> Mike Beggs wrote: 'Perry Anderson ... Althusser ...EP Thompson'. It would be interesting to go forward fifty years from now and ask the question which of these three would have the stronger reputation. E. P. Thompson, I would have said, because his histories are that much more interesting. Though thinking about it, Anderson maybe has created more of an organisation to carry on his good works, but maybe less of a coherent idea of what those good works are. Althusser will always be disliked, I guess, but his anti-human philosophy has a while to run yet, as long, in fact, as their is no substantial challenge to the status quot.
Yeah, well Thompson and Anderson are certainly more enjoyable to read. And I don't disagree with you that Thompson's politics and practice were infinitely better than Althusser's. I do think Althusser's idiom dates much faster because his milieu is dead forever, while we can still hope for a resurgence of British New Left - you can read Thompson's political essays from the late 1950s and early 1960s and they still seem contemporary. But Althusser's ideas have been really influential, and actually inspired an awful lot of actual empirical, historical work as well as philosophy. And whenever people turn back to Thompson, since he did some of his most interesting work as polemics, they'll also find Anderson and Althusser who provoked those polemics.
On the other hand, I got this in the email the other day:
From: Sébastien Budgen <sebastien.budgen at wanadoo.fr> Subject: [historicalmaterialism] Décalages: An Althusser Studies Journal To: historicalmaterialism at yahoogroups.com Received: Saturday, 20 February, 2010, 12:24 AM
http://scholar.oxy.edu/decalages/
I am pleased to announce the first issue of Décalages, an online peer- reviewed journal devoted to the work of Althusser and his circle: www.decalages.net .
About the Journal
Since the publication in 1965 of For Marx and Reading Capital, the work of Althusser has continued to provoke discussion, debate and controversy throughout the world. The posthumous publication of thousands of pages of texts and correspondence has not only led to an increased interest in the work of Althusser, it has altered our sense of both the scope and meaning(s) of his work. In addition to the late writings, the mass of material from the sixties and seventies gathered in the Fonds Althusser at the Institut Mémoire de l’Édition Contemporaine has deprived much—but not all—of the commentary of the seventies and eighties of its relevance and interest. At this point, the known Althusser is dwarfed by the unknown. We feel that the time for a reconsideration of Althusser, free from the often sterile debates of the past, has come.It is possible and necessary to read Althusser, a different Althusser with a different oeuvre, in a new way. At the same time we recognize that while it is standard practice to refer to Althusser in many disciplines, from film studies to sociology, there are few places to publish studies of Althusser’s texts themselves. It is for this reason that a very diverse group of scholars from different countries and disciplines came together to establish Décalages, an online peer-reviewed journal in which work focused on Althusser in the broadest sense—readings of his texts, as well as the texts of those who worked with him, comparative analyses, applications of his theory—would appear, thus encouraging debate and discussion. We would also provide space in every issue for reviews of the latest scholarship on Althusser. Finally we will include an archives section in which we will publish previously unpublished texts by Althusser.
Aims and scope
Our objective is to establish a global community of those working on Althusser. Every essay submitted will be carefully peer-reviewed not with the aim of imposing a single interpretation of Althusser, but precisely to strengthen the diversity of views and encourage discussion and debate. For the present we seek articles in French, Spanish, Italian and English. We will also consider translating texts published in one of these langauges into another language to make it accessible to a new audience. Anyone wishing to submit an article to be published in a language other than the four named above, should contact the editor prior to submission. In addition to receiving online submissions of articles, we are always interested in reviewing proposals for translations, reviews and special issues. Please contact the editor. montag at oxy.edu
Editor: Warren Montag, Occidental College
Current Issue: Volume 1, Issue 1 (2010)
Review of Louis Althusser and the traditions of French Marxism
Matt Bonal
Recension à Jean-Claude Bourdin (coord.), Althusser : une lecture de Marx Andrea Cavazzini
On the Cultural Revolution Anonymous tr. Jason E. Smith [Attributed to Louis Althusser]
Sur la révolution culturelle Anonyme [Attribué à Louis Althusser]
El Materialismo Tardío de Althusser y el Corte Epistememológico Giorgos Fourtounis Tr. Aurelio Sainz Pezonaga
Escatologia à la cantonade. Althusser oltre Derrida Vittorio Morfino
On the Emptiness of an Encounter: Althusser's Reading of Machiavelli Filippo Del Luchesse tr. Warren Montag
Il riconoscimento delle maschere. Soggettività e intersoggettività in Leggere «Il Capitale» Cristian Loiacono
Zizek y Althusser. Vida o muerte de la lectura sintomática. Mariana de Gainza
El Althusser Tardío: ¿Materialismo del Encuentro o Filosofía de la Nada? Warren Montag tr. Aurelio Sainz Pezonaga
Mil Fisuras. Arte y Ruptura a partir de Althusser Aurelio Sainz Pezonaga