Gramsci's Leadership And Cultural Studies

Centring on the hegemony theory of Gramsci, the thesis illuminate how Gramsci influencecultural studies, and how cultural studies appropriate Gramsci. So, in fact, what the thesisexamine is the problem of how cultural studies accept Gramsci. The history of cultural studies had not been long, but very complicated, so I construct thethesis according to 'history'(as longitude), 'writers'(as latitude) and 'cases'(as knot). Chapter 1 examines the theory of cultural hegemony of Gramsci, which includes two respects,one is his cultural view, one is his hegemony theory. The core of Gramsci's cultural view isenlightenment which liberates people from primitive and spontaneous state of commonsense torise to the stage of good sense, thus one can know himself, sees reality clearly, then lay afoundation for struggling for hegemony. For Gramsci, that is the foundation of hegemony, andguarantees the development trend of hegemony struggling. Without this foundation andguarantee, even if obtaining the hegemony temporarily, such as the fascist, that is not a realhegemony. Therefore, for Gramsci, hegemony is not simple power fighting for, it shouldregard the people's liberation and progress as the basic goal. Hegemony is one kind of leadership,acquired not through force rule but through winning the consent of the masses. The strugglingfor hegemony is a complicated and arduous task, which Gramsci called 'war of position'. In thecourse of struggling for hegemony, the intellectuals, especially the organic intellectuals play theintermediation role between specific social groups (or political parties) and the masses, andforming 'historic group'together with the masses and social group. The forming of the historicalgroup is an important sign of winning the hegemony. Chapter 2 analyses the acceptance of Gramsci's hegemony of culturalism tradition. ForRaymond Williams, his acceptance of Gramsci is mostly a kind of appropriation, namelyregarding the hegemony as a kind of 'culture', which is different from Hall's structurallyaccepting Gramsci. Chapter 3 analysis the acceptance of Gramsci of Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies ofBirmingham (CCCS ). In general, the passage of accepting had one course of development andchange. We examine the course through analysising three cases concretly. Chapter 4 analyses Stuart Hall's acceptance of Gramsci from three respects, firstly, to examineHall's analysising Gramsci's hegemony; secondly, to analysis Hall's Thatcherism; thirdly, toexamine Hall's theory of articulation. Chapter 5 analyses the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, and their understanding ofGramsci's hegemony. In lalacu and Mouffe, hegemony is a kind of practice of articulation,which corresponding to the 'nodal points' or 'empty signifier' of their discourse theory.Therefore none hegemony has the essential subject (such as the classes), the hegemony is only aplatform which various kinds of signifiers can assembled together on temporarily, not a subjectthat can send out the orders. It should say that their theory depends on their understandingcontemporary society, reflecting their radical, freedom and plural democratic revolution thought. Chapter 6 discusses John Fiske's 'the popular culture theory in the capitalist society'. Thepopular culture theory of Fiske puts emphasis on the resistance and pleasure of masses, ignoringthe suppress of institutions. In Fiske the institutions are in background, and be taken for granted.Fiske's populism without criticizing has caused many people's criticism, and further brings thecrisis of paradigms of cultural studies. Many writers attemp to get back to Gramsci, to hishegemony theory. This is meaningful, but that how we go back is still a question which need tothink deeply thoroughly. Finally, we summarize Gramsci's hegemony theory and the problem ofapplying in the context of China.