"Subjectivity" and "Interpellation" from The Theory Toolbox, Nealon and Giroux

 

For [Louis] Althusser, the individual . . .  is always defining itself and being defined by the generalized social categories of the modern state--worker or boss, husband or wife, son or daughter, student or trainee, etc.  For Althusser, the institutions of modern life literally make us into subjects.  As he writes: "... [culture] 'acts' or 'functions' in such a way that it . . . 'transforms' the individuals into subjects by ... interpellation or hailing, ... which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace everyday policeman (or other) hailing 'Hey, you there!'" (44) . . . .  

In Althusser's drama, it is the subject's recognition that is most important. . . . We willfully turn around at being hailed, assuming the police are calling to us. . . . .  We freely and willfully make ourselves subjects in all of our responses, in all those moments when we recognize ourselves as well as others. . . . 

[W]e can only recognize ourselves--much less have others recognize us--in terms of some preexisting social laws or codes.  Our identities only take shape in response to already given codes, to the "hailing" of the law.  So, in the end, every time we recognize ourselves--every time we say 'yeah, that's me'--we confront or construct not the freedom and uniqueness of our individual selfhood but rather the cultural codes of subjectivity. (46)