From Ideological Reproduction to Discursive Power: Reconsidering Althusser, Barthes, and Foucault

Abstract

This article compares Louis Althusser's Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (1969), Roland Barthes' Myth Today (1973),
and Michel Foucault's Two Lectures (1976) to examine how each theorist conceptualises the relationship between knowledge, power, and social order. Althusser analyses ideology as a material system embedded within institutions that reproduces capitalist relations; Barthes extends
ideology critique into everyday culture through semiological analysis of myth and representation. While Foucault rejects the assumption that
power operates primarily through ideological domination imposed by a ruling class. Instead, he reconceptualises power as productive, decentralised, and embedded within discursive and institutional practices that generate knowledge and subjectivity. The article argues that Foucault
fundamentally shifts critical theory away from ideology critique toward the analysis of discourse and disciplinary power, while demonstrating
the continuing relevance of debates surrounding ideology, representation, and institutional power in contemporary cultural theory.