Hegemony Intro.pdf

FROM http://www.italnet.nd.edu/gramsci/about_gramsci/biograpy.html

Antonio Gramsci was born on January 22, 1891 in Ales in the province of Cagliari in Sardinia. In

1915, despite great promise as an academic scholar, Gramsci became an active member of the PSI, and

began a journalistic career that made him among the most feared critical voices in Italy at that time. His

column in the Turin edition of Avanti! , and his theatre reviews were widely read and influential.

The outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution in October 1917 further stirred his revolutionary ardor, and for

the remainder of the war and in the years thereafter Gramsci identified himself closely, although not

entirely uncritically, with the methods and aims of the Russian revolutionary leadership and with the cause

of socialist transformation throughout the advanced capitalist world.

Later, he was among the most prescient representatives of the Italian Left at the inception of the fascist

movement, and on several occasions predicted that unless unified action were taken against the rise of

Mussolini's movement, Italian democracy and Italian socialism would both suffer a disastrous defeat.

On the evening of November 8, 1926, Gramsci was arrested in Rome and, in accordance with a series of

"Exceptional Laws" enacted by the fascist-dominated Italian legislature, committed to solitary confinement

at the Regina Coeli prison. This began a ten-year odyssey, marked by almost constant physical and psychic

pain as a result of a prison experience that culminated, on April 27, 1937, in his death from a cerebral

hemorrhage. No doubt the stroke that killed him was but the final outcome of years and years of illnesses

that were never properly treated in prison.

Yet as everyone familiar with the trajectory of Gramsci's life knows, these prison years were also rich with

intellectual achievement, as recorded in the Notebooks he kept in his various cells that eventually saw the

light after World War II, and as recorded also in the extraordinary letters he wrote from prison to friends

and especially to family members, the most important of whom was not his wife Julka but rather a sister-in-

law, Tania Schucht.

Gramsci's intellectual work in prison did not emerge in the light of day until several years after World War

II, when the PC began publishing scattered sections of the Notebooks and some of the approximately 500

letters he wrote from prison. By the 1950s, and then with increasing frequency and intensity, his prison

writings attracted interest and critical commentary in a host of countries, not only in the West but in the

so-called third world as well. Some of his terminology became household words on the left, the most

important of which, and the most complex, is the term "hegemony" as he used it in his writings and applied

to the twin task of understanding the reasons underlying both the successes and the failures of socialism on

a global scale, and of elaborating a feasible program for the realization of a socialist vision within the really

existing conditions that prevailed in the world. Among these conditions were the rise and triumph of

fascism and the disarray on the left that had ensued as a result of that triumph. Also extremely pertinent,

both theoretically and practically, were such terms and phrases as "organic intellectual,"

"national'popular," and "historical bloc" which, even if not coined by Gramsci, acquired such radically new

and original implications in his writing as to constitute effectively new formulations in the realm of political

philosophy.

FROM Jen’s Dissertation

ntonioGramsci’sfragmentaryandcomplicatedtheoryof cultural hegemony comes from the

writings collected in Selections from the Prison Notebooks . Although he never concretely defines it there,

or anywhere else in his known writingsGramscidoesdescribehegemonyas“the‘spontaneous’consent

given by the great masses of the population to the general direction imposed on social life by the dominant

fundamentalgroupthisconsentis‘historically’causedbytheprestige(andconsequent confidence) which

thedominantgroupenjoysbecauseofitspositionandfunctionintheworldofproduction”(12)sVictor

Villanueva explains in Bootstraps ,

hegemony equals ideological domination. Gramsci adds an essential qualifier: domination by

consent. Without consent, hegemony fails. And consent is granted ideologically. As Gramsci sees

it, every culture contains particular worldviews, ideologies; some of these are common to the

cultures within a society and are common to the cultures that comprise the dominant groups. We

accept commonly held worldviews as truths. The dominant does more than accept; it capitalizes.

Weacceptthedominant’sactionsbasedontruthsweapproveofactsbasedontruthsweconsent

(123)

Hegemony is how power is distributed, held and granted in society at all levels, from the local to the global.

T. J. Jackson Lears agrees that

To resort to the concept of cultural hegemony is to take a banal question – ‘whohasthepower’–

anddeepenitatbothendsThe‘who’includesparentspreachersteachersjournalistsliterati

‘experts’ofallsortsaswellasadvertisingexecutivesentertainmentpromoterspopularmusicians

sportsfiguresand‘celebrities’– all of whom are involved (albeit often unwittingly) in shaping the

values and attitudes of a society. (572)

Hegemony is not any specific governing system, ruling body, or party of politics, although it works by and

throughallvarietiesofeachoftheseconstituentsHegemonyis“maintainedpassedon andreproduced”

bywhatGramscicalls“civilsociety”which“consistsofculture’sinstitutionsthingslikefamilyreligion

education, the media. Through these organisms, civil society endorses the ethical beliefs and manners

whichmaintainhegemony” (125).

Heavily influenced by Gramsci, Louis Althusser considers certain elements of civil society as primary

examplesofideologicalstateapparatus(IS’s)orthosecomponentsofasocietythatfunctiontosupport

and serve the ideology of the dominant rulingclassSpecificallylthusserscrutinizescommunicationsIS’s

thatincludethepressradioandtelevisionandculturalIS’sintheformsoftextsartsandsports(89)

Inarguingthat“allideologicalStateapparatuseswhatevertheyarecontributetothesameresult”he

highlightstheroleof“thecommunicationsapparatus”thatworks“bycrammingevery‘citizen’withdaily

dosesofnationalismchauvinismliberalismmoralismetcbymeansofthepressradioandtelevision”

(104). InotherwordsasIS’sthemainstreammediaarecomplicitinrecirculatingandreinforcing

American hegemony, its histories, and its hierarchies via the content and contexts of what they say to

whom, when, and how. Often, the popular press serves as a rhetorical tool for the state and the dominant

philosophies and protocols that it espouses.

Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky forward a similar position in Manufacturing Consent . It is

theirviewthat“amongtheirotherfunctionsthemediaserveandpropagandize on behalf of, the powerful

societal interests that control and finance them. The representatives of these interests have important

agendas and principles that they want to advance, and they are well positioned to shape and constrain

mediapolicy” (xi). Within this propaganda model of the media, Herman and Chomsky point out, there does

exist a measure of diversity and difference of opinion. The popular press is not completely compliant or

conformisttothestateanditsideologies“Thebeautyof the system, however, is that such dissent and

inconvenient information are kept within bounds and at the margins, so that while their presence shows

that the system is not monolithic, they are not large enough to interfere unduly with the domination of the

officialagenda”(xii)Thisiswhatmakeshegemonysopotentandpersuasiveitaccountsforandincludes

whatever and whoever may stand counter to it, subverting opponents by subsuming and employing, rather

than excluding and destroying them. The fact that hegemonic systems, no matter how controlling, still

allow for dissent and resistance is one of the reasons why it is important to probe and push their

frameworks and functions with projects like this dissertation.

Themassmedia’scoverageofthe Oprah trial serves American hegemony. During the trial, the

popularpressfocusedprimarilyonthedemocraticnotionoffreespeechonWinfrey’sstarstatusandon

the media circus that surrounded the case. Rarely, if ever, were the topics of corporate agribusiness and its

influence over public policy and financial markets raised by the mainstream media. The original issue of the

safety of the United States beef supply went similarly unexplored, as did the related issues of race and

gender. These rhetorical patterns of emphasis and omission create a version of the trial that serves the

interests and investments of American civil society and consents to American hegemony rather than

attempting to counter it. After all, the very laws that the trial claimed to be about, those designed to stifle

public commentary on perishable food products, were in place during throughout trial and remain in place

today. Challenging hegemony in this case would have meant exposure to the same prosecution that

Winfrey faced, and few individuals or businesses have the resources and finances to wage such a

courtroom battle. Instead, the media served as an example of how the institutions of civil society serve the

interests of the dominant ruling class and the government agencies and corporate financiers who regulate

not only what Americans put into their mouths, but also what they can say about it.

Works Cited

lthusserLouis“IdeologyandIdeologicalStatepparatusesNotestowardsanInvestigation” Lenin and

Philosophy and other essays . Intro. Frederic Jameson. Trans. Ben Brewster. New York: Monthly

Review, 2001. 85-126.

Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. Ed. and Trans. Quentin Hoare

and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International, 1971.

Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass

Media .. New York: Pantheon, 2002.

LearsTJJackson“TheConceptofCulturalHegemonyProblemsandPossibilities” American Historical

Review 90 (1985): 567-593.

Villanueva, Jr. Victor. Bootstraps: From An American Academic of Color . Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1993.

Gramsci's hegemony theory and the ideological role of the mass media by Stuart Hainsworth

http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/contributions/gramsci.html

Gramsci’stheoryofhegemonyisbornfromthebasicideathatgovernmentandstatecannotenforcecontrol

over any particular class or structure unless other, more intellectual methods are entailed. The reason and

motive behind the concept has been noted to be the way society is structured and exists on a power and class

base. Gramsci defined the State as coercion combined with hegemony and according to Gramsci hegemony is

political power that flows from intellectual and moral leadership, authority or consensus as distinguished from

armed force. A ruling class forms and maintains its hegemony in civil society, i.e. by creating cultural and

political consensus through unions, political parties, schools, media, the church, and other voluntary

associations where hegemony is exercised by a ruling class over allied classes and social groups. Gramsci argues

in his Prison Notebooks (which were written whilst he was incarcerated by Mussolini in Fascist Italy) that the

waysocietyiscontrolledandmanipulatedisofdirectconsequenceofthepracticeofa‘falseconsciousness’and

the creation of values and life choices which are to be followed. Gramsci argues that the system of hegemony

canbeclassifiedas“socialbasisof the proletarian dictatorship and of the Workers State". (Gramsci ( 1971 ) : 443)

It is this process which Gramsci refers to when he tries to explain the way in which organisation of people,

media and information controls the thought and actions to create a state of domination though the creation of

dominant ideologies. Another aspects of the theory of hegemony include the economic determination and

intellectual and moral leadership, which degenerates into a domination and consensual managing of life

choices. The media has a central role in this theory and the practice of the process has become more and more

to the fore in study of the way the ideological media are at the centreofthestruggleforconsumers’mindsand

central views. The role of the media has to be taken into account within the context of the theory of hegemony

due to of the value of the media and the public-imposed powers it yields. Communication from government,

between and inside classes is now controlled by the media and any text consumed by the state has to be

considered to be potentially open to the practice of manipulation and therefore, the process of hegemony.

The media and 'consent' It could be argued that the media exists as a vehicle and tool for consumerism to grow

and for society to engage in the current purchase-dominated way. If people are not consumers then they may

be considered by some areas of society to be outcasts and different from the ‘norm’Itisthisstateofaffairs

where the media can be key to influencing the people it informs and instilling the thought that one must be a

consumer and if not then at least aspire to be. Gramsci may argue that the way in which the media operates

couldequatetowhatheenvisagedwhenhetalkedabouta‘classstruggle’andthecreationofvalueswhich

others must follow. It is this situation where the ideological role of the media can be seen to influence the way

in which people can decode and read advertisements, features, television programmes and any text which may

hold a hidden meaning; therefore creating the possibility for media to become very powerful in terms of

ideological control and leadership. It could be said that the media has become the dominant class in a Western

society full of semiotic and hegemonic traits. No longer can the world be seen through ones own single

apatheticeye“Duetotheriseoftradeunionsandotherpressuregroupstheexpansionofcivilrights(including

the right to vote), and higher levels of educational achievement, rule must be based in consent. The intellectuals

sympathetictotherulingclasswillthereforeworktopresenttheideasandjustificationsoftheclass’s

domination coherently and persuasively. This work will inform the persuasion of ideas through such institutions

asthemassmediathechurchschoolandfamily”(Edgar(1999)164)Recentlytheproliferationand

exploitation of press and interactive media has led to the creation of super media existence threatens the

objectiveviewpointssocietyreliesupontokeepan‘open’stateifonewereevertoexistGramsciwasmainly

concerned with the determinism within the state of Italy in the early part of the 20th Century. He saw the

potential for manipulation and the practice of domination growing in Mussolini Italy. Within the current

theoreticalclimatethetheoryhasbeenadaptedtoincludethetheoryof‘consent’Thisallowsthescopefor

many theorists to argue that the way society is now run, with the increasing emphasis on education, makes the

leadership and decision making process less easy to quantify. The theory of consent exists to try and explain the

way in which government policy, legislation and international policy are made and enforced.

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