Ideological criticism

Ideological criticism is a method in

ideologies. It was started by a group of scholars roughly in the late-1970s through the mid-1980s at universities in the United States. Leading scholars of ideological criticism were Michael Calvin McGee at the University of Iowa and Phillip Wander at San Jose State University. Wander's 1983 article, "The Ideological Turn in Modern Criticism,"^[1] and his 1984 article, "The Third Persona: An Ideological Turn in Rhetorical Theory,"^[2] remain two of the most important articles in the field. According to Sonja Foss, “the primary goal of the ideological critic is to discover and make visible the dominant ideology or ideologies embedded in an artifact and the ideologies that are being muted in it.”^[3] Foss has also mentioned the contribution to ideological criticism of several theoretical schools, including Marxism, structuralism, cultural studies, and postmodernism

.

Ideograph

A unit of analysis in ideological criticism, or what Sonja Foss calls "traces of ideology in an artifact," is the

synchronically

.” That is, ideographs need to be examined across time to determine how their meanings may have changed and all ideographs that are used in a given situation must be considered.

Who in democracy would be opposed to actions taken under the auspices of liberty and freedom? To do so would, ideographically speaking, be undemocratic. Citizens of a democratic state are “conditioned” to believe that liberty and freedom are so fundamentally important that society expects those citizens to simply unquestioningly accept actions claiming to be in defense of liberty and freedom. For example, even within the United States, the ideograph of freedom has changed. At the time of the American War of Independence (1775–1783), freedom meant breaking away from the tyrannical rule of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Today, freedom means many things including the freedom to pursue one's dreams and the freedom to be left alone. People disagree about the freedoms that are most important: freedom to possess guns, freedom to make decisions that affect one's body, freedom from fear or violence, and freedom of movement. Depending on one's ideological orientation, the ideograph of freedom represents many things, which is why it can be so powerfully used by politicians. Ideographs succeed in political discourse because of their inability to be concretely understood.

Ideographs need not be

artifact”; (2) “select a unit of analysis

” (which she calls “traces of ideology in an artifact”); (3) “analyze the artifact” (which, according to Foss, involves identifying the ideology in the artifact, analyzing the interests the ideology serves, and uncovering the strategies used in the artifact to promote the ideology); and (4) “write the critical essay”.

References

ISSN 0008-9575
.

ISSN 0008-9575
.

^ Foss (2004). Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice (3rd ed.). Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press. pp. 295–296.

^ Burgchardt 2005, pp. 462–463.

^ Burgchardt 2005, p. 479.

^ Edwards and Winkler 1997, pp. 289–310.

^ Burgchardt 2005, pp. 487–508.

Sources

Books

Burgchardt, Carl R. (2005) [1995]. Readings in Rhetorical Criticism (3rd ed.). State College, Pennsylvania: Strata Publishing.
OCLC 57373775
.

Foss, Sonja (2004) [1989]. Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice (3rd ed.). Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press.
OCLC 607271427
.

Journals and magazines

Edwards, Janis L.; Carol K. Winkler (1997). "Representative Form and the Visual Ideograph: Two Iwo Jima Image in Editorial Cartoons" (PDF). 83. Quarterly Journal of Speech. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-12-16. Retrieved 2011-10-25. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ideological_criticism&oldid=1218289495"

[1] ISSN 0008-9575
.

[2] ISSN 0008-9575
.

[3] Foss (2004). Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice (3rd ed.). Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press. pp. 295–296.

[FOOTNOTEBurgchardt2005462–463-4] Burgchardt 2005, pp. 462–463.

[FOOTNOTEBurgchardt2005479-5] Burgchardt 2005, p. 479.

[FOOTNOTEEdwards_and_Winkler_1997289–310-6] Edwards and Winkler 1997, pp. 289–310.

[FOOTNOTEBurgchardt2005487–508-7] Burgchardt 2005, pp. 487–508.

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