Marxism

The foundations of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony are seen within the work of Marx a philosopher, historian and the founder of Marxism. Marx was one of the many philosophers that had an influence upon Gramsci, others including Lenin and Lukacs also helped him think about his theories.
Moving on from ideology io the main concept of Gramscian theory, hegemony. It is understood that there was particular interest in finding out whether ideas that formed ideologies had any impact upon human understanding of the society . This then led to thinking about the ways in which society was change due to the impact from ideologies. Gramscian thought taught the world that hegemony represents quite an important aspect of critical analysis.

In order to understand how hegemony has evolved it is essential to look at its development from the theories of Marx and how he influenced the though of Gramsci. Marx’s analysis of ideology has developed through 3 stages:
 The first stage brings forward the writings Marx wrote through his early years until the year 1844.
 Then the second stage focuses on the break with Feuerbach in 1845.
 The final stage consists of Hegel's science and logic that is read by Marx.

Marx criticised Hegel in the first stage of developing ideology. He showed that Hegel made alot of mistakes when inverting the idea of the real world being subordinate to intellectual thought and that real human practice had been transformed into a limited display of intellectual ideas. Marx also argued that there was now a need to set the movement of reality back up in the right way. Hegel had already made mistakes when he gave alot more importance to the metaphysical idea rather than to the physical ‘real world.’
The state was given authority t...

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...ve the importance of ideologies in forming strategies for hegemonic control before and after the revolution.
Therefore Gramsci argues that an analysis and understanding of any source that is conscious is needed. This does also include those aspects that have the experience of living within the society that cannot avoid using the superstructure.

This piece of writing ahs shown that Gramsci was influenced by Marx alot. In nearly every thought and theory Gramsci has used te past. Marx was a theorist who inspired alot of other philosopher but Gramsci seemed to be the most influential. The work of Gramsci had adapted to the work of Marx and added more insight into what the world is, how it should be understood and what individuals see reality to be.

Gramsci’s concept of hegemony should be seen as a later and more richer development of the concept of ideology in Marx.