, 3, pp. 43-63.
Ernesto Laclau, “The Death and Resurrection of the Theory of Ideology,”
Journal of Political Ideologies, 1(3), 1996, pp. 201-220.
April 3
Reading:
Reconsiderations Is the Concept of Ideology Still Relevant in the Twentyfirst
Century
Sinesa Malesevic, “Rehabilitating Ideology After Poststructuralism,” in Sinesa
Malesevic and Iain MMackenzie (eds.), Ideology After Poststructuralism, ch.
5-87-110.
Supplementary:
Richard Johnson, “Post-Hegemony I Don’t Think So.” Theory, Culture and
Society, 24(3), 2007, pp. 95-110.
Chris Rojek, “The Future Belongs to the Impure,” in Chris Rojek, Stuart Hall,
pp. 186-198.
Rosi Braidotti, “A Critical Cartography of Feminist Post-Postmodernism,”
Australian Feminist Studies, Vol 20(47), 2005, pp. 1-15
Gayil Tashir, “The Phoenix of Ideology,” Critical Review of International
Social and Political Philosophy, 9(2), 2005, 107-124.

Maeve Cook, “Resurrecting the Rationality of Ideology Critique: Reflections
on Laclau on Ideology,” Constellations, 13(1), 2006, pp. 4-20.
Patrick Williams, “Totally Ideological,” Interventions, 1(2), 1999, pp.
282-285.
Mathew Humphrey, “Decontesting Ideology: The Struggle Over the Meaning
of the Struggle Over Meaning,” Critical Review of International Social and
Political Philosophy, 9(2), 2005, pp. 225-246.
Terry Eagleton, Postcolonialism and ‘Postcolonialism,’ Interventions, 1(2),
1999, pp. 24-26.
John Corner, “Mediated Politics, Promotional Culture and the Idea of
‘Propaganda,’ Media, Culture and Society, 29(4), 2007.