ABSTRACT
Ideology is the mechanism by and through which individuals live their roles as subjects in a social formation. A term of primary importance in classical Marxist theory, ideology denotes either a false consciousness of the world or a distorted reflection in consciousness of real social relations. A second, more neutral meaning is also present in Marx: ideology describes all consciousness of living in the social world, forming part of the superstructure of all societies. In postmodernism, the term has attracted less theoretical interest, though it remains relevant for post-Marxist theories of social constructionism.
