Antonio Francesco Gramsci: Cultural Hegemony

Antonio Francesco Gramsci: Cultural Hegemony

“Cultural Hegemony is the idea that the DOMINANT IDEOLOGY of society – the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values and morals – reflects that of the ruling class.

“The dominant ideology justifies the social, political and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.”

– Antonio Gramsci –
Foundational Theorist for the Sociology of Culture

Antonio Gramsci, who was born on this day, 22 January 1891, was a Marxist philosopher and a member and leader of the Italian Communist Party. He was also a prolific writer on the topics of Marxism, the oppressive tendencies of civil society as he saw it, political thought, and the social sciences. He expanded upon or outright critiqued many of the ideas of political theorist Karl Marx while remaining ensconced in the general ideas of his political philosophy and the ideals of the Russian Revolution that Marx inspired.

On Cultural Hegemony, Gramsci believed that culture must shift toward communist goals before replacing the economic system of capitalism. He thought Karl Marx was incorrect in his assumption that economic forces would be the primary cause of a shift away from capitalism toward socialism and communism. In Gramsci’s view, the bourgeois or capitalist class had so entrenched its values in culture – or achieved cultural hegemony – that to supplant those values would appear to be a revolt against common sense for most people.

Antonio Gramsci, alongside other members of the opposition, wound up in jail soon after the rise of Benito Mussolini and the Italian fascists in the 1920s. During his almost decade in prison, Gramsci wrote more than three thousand pages on a host of subjects related to Marxism, politics, history, and culture. These were later published as “The Prison Notebooks”.

Gramsci’s writings soon gained the attention of leading members of the Communist International (Comintern), including Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who declared support for Gramsci in his opposition to the less radical left-wing Italian leader Amadeo Bordiga). Soon after, Gramsci helped found and led the Partito Comunista d’Italia (Communist Party of Italy or PCI) in Livorno and got elected to Italy’s Chamber of Deputies.

Gramsci died on 27 April 1937, at the age of 46, from a litany of ailments that were protracted and exacerbated by his imprisonment.

Sources:
Wikipedia.
Quentin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (Eds.) “Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci”, Lawrence & Wishart, London, 1999.
MasterClass, “Antonio Gramsci: A Brief Biography of the Italian Philosopher”, MasterClass – Community and Government, 18 October 2022.

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