The Phenomenon of Culture in the Philosophy of Structuralist Marxism and the Frankfurt School

This article conducts a comparative analysis of the concepts of culture in Louis Althusser’s structuralist Marxism and Theodor Adorno’s critical theory from the Frankfurt School. Both traditions build on Marxist foundations but offer divergent interpretations of culture’s role in capitalist society. Althusser views culture as part of the ideological state apparatuses that reproduce social relations through the interpellation of subjects, whereas Adorno examines the “culture industry” as a mechanism of standardization and suppression of individuality, masking class contradictions. The study highlights key similarities (critique of ideology as a tool of domination) and differences (structural determinism vs. dialectical critique), emphasizing their conflict as a methodological dilemma for contemporary cultural studies, where combining the approaches enables analysis from institutional mechanisms to the psychological impact of culture.