Figure 1: Photograph of Antonio Gramsci (infed.org, (2012).
“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum, a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” (Antonio Gramsci quotes, n.d.)
Antonio,s Early life
Born in 1891 Sardinia, Italy Antonio Gramsci was the fourth son of a clerk in the registrar’s office. But his father was sent to prison for five years, and Antonio’s upbringing became very hard due to poverty in the family. As a child, Antonio was regularly ill, and his anguish was multiplied by the physical deformity. Though his early education was disturbed due to ill health and poverty, after his father was released from prison, he resumed his education. He won a scholarship to the University of Turin (Gramsci, n.d).
Young Antonio Gramsci
Young Antonio joined the Italian Socialist Party in 1913. Gramsci did not complete his university education, but was trained under Antonio Lebriola at the University as a Hegelian Marxist, and studied the interpretation of Karl Marx’s theory intensively as a “philosophy of praxis” (Cole, 2019).
Travelling to Vienna in 1923 and meeting Georg Lukács, a prominent Hungarian Marxist thinker, and other Marxist and communist intellectuals and activists shaped his intellectual work. By 1926, he became the head of the Italian Communist Party (Cole, 2019).
Figure 2: Construction: Day 37. Lopez, (2013).
Theory of Cultural Hegemony-
Gramsci is most renowned for his theory of Cultural Hegemony; His theory describes how the state and ruling capitalist class uses cultural institutions to maintain power in capitalist societies. The capitalist society, in Gramsci’s view, develops a dominion culture using ideology rather than violence, economic force, or pressure. Hegemonic or dominant culture propagates its values and norms so that they become the “ruling” values of all and thus maintain the status quo of the capitalist society undermining the other cultures which are dominant in community. This dominant power is therefore used to secure consent to the capitalist order, rather than forced control using force to maintain order. (Antonio Gramsci, n.d)
Figure 3: Gramsci and Hegemony Birdsquidtoo , (2019).
Antonio’s view on Education-
Gramsci views that the educational institution as one of the fundamental elements of cultural hegemony in modern Western society (Cole, 2019). According to Gramsci, the school system was just one part of the system of ideological hegemony in which individuals were socialized into maintaining the status quo. It helped to keep the dominance of the capitalist power base. He believed that the school must relate to everyday life and to achieve educational success, the active participation of the students is paramount. His viewed informal educators as playing an essential part in one’s self –awareness, social awareness and crucial to the intellectual part of everyone’s life. (Burke, 1999, 2005).
Figure 4 Children’s class. Lopez, (2013).
References:
Antonio Gramsci. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.gpedia.co/en/gpedia/Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci. (n.d.). In Your Dictionary. Retrieved from https://biography.yourdictionary.com/antonio- Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.goodreads.com: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2438.Antonio_Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci. (2012) Retrieved from https://infed.org/mobi/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/gramsci_pd.jpg
Birdsquidtoo,(2019). Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/9w5s6l/gramsci_and_cultural_hegemony/
Burke, B. (1999, 2005) ‘Antonio Gramsci, schooling and education’, the encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education Retrieved from, http://www.infed.org/thinkrs/et-gram.htm
Cole, N, (2020). Biography of Antonio Gramsci. Retrieved from http://www.throughtco./antoniao-gramsci-3026471
Lopez,(2013) Construction day, Retrieved from https://www.dailyserving.com/2013/08/hashtags-on-the-political-in-art/
Lopez, R (2013) Children’s Class, Retrieved fromhttps://www.dailyserving.com/2013/08/hashtags-on-the-political-in-art/