Comparing Imaginaries. When Feminism Meets Ideology

Abstract

At the core of the essay there is a reflection on the encounter between feminism and ideology, conducted around the writings of Michèle Barrett, Judith Butler and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, in order to deepen the link between feminist critique, ideology and the processes of social subjectivation. If it is true that «ideology, as often believed, does not refer only to political ideas, but includes all our “mental structures”, our beliefs, the concepts and ways of expressing our relationships with the world» (Loomba), then there is nothing left for feminist reflection to do but examine «the male dominant» in the process of the «ideological construction of gender» (Spivak). The juxtaposition of materiality and ideality, real and imaginary, is called into question, following the lesson of Marx, Althusser and Foucault.