Gramsci and Marxist Theory

by Chantal Mouffe

Some pencil writing (mostly underling and check marks) mostly in the first 18 pages which are part of the introduction. The book is attractive.

Genres: Philosophy

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Chantal Mouffe is a Belgian political theorist. She holds a professorship at the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom. She is best known as co-author of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy with Ernesto Laclau. Their thoughts are usually described as post-Marxism as they were both politically active in the social and student movements of the 1960s including working class and new social movements (notably second-wave feminism in Mouffe's case). They rejected Marxist economic determinism and the notion of class struggle being the single crucial antagonism in society. Instead they urged for radical democracy of agonistic pluralism where all antagonisms could be expressed. In their opinion, ‘...there is no possibility of society without antagonism’; indeed, without the forces that articulate a vision of society, it could not exist.

Reviews

[Arda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes from C.S:

Mouffe (1979) demonstrates the ways through which Gramsci battled with the reductionist abstraction of ideology. One of Gramsci’s main points, in conceptualizing hegemony, is in operating towards, first and foremost, an anti-reductionist tackling of ideology. One of the features in Mouffe’s interpretation (as well as of Hall’s assertion) of Gramsci is in clarifying that his revelations of hegemony were not established by abstract academia, but rather by witnessing and in some cases foreseeing the effects of both capitalism and socialism on the working class. Reducing ideology into a single issue tied solely to class and economy is what Gramsci recognizes as problematic, and it is in this respect that he also rejects the interpretation of Marx in the “economic determinist” mindset. While hegemony must include the economic, Mouffe (1979) explains Gramsci’s perspective, it is not only economic: Hegemony is beyond class, and it is connected with all other elements that include culture, religion, and such attributes that dominate the value-system within societies. The articulation of those components, which, when tied together make up the ideology, is represented through discourse, and it is through discourse that hegemony takes on a national shape and defines society. The making-up of what is referred to as national interest, collective will, and basically the general good, is really what makes for the creation of systems. In other words, systems do not exist in a vacuum; rather, they are the collection of all ideology, made up from different components that feed into, often by mass endorsement and willingness, what becomes the popular value system.

[John C. Duff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative

[Sara Salem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book that is extremely theoretical and focuses mainly on the debate about Gramsci's position within Marxism - was he a Marxist or not, and how is his work different from Marx and Engels. The chapters by Chantal Mouffe are especially good, but some of the others are extremely specialized.