| Antonio Gramsci Contributor(s): Jones, Steven (Author) |
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ISBN: 041531948X ISBN-13: 9780415319485 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $23.70 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2006 Annotation: An introduction to the work, key ideas and influence of Gramsci, Italian Marxist theorist and political activist. Gramsci was a long term prisoner of the Mussolini regime, hence his most famous writings have been those penned in his cell, including the "Prison Notebooks" and the "Prison Letters." Gramsci's ideas about the the relationships between the rulers and the ruled, about domination, resistance and transgression, have been extremely influential in cultural studies and cultural theory. He is perhaps best-known for formulating the concept of "hegemony" which describes the process whereby the ruling power wins the consent of the ruled to the status quo, and hence to fit their subordination, and their ways of understanding the world with the interests of the ruling power. Gramsci's ideas were much employed during the grim years of Thatcherism, as critics on the left (notably Stuart Hall) struggled to find ways to explain the fact that the working classes kept voting for Thatcher, even though it was apparently against their interests to do so. Gramsci's thought also offers hope in that challenges or transgressions to hegemonic ideas or structures can be found even in the most outwardly conservative of narratives. Popular culture has often been cited as a key battleground, on which struggles for meaning and power take place - for example debates about whether Eminem is a "good thing" - because he speaks for the disenfranchised white working-class American, and argues against racial boundaries in music - or a bad thing because of his homophobic and misogynistic lyrics. Steven Jones' book will explain the contemporary relevance of Gramsci's ideas, notably about hegemony, throughrecent texts, phenomena and events such as the death of Diana, "La haine," the Global spread of McDonalds and anti-globalization tracts including Naomi Klein's "No Logo." |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Political - History | Europe - Italy |
| Dewey: B |
| Series: Routledge Critical Thinkers |
| Physical Information: 0.52" H x 5.14" W x 7.78" (0.40 lbs) 168 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Italy |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: For readers encountering Gramsci for the first time, Steve Jones covers key elements of his thought through detailed discussion and studies the historical context of the theorist's thought, offers examples of putting Gramsci's ideas into practice in the analysis of contemporary culture and evaluates responses to his work. Including British, European and American examples, key topics covered here include: * culture Gramsci's work invites people to think beyond simplistic oppositions by recasting ideological domination as hegemony: the ability of a ruling power's values to live in the minds and lives of its subalterns as a spontaneous expression of their own interests Is power simply a matter of domination and resistance? Can a ruling power be vulnerable? Can subordinates find their resitance neutralized? and What is the role of culture in this? These questions, and many more are tackled here in this invaluable introduction to Gramsci.
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