Vorbehalt

Abstract

The essay draws out a conversation between Louis Althusser’s theory of ideology and his often-misunderstood notion of »symptomatic reading.« This conversation is staged by examining three pillars of Althusser’s theoretical intervention: the problem of humanism, Spinoza’s materialism of the imaginary, and Spinoza’s Biblical criticism. In doing so, the essay identifies a temporal logic of retention in the Spinozism of Althusser and the Althusser school, the productivity of which for a renewed, praxeologically informed materialist theory of reading is finally discussed.