Abstract
The concept of false consciousness emerged in the works of Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels while describing a capitalist society wherein individuals from
lower class are conditioned to live against their self interests. The capitalist class
asserts its personal interests by manipulating and misleading the subordinate class
in such a way that they accept their ideological conditioning as customary and
natural. Capitalism sustains misconceptions by exploiting the lower strata in order
to represent itself as super structure that ensures common goodness in the society.
In 20th century, various political thinkers such as Althusser, Marcuse and Jost
broadened its definition to explain the actions and behaviors of all members of
society, including those from lower or subordinate classes. The present research
attempts to analyze the Marxian concept of false consciousness in Overcoat by
Ghulam Abbas. The present research is carried out to analyze the behaviour of the
people belonging to lower strata of Pakistani society with specific reference to their
socio-economic conditioning. In this way, the study will be significant to create
awareness for the reflective and insightful writings produced by the Pakistani
writers. The present study aims to analyze the concept of false consciousness and to
determine the causes and consequences of false beliefs which sustain the social
status by evaluating the behaviour of the characters presented in the text. The
paper concludes that the characters from subordinate classes accept its unequal
social conditioning as natural phenomenon and are engaged against their self
interests to attain the idealized mode of life
False Consciousness, Capitalism, Social Conditioning, Ideology. (2015) ‘The Whole is Untrue’: False consciousness in Overcoat by Ghulam Abbas , Mayar , Volume 13-14, Issue 1.
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