Ideology and Interpellation of Black American's Community in Amiri Baraka's "In Memory of Radio": Althusserian Reading

The present research attempts to study Imamu Amiri Baraka’s well-known poem “In Memory of Radio” with the help of Louis Althusser’s definition of “ideology”, “interpellation”, “repressive state apparatuses”, and “ideological state apparatuses”. According to Althusser, ideology is “a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence”. In other words, individuals make an “illusion” in their relationship to reality or “ideology distorts our view of our true ‘conditions of existence’”. In Baraka’s “In Memory of Radio”, media (radio) as “ideological state apparatuses” interpellates White and Black American people and makes them ideological subjects whom without any resistance accept the dominant class’ ideology. Young Baraka as the poet (persona) has a sad view toward his childhood (when he listened to radio programs eagerly) and sarcastically criticizes radio programs during the previous decades because they supported the standards of white society and defended them secretly. Althusserian analysis of the poem shows that “ideological state apparatuses” act symbolically in the form of radio programs. Keywords: Althusser - Ideology - Ideological State Apparatuses - Amiri Baraka - Interpellation.