eschatological hope. Barbarism is never certain and we can always dream of
socialism. Linguistic imperialism is no more stable than imperialism tout court;
it is subject to the same kind of contradictions and there is, therefore, a space
for emancipatory struggles, even for those whose professional task it is to
teach the language of imperialism. All this is intended to recall that the
expression ‘linguistic imperialism’ is not a facile insult, betraying its author ’s
simple-minded anti-Americanism, but the characterisation of a complex
situation. And we need a philosophy of language to grasp this complexity.
Interpellation/subjectivation
The term ‘interpellation’ derives from the second theory of ideology to be
found in Althusser. It is the central concept of this theory, which tells us that
ideology interpellates each individual as a subject. The parable with which
Althusser illustrates the concept is well known: the traffic cop blows on his
whistle and everyone looks round, convinced that this intepellation was
personally directed at them. I have suggested developing the concept by
extending the chain of interpellation sketched by Althusser to speech acts:
institution – ritual – practice – speech act.
The subject is, then, the individual interpellated at end of the chain by the
speech act. It is clear that, by extending the Althusserian chain to speech acts,
I am being unfaithful to the master, who paid little attention to language (the
only occasion on which language is mentioned in the ISAs essay is a footnote
criticising linguists). But it is also clear that this extension is possible; what
is more, I am not the only one to have had the idea. Michel Pêcheux’s is
based on the idea that ideology finds its material existence in language.^7 In
Language Alone, Geoffrey Harpham translates Althusser ’s discourse on ideology
in terms of language – a concept which for him is the major fetish of our
modernity.^8 The importance of the concept is considerable. It makes it possible
to ignore liberal jeremiads about Marxist determinism leading to the
disappearance of the subject and the loss of the notions of freedom,
responsibility and morality. A French philosopher who was to become a
minister – Luc Ferry – once wrote a disastrous book on this subject. The
208 • Conclusion
(^7) See Pêcheux 1982.
(^8) See Harpham 2002.