Interpellation
Interpellation, a term coined by French Marxist philosopher Louis Althousser, describes the process by which ideology addresses the individual. To illustrate how interpellation functions in the context of ideology Althousser used the example of the policeman who shouts "Hey, you there!" At least one individual will turn around (most likely the right one) to "answer" that call. At this moment, when one realizes that the call is for oneself, one becomes a subject relative to the ideology of law and crime. According to Althusser, this is the way in which ideology generally functions. We are all always caught up in the process in which we voluntarily acknowledge the validity or relevance of the dominant ideology in which we live for ourselves and thus subject ourselves to it. The example of the policeman furthermore suggests that we really have not a choice in this matter. Were we to ignore the call, we would sooner or later be forced to adhere to it. Interpellation draws on the theory (developed by Althousser and critics such as Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, and Jacques Lacan) that the notion of the autonomous, fully coherent and actualized human subject is an illusion, an ideological construction meant to further the agendas of capitalism and liberal humanism (and thus a central feature of their discourses). In fact, human beings are emeshed in numerous discursive and social structures that to a greater or lesser degree shape an individual's identity. Further, individuals in modern societies are not of "one mind,." but have contradictory and fragmented consciousness that includes a dimly understood subconscious. Film theorists in the 1970s used the concept of interpellation to posit the concept that mainstream cinema acts as an "apparatus" to position the viewer to "misrecognize" herself through her identification with the fictional characters on the screen. Both the technological features of the cinema and the features of classical Hollywood cinema worked to create the illusion of coherent, autonomous individuals solving conflicts, moving from disunity to unity, etc. These critics argued that the cinema thus served an ideological function not only in its general content but it the very nature of the experience. Although many other critics have rejected this "anti-humanist" approach, which minimizes the possibility of individual agency and control in the process, the concept of interpellation still provides a useful framework in those cases when filmgoers seem to react in perfect sync to the ideological cues within a film, especially when the cues relate to individual psychology and character identification.
[1] Adapted in part from Brooker, A Concise Glossary of Cultural Theory