Althusser The Infinite Farewell

<div>In <i>Althusser The Infinite Farewell</i>-originally published in Spanish and appearing here in English for the first time-Emilio de Ípola contends that Althusser's oeuvre is divided between two fundamentally different and at times contradictory projects. The first is the familiar Althusser that of <i>For Marx</i> and <i>Reading Capital</i>. Symptomatically reading these canonical texts alongside Althusser's lesser-known writings de Ípola reveals a second subterranean current of thought that flows throughout Althusser's classic formulations and which only gains explicit expression in his later works. This subterranean current leads Althusser to move toward an aleatory materialism or a materialism of the encounter. By explicating this key aspect of Althusser's theoretical practice de Ípola revitalizes classic debates concerning major theoretico-political topics including the relationship between Marxism structuralism and psychoanalysis; the difference between ideology philosophy and science; and the role of contingency and subjectivity in political encounters and social transformation. In so doing he underscores Althusser's continuing importance to political theory and Marxist and post-Marxist thought.</div>