Gramsci
Prison Notebooks author
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher and politician, imprisoned by Mussolini's fascist regime from 1926 until shortly before his death in 1937.
His prison notebooks developed influential concepts in political theory, particularly cultural hegemony—the idea that ruling classes maintain power not just through force but by shaping the beliefs and values of the broader population.
Gramscian analysis examines how dominant ideologies become accepted as common sense.
Dominant group's control
- ideologyStructured belief framework
- subalternJunior commissioned officer
- superstructureConstruction above the base
- cultural hegemonyDominant group's normalized beliefs
civil society · common sense · consent · domination · praxis · intellectuals · class consciousness · folklore
Italian autonomous island region
- TurinPiedmont's chief city
- prisonConfinement for offenders
- MussoliniItalian fascist premier
- fascismUltranationalist dictatorial political system
Communist Party · arrest · imprisonment · illness · parliament · exile · PCI · hunchback
Study of imperial aftermath
- MarxismClass-based revolutionary philosophy
- education theoryPrinciples guiding instruction
- sociologyStudy of human communities
- political theoryStudy of governance principles
media studies · literary theory · New Left · Foucault · reception
Collective ownership system
- socialismCommunal economic control
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
- working classManual laborers collectively
- proletariatLaborers lacking capital ownership
bourgeoisie · class struggle · party · vanguard · strategy · tactics · alliances · democracy
Incomplete broken pieces
- notebooksBound blank pages
- essaysShort nonfiction prose pieces
- journalismNews gathering and dissemination
- correspondenceExchanged written communication
posthumous · censorship · manuscripts · cultural criticism · literary criticism · political essays · notes · aphorisms
hegemony
Dominant group's control
- ideologyStructured belief framework
- subalternJunior commissioned officer
- superstructureConstruction above the base
cultural hegemony · civil society · common sense · consent · domination · praxis · intellectuals · class consciousness · folklore · good sense
Sardinia
Italian autonomous island region
fascism · Communist Party · arrest · imprisonment · illness · parliament · exile · PCI · hunchback · death
postcolonialism
Study of imperial aftermath
- MarxismClass-based revolutionary philosophy
- education theoryPrinciples guiding instruction
- sociologyStudy of human communities
political theory · media studies · literary theory · New Left · Foucault · reception
communism
Collective ownership system
- socialismCommunal economic control
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
- working classManual laborers collectively
proletariat · bourgeoisie · class struggle · party · vanguard · strategy · tactics · alliances · democracy · state
fragments
Incomplete broken pieces
- notebooksBound blank pages
- essaysShort nonfiction prose pieces
- journalismNews gathering and dissemination
correspondence · posthumous · censorship · manuscripts · cultural criticism · literary criticism · political essays · notes · aphorisms · translations
- Italian HistoryRome, Venice, Florence, Naples, Sicily
- Italian StudiesItalian language, Italian history, Italian literature, Italian art, Italian culture
- 20th Century ItalyMussolini, fascism, neorealism, economic miracle, Christian Democrats
- Italian ThinkersDante Alighieri, Niccolo Machiavelli, Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno, Thomas Aquinas
- SocialistsKarl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky
- critical theorydeconstruction, Marxism, feminism, simulacrum, postcolonialism
GramsciMussolini
Italian fascist premier
Benito Mussolini · Francisco Franco · Ayn Rand · Milton Friedman · Pinochet