Failures and Shortcomings of Ideological State Apparatuses in A Clockwork Orange: Insights from Althusser’s Theory

مطالعات زبان و ترجمه

Volume 57, Issue 1, June 2024, Pages 93-119   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/lts.2022.75385.1114

Authors

Alireza Khazaee¹; Zohreh Taebi Noghandari^{* 2}; Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh³

¹Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

²Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

³Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

Althusser believed governments require toolkits to fulfill the desires of the ruling class. He proposed that the old-school scheme of the earlier Marxists, that governments functioned solely by repression, is inadequate and cannot explain how the society goes under service voluntarily. He divided the governing tools into ideological (ISA) and repressive (RSA) and proposed that the constant functions of the former keep the society balanced, and the latter backs it up by prioritizing violence and force. This research analyzes the instances of the failure of the ISA in the society of A Clockwork Orange (1962) (ACO). The protagonist is a teenager greatly prizing his individuality. Almost all the ISA-related institutions cannot affect him. Subtly, ACO (1962) makes every part of the ISA responsible for the protagonist's fate. The results indicate that while ISAs in ACO (1962) are at work, they are malfunctioning.

Keywords

A Clockwork Orange; Althusser; Burgess; Ideology; State Apparatuses

References