Louis Althusser

This introductory guide to Louis Althusser provides the first major overview of his work since the publication in French of thousands of pages of essays, books and letters unknown before 1990. Focusing on Althusser's writing on art, theatre and literature (as well of those of his collaborator, Pierre Macherey), Warren Montag traces the contradictory development of Althusser's thought from the early sixties to his autobiography, The Future Lasts Forever. Montag also explores how Althusser's reflections on reading can shed new light on well-known texts such as Heart of Darkness and Robinson Crusoe. Additional material includes an annotated bibliography of texts by and on Althusser and a previously untranslated essay by Althusser on Brecht and Marx.