Ideological criticism

Ideological criticism is a method in rhetorical criticism concerned with critiquing texts for the dominant ideology they express while silencing opposing or contrary 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.

  1. ^ Wander, Philip (March 1983). "The ideological turn in modern criticism". Central States Speech Journal. 34 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1080/10510978309368110. ISSN 0008-9575.
  2. ^ Wander, Philip (December 1984). "The third persona: An ideological turn in rhetorical theory". Central States Speech Journal. 35 (4): 197–216. doi:10.1080/10510978409368190. ISSN 0008-9575.
  3. ^ Foss (2004). Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice (3rd ed.). Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press. pp. 295–296.

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