How Does Ideology Affect Literary Practices?

The Concept of Ideology
Ideology was originally used by a French rationalist philosopher of the late eighteenth century to define a 'science of ideas' or 'philosophy' of mind that would be distinct from metaphysical conception. Yet the most influential development of 'ideology' has surely been in the discourse of political theory particularly in Marxist theory, through which it has taken a long and complicated journey before its unexpected arrival in the newer forms of American literary criticism.
Ideology, in fact, became the term through which Marxists tried to articulate, in various ways the relation between the realm of culture (including, but not limited to ideas) and the realm of political economy (including production). In later writings Marx and Engels gave more diverse, and less systematic, suggestions about how to understand ideology, thus creating a constructive set of tensions in the use of the term that continued to mark its later development in both Marxist and non-Marxist discourses.
Ideology  arises  from  conscious  thought,  and  it  is  influenced  by the  prevalent  ideas  within  a  given  society.  However,  ideology  should  not exist  as  an  abstraction.  According  to  Marx,  thought,  which  produces  an ideological  perspective,  should  be  grounded  in  the  social  reality  of  the people  that  adhere  to  this  perspective.  Consequently,  ideology  involves  a cognisant  apprehension  of  social  reality.

Literary Practice
Literary practice is part of a family of social practices, including that of fictive story-telling, which can be characterized through their constitutive concepts and conventions. The concept of literature itself as well as the literary stance can be characterized and explained only with reference to this framework. Literary practices are those social codes that shape the literary culture.

How ideology affects literary practices.
Looking at the concept of ideology it is obvious that ideology transcends across all human contexts. The construct of literary practices inclusive. Today, ideology has  been used  to  describe  the  platforms  of  political  parties  or  the  beliefs  of  ruling classes  within  a  given  state  or  territory. The same ruling class who more often than not, seek to influence literary production, content, analysis and criticism in a bid to project their ideologies, perceptions or impressions.
Since the concept of literature itself as well as the literary stance can be characterized and explained only with reference to literary practices, there are ideologies that drive certain considerations in this regard. This may be a calculated attempt by the ruling class to exact their influence. When the ideology of the ruling class dominates literary practices or social subjects, members of the society or subordinate-class subjects are forced to identify with any such ideology through which the prevailing structure of class difference is therefore all the more securely reproduced.
In another dimension, identifying with a dominant ideology in a literary text, for instance, whether of a ruling class or a literary artist creates reactions in the reader. These reactions could be positive or negative, depending on which strings are pulled but for the information contained in the text. The analysis or critique of the text may thus be affected or characterized by sentiments.
Ideology is actually a social process that works on literary practices and through every social subject. Everyone is "in" whether they "know" or understand it. It has the function of producing an obvious 'reality' that social subjects can assume and accept. "Ideology, after all, is more influential than laws." (Franklin 1972, 115).

Conclusion
Clearly, ideology affects literary practices in the same way that it affects all other social subjects surrounding individuals of different class, race and sex and their social reality. Since literary and cultural texts of all kinds constitute a society's ideological practices, and literary and cultural analysis and criticism constitutes an activity that, either submits to, or self consciously attempts to transform, the concept of ideology will always play a huge role in determining the outcome of literary practices which are social codes that shape the literary culture.

Note:
As writers, it is important to note certain facts and why certain trends prevail over the long time. This is an attempt to enlighten lovers of literature, hence the focus here, are varying ideas (ideologies) that a great many collection of literary materials contain.

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