What is Interpellation?

Question

The Marxist Althusser defines and uses the term Interpellation to sketch his ideas of how society functions in relation to its subjects. Can anyone give me a clear, clean and concise definition of the term? And what secondary source material have you read that deals with this concept?

Answer 1

The OED gives us:
interpellate |ˌintərˈpelāt; inˈtərpəˌlāt| verb [ trans. ]
1 (in certain parliamentary systems) interrupt the order of the day by demanding an explanation from (the minister concerned).
2 Philosophy (of an ideology or discourse) bring into being or give identity to (an individual or category). [ORIGIN: from the works of Althusser.]

It appears as if Althusser coined the term.

Answer 2

Interpellation Definition

Answer 3

Define Interpellation

Answer 4

" Within certain branches of social theoy, this refers to the process by which inderviduals aquire their sense of indentity. For many writers, this effect is largely achieved by the action of dicourses which position and create the individual as a subject. For example, discourses concerning Britishness construct certain people, those to whom these discourses ae addressed, as British. Needless to say, that positioning simultaneously exludes other people from being British. Early versions of this concept tied it closely to the notoin of ideology. Althusser argued that ideologies interpellate indeveduals and contruibute to idenitty fromation, fixing those individuals into given positions in society as Britih as a workier, or as a woman, for instance."

Dictionary of Sociology. Fourth edition

Hope that helps

Answer 5

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/interpellation
This is a commentary on it http://changingminds.org/explanations/critical_theory/concepts/interpellation.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/interpellation-2