Marshall, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7405-9246 (2025) On ideological and creative forces. Philosophy & Social Criticism. (In Press)

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Abstract

Literature on the relationship between creativity and ideology is comprised of two broad schools of thought: either creativity is the limit to ideology and vice-versa, or creativity is subordinate to ideological systems. These arguments are typically a response to the rejection of the concept of ideology and subsequent valorisation of a politics of creativity by the poststructuralist philosophers of the 20th century. The first school draws on poststructuralist arguments to claim that ideologies are the local limit to political creativity. The second school claims that the poststructuralist ethics of creativity is ideological as it reenforces neoliberalism. However, both positions fail to address the paradox of creativity and ideology. To surpass an ideology, one must create an alternative, but creativity is always shaped by its ideological conditions. Furthermore, ideologies always have the potential to undo themselves, and creativity can always be re-incorporated into the dominant mode of politics. Thus, I draw on the work of Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, and Catherine Malabou to re-conceptualise ideology and address this paradox. I argue that ideological forces produce meaning by creatively returning to old systems of thought. Simultaneously, creative forces can only disrupt meaning if they are conditioned by the ideologies they depart from. Thus, ideology and creativity are best understood as co-constitutive forces that produce meaning. This reconceptualisation allows for a better understanding of ideologies as primarily adaptable systems of thought that avoid being transformed by events and creatively re-enforce particular ways to practice politics.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	In Press
School/Department:	School of Humanities
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/12592

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