The Sociology Book

178

T H E C H A L L E N G E O F

M O D E R N I T Y I S T O L I V E

W I T H O U T I L L U S I O N S A N D

W I T H O U T B E C O M I N G

D I S I L L U S I O N E D

ANTONIO GRAMSCI (1891–1937)

T

he Marxist view of society

is that life is an ongoing

struggle of competing

groups; these groups are

determined economically, and

under modernity the struggle has

intensified into a contest for control

between a minority ruling elite and

the majority, made up of workers.

Italian socialist and social thinker

Antonio Gramsci tries to explain

why revolution is not precipitated

According to Marx, the ruling class controls the

economic base and creates the superstructure of institutions

and social relations that dominate the working class.

The challenge of modernity is to

live without illusions and without

becoming disillusioned.

Gramsci claims class domination also occurs culturally:

the working class are subject to the ideological illusions

perpetrated by the ruling class.

These illusions must be seen through,

and resisted at all costs.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Cultural hegemony

KEY DATES

1846 Karl Marx and Friedrich

Engels finish The German

Ideology; not published

until 1932, it later strongly

influences Gramsci’s thinking

about ideology.

1921 The Italian Communist

Party is founded.

1922 Benito Mussolini

becomes dictator of Italy

and a leading figure in the

development of Fascism.

1964 The Centre for

Contemporary Cultural Studies

is established at the University

of Birmingham, England, and

draws heavily on Gramsci’s

notion of hegemony.

1985 Inspired by Gramsci’s

concept of hegemony, Ernesto

Laclau and Chantal Mouffe

develop a post-Marxist

manifesto in Hegemony

and Socialist Strategy.