Language And Hegemony In Gramsci (Reading Gramsci)

✍ Scribed by Peter Ives

• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 216
• Edition: Text is Free of Markings
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Language and Hegemony in Gramsci introduces Gramsci’s social and political thought through his writings on language. It shows how his focus on language illuminates his central ideas such as hegemony, organic and traditional intellectuals, passive revolution, civil society and subalternity. Peter Ives explores Gramsci’s concern with language from his university studies in linguistics to his last prison notebook. Hegemony has been seen as Gramsci’s most important contribution, but without knowledge of its linguistic roots, it is often misunderstood.This book places Gramsci’s ideas within the linguistically influenced social theory of the twentieth century. It summarizes some of the major ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure, Ludwig Wittgenstein, language philosophy and post-structuralism in relation to Gramsci’s position. By paying great attention to the linguistic underpinnings of Gramsci's Marxism, Language and Hegemony in Gramsci shows how his theorization of power, language and politics address issues raised by post-modernism and the work of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Chantal Mouffe, and Ernesto Laclau.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 4
Introduction......Page 13
The pervasiveness of Gramsci’s hegemony......Page 14
Approaching language and hegemony......Page 17
Overview......Page 20
Language, production and politics in the twentieth century......Page 24
The many linguistic turns......Page 27
Saussure's structural approach to language......Page 28
The structuralist turn towards language......Page 33
Philosophy's 'linguistic turn'......Page 37
Marxism and language......Page 41
Conclusion......Page 43
2. Linguistics and Politics in Gramsci's Italy......Page 45
Gramsc's home, Sardinia......Page 46
The Southern Question and the Risorgimento......Page 47
The Language Question......Page 48
Gramsci's youth......Page 50
Beyond the Wide Waters......Page 53
Gramsci's linguistics......Page 55
Italian linguistics......Page 56
Bartoli's polemic against the Neogrammarians......Page 59
Summary of various approaches to Language......Page 66
Gramsci and Esperanto......Page 67
Conclusion......Page 73
3. Language and Hegemony in the Prison Notebooks......Page 75
Approaching the Prison Notebooks......Page 76
Non- linguistic understandings of hegemony......Page 79
Two broad themes in hegemony......Page 82
Language, philosophy and intellectuals......Page 84
Subalternity and fragmented 'common sense'......Page 89
Language, nation, collective popular will......Page 94
Language and metaphor......Page 96
The structures of language......Page 101
Spontaneous grammar......Page 102
Normative grammar......Page 104
Normative history in spontaneous grammar......Page 108
Normative grammar and progressive hegemony......Page 110
Conclusion......Page 113
Passive revolution and ineffective national language......Page 114
War of manoeuvre and war of position......Page 119
War of position as passive revolution......Page 121
National-popular collective will......Page 122
War of position and new social movement alliances......Page 124
Language as a model for the national Πpopular collective will......Page 125
Hegemony, political alliances and the united front against Fascism......Page 126
State and civil society......Page 128
The history of state and civil society......Page 129
The state......Page 131
Conclusion......Page 137
5. Postmodernism, New Social Movements and Globalization: Implications for Social and Political Theory......Page 138
Postmodernism, language and relativism: is all the world a text?......Page 140
Nietzsche, Saussure and Derrida on language......Page 143
Language and relativism in Gramsci......Page 147
Foucault, language and power......Page 150
Power in Gramsci and Foucault......Page 153
New social movements and discourse: Laclau and Mouffe......Page 156
Laclau and Mouffe's linguistically informed 'Hegemony'......Page 165
Globalization......Page 172
Notes......Page 178
Bibliography......Page 199
Index......Page 207