marxism

Isa He, Courtney Jewett and Anna Melker

Paper #11

December 6, 2008

A Modest Proposal

In class on November 6, 2008, Professor Anne Dalke gave a sketch of an argument based on work by Louis Althusser and Antonio Gramsci that goes something like: people want to be 'hailed and recruited' so they submit to others' domination. She gave as an example, the classroom. Students at Bryn Mawr College pay upwards of $35,000 a year to attend Bryn Mawr and in doing so allow professors and the administration control over them (ie submit to domination). In return, students feel recognized as subjects, in particular, as scholars (ie feel 'hailed and recruited' by those in power). As a feminist math major who has