Postmodern thought replaces class-based ideology with group-based consciousness.

Evidence

(It should be stressed, however, that something fundamental has been achieved by the now more widely shared awareness of the correlation between consciousness and group adherence: this is, indeed, something like the postmodern’s version of that theory of ideology invented or discovered by Marx himself, which posited a formational relationship between consciousness and class adherence. The new or postmodern development, indeed, remains progressive to the degree to which it dispels any last illusions as to the autonomy of thought, even though the dissipation of those illusions may reveal a wholly positivist landscape from which the negative has evaporated altogether, beneath the steady clarity of what has been identified as “cynical reason.” — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 699

Categorization

• DEFINE: This names the postmodern’s ‘version of the theory of ideology’ — consciousness correlates with group adherence rather than class — and links dissipation of autonomy illusions to ‘cynical reason.’
• XREF: Connects to Jameson’s broader ‘cultural dominant’ thesis from earlier chapters, and to Marx’s base-superstructure theory; ‘cynical reason’ echoes Sloterdijk. — connects to: Place-based identity politics replace class politics and revive geopolitics. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1725; Strategic essentialism collapses when applied to consciousness-in-general rather than class. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 1763; Postmodern subjectivity replaced the heroic vanguard self with shifting affinity coalitions — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited: The Sixties and the…, 648