Introduction
Catherine Belsey's Critical Practice is an important milestone in structuring literary criticism on an academic level. In this book, Catherine Besley presents her opinions in shaping up the meaning by dissecting the text. The meaning of a text can be traced in the light of a specific ideology. But Belsey asserts that ideology is helpful in shaping up the subject of a particular work.
Ideology - According to Belsey
Before expanding Belsey's view on ideology, first, we have to learn what is actually meant by ideology. Ideology is a system of ideas and ideals that help in shaping the political and social body of a nation. But Belsey utilizes the view of Althusser to explain the function of ideology. According to Althusser (and Belsey), ideology works along with politics and economics to format a society. Belsey makes the trait of ideology much simpler and she simplifies ideology as thus,
Ideology is a way of thinking, speaking, experiencing.
Furthermore, Catherine also links ideology with the language of that nation that helps its spread.
Ideology and Reading of the Text
Belsey conveys that there are two kinds of ideologies. The one that is realistic (and can be felt through the actions of a nation) whereas the second one is the imaginative ideology that lives in people's hearts. It is the imaginative ideology that helps a reader connect with the text of a work. When the text of a work is being read, a reader perceives the said work on the basis of the imaginative ideology that is hidden in his brain. Imaginative ideology can differ from person to person.
Ideology and the Subject
It is the imaginative ideology that shapes the subject. And Catherine says that the subject is the man himself or herself who identifies himself or herself as "I". When a reader reads a certain text, the ideology hidden in the said text affects the imaginative ideology of the person who is attached to the certain book. The subject is shaped partly by the imaginative ideology of the person as well as the ideology presented in the book. It is the language that transmits the ideological subject from the mind of a person to the other.
Conclusion
Thus, ideology plays an important role in establishing the subject that lives in a person's mind and that is transmitted through language.
