Althusser: The Detour of Theory (Historical Materialism Book Series)

436 Pages·2006·1.48 MB·English

by  Gregory Elliott

Althusser
The Detour of Theory
Historical
Materialism
Book Series
Editorial Board
Paul Blackledge, Leeds – Sebastian Budgen, Paris
Jim Kincaid, Leeds – Stathis Kouvelakis, Paris
Marcel van der Linden, Amsterdam
China Miéville, London – Paul Reynolds, Lancashire
Peter Thomas, Amsterdam
VOLUME 13
Althusser
The Detour of Theory
by
Gregory Elliott
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2006
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Elliott, Gregory.
Althusser : the detour of theory / by Gregory Elliott.
p. cm. — (Historical materialism book series, ISSN 1570–1522 ; v. 13)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-90-04-15337-0
ISBN-10: 90-04-15337-3 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Althusser, Louis. I. Title.
B2430.A474E55 2006
335.4'11092–dc22
2006049063
ISSN 1570-1522
ISBN-13:978 90 04 15337 0
ISBN-10: 90 04 15337 3
© Copyright 2006 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic Publishers,
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
To Louis Althusser
Let us do him the duty, which is the duty of every historian, of taking him not at
his word, but at his work.

Contents
Preface to the Second Edition ...................................................................... ix
Foreword .......................................................................................................... xiii
Chapter One The Moment of Althusser .............................................. 1
Chapter Two ARecommencement of Dialectical Materialism ........ 55
Chapter Three Returning to Marx? AReconstruction of Historical
Materialism ...................................................................... 99
Chapter Four The Time of Theory, The Time of Politics .................. 167
Chapter Five Questions of Stalinism .................................................... 225
Chapter Six The Eclipse of Althusserianism .................................... 255
Conclusion: Unfinished History .................................................................. 301
Postscript: The Necessity of Contingency .................................................. 317
References ........................................................................................................ 373
Bibliography of the Published Writings of Louis Althusser .................. 387
Index ................................................................................................................ 405

Preface to the Second Edition
‘Never apologise, never explain’, runs a familiar adage. The appearance of a
second edition of Althusser: The Detour of Theory close on two decades after
it was originally published calls for a few words of explanation and apology
alike.
Released by Verso in 1987 as the revised version of a doctoral thesis, and
possibly aided by the impending twentieth anniversary of May ’68, the book
attracted a fair amount of generally positive attention. Of the twenty-five or
so reviews that I am aware of, while most derived from the UK and the US,
others hailed from as far afield as India and Australia. (As I only learnt ten
or more years later, the text even received the – backhanded – compliment
of a pirate translation in South Korea.) Notwithstanding the numerous local
and general criticisms directed at it – to some of which I shall return – The
Detour of Theorywas not infrequently welcomed as the fullest account to date
in English of Althusser’s philosophico-political career in the 1960s and 1970s.
For whatever reason, long after it became out of date (not to mention print),
it would seem to retain that reputation, thus one hopes rendering republication
of more than merely antiquarian interest.
Although gratified by initial reception and residual reputation, I have never
been misled by them. On the one hand, they actually attest to the marked
decline in interest in, and output on, Althusser’s work from the turn of the
1970s, other than as a historical reference-point in some areas. On the other,
in the 1987 Foreword, I had myself underscored the incompleteness and
imperfections of my study, looking forward to remedial action by others.
With the gradual emergence of a posthumous edition of Althusser’s writings
from 1992 onwards, which soon dwarfed in quantity if not quality what had
been published in his lifetime, the need for a new synthesis, rendering these
pages redundant, became increasingly apparent.
After 1987, I continued to work intermittently on Althusser, whether as
editor, author, or translator; and, for some years, projected a comprehensive