Antonio Gramsci was born on 22 January 1891.
He was an Italian Marxist philosopher and communist politician. He wrote on political theory, sociology and linguistics. He attempted to break from the economic determinism of traditional Marxist thought, and so he is considered a key neo-Marxist. He was a founding member and one-time leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime.
While imprisoned by Mussolini’s fascists, Gramsci wrote one of the most significant contributions to social and political theory of the 20th century. ‘The Prison Notebooks’.
In them, he explained why the oppressed follow their oppressors, explaining that it is not force per se that is the reason but what he called hegemony.
Hegemony was a term previously used by Marxists such as Vladimir Lenin to denote the political leadership of the working-class in a democratic revolution. Gramsci greatly expanded this concept, developing an acute analysis of how the ruling capitalist class – the bourgeoisie – establishes and maintains its control.
In essence, via cultural hegemony, in which language plays a key role, Gramsci explains how, through the conduit or major institutions, for example, the media, the ruling classes can construct a ‘common sense reality’ that goes unquestioned by the vast majority of those who are oppressed. Therefore, the ruling classes, without the need for significant force or coercion, can control the consciousnesses of millions… of people and persuade them that their lot is common sense and in some cases, natural.
Voila.
During his eleven years of imprisonment, his health deteriorated: His teeth fell out, his digestive system collapsed so that he could not eat solid food… he had convulsions when he vomited blood, and he suffered headaches so violent that he beat his head against the walls of his cell.
Gramsci died on 27 April 1937, at the age of 46. His ashes are buried in the Cimitero Acattolico (Non-Catholic Cemetery) in Rome.
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