Ideologia em Marx e em Gramsci

According to the accepted reading, Gramsci’s notion of ideology arises more from Lenin than from Marx, since it is neutral and descriptive rather than critical. In this paper, however, we show this argument to be incorrect. To reach to this conclusion we shall argue that: A) the notion of ideology as “false consciousness” results from a simplification made by Engels, whereas the concept of ideology, as it is elaborated by Marx and Engels in the 1840s, is much more multifaceted; B) the concept of ideology includes in fact the ability to substitute the real social praxis with an imaginary one. As such, the notion of ideology implies also that its critique cannot be reduced to a mere theoretical “unveiling”, but rather it must consist in the political, practical production of a real substitute for the imaginary one; and C) the conclusion is that only Gramsci, among marxists, grasped the complexity of the notion of ideology and developed it in a consistent manner as a synonym for a process of truth/reality constitution.