Ideological criticism targets ideograms, such as words or images, to understand their cultural meaning within a work. Ideological critique identifies and considers how these ideograms have changed over time and their use in political discourse. The meaning of ideograms can differ between cultures and contexts.
Ideological criticism is a form of criticism that usually targets the ideograms within a particular work or discourse in order to better understand the ultimate substance of the work. Ideograms are “artifacts” within a work, often particular words or images, that have a greater symbolic meaning that is understood and observed on a cultural level. American English words like “justice” or “freedom” are ideograms that have more meaning to them than just a dictionary definition. Ideological criticism often targets political discourse or written works as a way of identifying a major meaning within a work and thereby determining the validity of that secondary meaning.
The principle behind this type of criticism is that there are certain artifacts within language and visual symbolism called ideographs. These ideograms convey greater meaning within a particular cultural context than they can have on a purely denotative level. For example, the word “freedom” is often used in American political discourse and has been used throughout American history. Yet the meaning of this word has changed over the decades and has had certain contexts and cultural meanings that surpass the basic idea of ”freedom” as a dictionary definition.
Ideological critique is used to identify these types of ideograms and consider how this cultural meaning is used within a particular communication element. When an American politician uses the word “freedom” in a speech, for example, someone can use ideological critique to first identify that it is an ideogram and then consider why it was used. In the case of “freedom,” its use is often understood as a way to rally Americans behind a common cause or ideal, since “freedom” is often seen as the highest political “good” that can be accomplished. As an ideogram, a few words are more powerful in American political dialogue and convey greater meaning, but like other ideograms its meaning has changed over time and should be considered in a larger context for the sake of criticism.
In 1776, for example, “liberty” may have meant “freedom from tyranny” in the form of the British monarchy and its power over the American colonies. Modern uses of “freedom”, however, have nothing to do with British power and therefore ideological critique considers how the “freedom” ideogram has changed over time. It is now typically used to promote the idea of spreading “American freedom” to other countries. Through ideological critique, one can identify that “freedom” has functioned as an ideogram for hundreds of years, even though its meaning has changed and it can mean something very different to a French, German or Iraqi citizen.
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