glossary_interpellation

Interpellation is a concept first coined by Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser to describe the process by which ideology addresses the individual subject, thus effectively producing him as an effect…Interpellation specifically involves the moment and process of recognition of interaction with the ideology at hand” (Wikipedia, Interpellation).

“‘Interpellation,’ nicknamed ‘hailing’ or ‘appellation,’ refers to the social and psychological processes by which our identity is constructed…’ideology’ classifies our identity into such categories as race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexuality, nationality. We enter into or learn the beliefs and behaviors named by these terms in an interrelated set of institutions” (Ulmer, Internet Invention, 24-5).

“Interpellation draws on the theory (developed by Althusser and critics such as Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, and Jacques Lacan) that the notion of the autonomous, fully coherent and actualized human subject is an illusion, an ideological construction meant to further the agendas of capitalism and liberal humanism” (Adapted in part from Brooker, A Concise Glossary of Cultural Theory by M. Goldberg).

It’s my opinion that current digital/virtual environments employ social hailing of their own, causing subjects to subconsciously behave in certain ways and subscribe to particular standards online. Furthermore, these behaviors and standards may even carry over to offline environments.

1 Comment(s)

  1. [...] am inclined to believe that digitally interpellated humans are experiencing a type of remediation of social identity, affected by the situating and [...]


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