Detailed Question: Essay Question, 1000 words,
1.‘The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.’ (Karl Marx, from Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy).
Discuss the Marxist conception of the relationship between cultural production and material production with reference to the ideas of Marx and either Gramsci or Althusser, giving relevant examples.
Below is the required reading
Karl Marx, 'Capital', pp. 665-672.
Karl Marx, extract from The German Ideology, pp. 653-58.
Antonio Gramsci, 'Hegemony', p. 673.
Louis Althusser, 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses', pp.693-702.