RELIGION AS AN IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS IN SUBJECTIFICATION OF CHILDREN THROUGH ENGLISH NURSERY RHYMES: AN ALTHUSSERIAN PERSPECTIVE

There are some ideological elements in nursery rhymes in order to organize patterns of beliefs and behaviors centered on basic social needs. Children are the most impressible group of any society in whom the process of subjectification is much easier. The idea of ideology explains how culture is structured in such a way that enables the group holding power to have the maximum control with the minimum of conflict. For Althusser, it is a person’s response to his/her society’s ideology that makes what he/she is. According to his theories about ideology and subjectification, Ideological State Apparatuses create subjects by producing ideologies. They do this by the process of interpellation or hailing. This article focuses on religion as an ideological state apparatuses and English religious nursery rhymes in this article are examined as the ideological means used by religion in subjectification of children. Like other social institutions, religion contains an ideology.The findings of this study confirm that English religion nursery rhymes are considered by religion as as ideological state apparate as ideological istruments in order to cause the individuals to perceive themselves as free, autonomous subjects, while in reality they are subjected to the dominant religious ideology as a higher authority

Keywords:

ideology , subjectification , children’s literature , nursery rhymes , ideological state apparatus