Juan Carlos Rodríguez, who studied under Althusser in Paris in the 1970s, advanced beyond the positions that the French Marxist mapped out. He did this by theorizing the existence of an ideological unconscious, to be set alongside its libidinal or Freudian counterpart. This book elucidates and elaborates upon the workings of this ideological unconscious through the close analysis of literary production in Spain, extending over the transition from feudalism to capitalism. It also explores the extent to which the ideological unconscious intertwines, historically, with the libidinal unconscious. The conclusions reached will challenge assumptions commonly held by sociologists, Hispanists and cultural historians of all kinds.