Ideology does not exist as an individual, independent entity. Unless one was self-raised from birth in the wilderness as a solitary soul, then ideology is a collective, cultural force that is taught. Even if we were raised like Tarzan by the apes, we would share the values of the apes- or, less drastically, raised alone in a cave, it would be highly unlikely that our values would be very different from someone who valued nature, or survival, sun/moon/rain worshipping, etc. Ideologies are illustrated, explained and demonstrated through the things we read. We have argued that the ideology of the author often taints the 'meaning' of the written text, but also that the author's meaning is obsolete when the reader's ideology supersedes the author's and takes over as meaning. Ideologies exist, however, independently of one another. Cultural circumstances dictate the things we value; women, for example, are viewed and treated differently from culture to culture, country to country. Additionally, since we are taught the things we believe, it is entirely possible to separate imaginative sympathy and ideology when regarding a text. The redundancy of this question makes my head spin. Literary criticism and literary theory separate theories, a.k.a. ideologies. We come up with a list of isms to categorize these ideologies- feminism(s), Marxism, (multi)culturalism, historicism... The Contemporary Criticism class itself teaches us to approach texts with these separate ideologies in mind and examine them with those ideological tools. Even the precursor to the Contemporary Criticism class teaches ideology and how to apply it to a novel, to approach that novel with an ideology that isn't necessarily one we agree with. A novel then can be appreciated politically and subjectively, if you will, for its competence or incompetence in illustrating the ideology of one or more groups of people. It may be appreciated in a colder, more scientific, examinative li...
