Ideology, Fetishism of Commodities and Reification

The critical tradition attending the concept of 'ideology' is recovered by defining this term in a way to avoid the traps set by its many meanings & its common sense usage. The author grounds his analysis on the arguments about the fetishism of commodities in the first volume of Marx's Capital. Taking as his starting point the effects of fetishism on the processes of thought & cultural codes in a commodity-producing system, he explains the social effects of reification (Lukacs & Goldmann). & the main characteristics of ideological contents in discourses. The author considers that social struggles over power & domination run parallel to competing social constructions of meaning. He defines ideology as "the tracks left by the fights over hegemony in the codes of culture.". Adapted from the source document.