On the discreet (c)harm of ideology – the mystification of domination in postmodern global capitalism

ABSTRACT In this paper, I propose a discursive account of ideology and a return to one of Marx’s central concepts of mystification. I argue, that to bring back the critical thrust of ideology criticism in discourse theories, one has to approach ideology as a discursive effect that sustains and reproduces domination. I try to elaborate a discursive account of ideology which refers to the mystification of domination through hegemonic articulatory practices, where the hegemonic struggle over meaning fixates and cements perpetually asymmetrical relations of power. And finally, I attempt to illustrate that in the context of postmodern global capitalism it is the proliferation of new antagonisms that often mystifies states of domination.