Shroud: John Banville’s Critique of the Critique of Ideology

Abstract

ABSTRACT Shroud, John Banville’s fictional memoir of Axel Vander, a character who combines aspects of the critics Louis Althusser and Paul de Man, explores the interrelated issues of subjectivity, authenticity, narrative, and authority–all concerns shared by the critics on whom Vander is modeled. The novel thus serves as Banville’s critique of the “critique of ideology,” and ultimately suggests not only that the subject which emerges from the critique of ideology is a discursive fiction but also that emancipation from ideology is a futile, even nihilistic, wish.