Studies in Ideology

In Studies in Ideology, poet and theorist J.M. Beach delivers a comprehensive analysis of the history and theory of "ideology." The narrow concept of ideology has traditionally been lodged in the domain of Marxist political theory, but Beach reaches past Marxism to focus on the "wide" definition of ideology, which can be basically summarized as "all theory is ideological." Beach strays from the Marxist totalizing and determinist narratives to deliver a discussion of ideology as "process," which takes its lead from Gramsci and analyzes the intricate and complicated mechanisms of individual subject formation in relation to dominant/dominating social modes of meaning productions. Beach offers his theory of ideology in conjunction with an extensive reading of history and contemporary affairs and ends the book with a brief biographical sketch of his own intellectual maturation, which is imbedded within a daring and timely critique of Christianity.