A Study On Gramsci's Cultural Hegemony Theory And Its Contemporary Values

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), as one of the founders of Italian Communist Party, was a well-known Marxist theorist and political theorist in western countries. In his book Prison Notebooks, he fully expounded the theory of cultural hegemony and explored the mode of proletarian revolution theoretically in Italy and to a certain extent, developed Marxism-Leninism and made a new contribution to the development of the theory of scientific socialism. This paper, based on the reality of the development of social history of western Europe in 1920s and 1930s, expounded the emergence, meaning, its impact as well as contemporary values of the cultural hegemony from the perspective of the proletarian revolutionary movement. In-depth study of cultural hegemony theory helps us analyze and see the future and destiny of socialism of the world correctly, helps us to learn from its reasonable factors for China's current cause of socialism building.The research on Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony at home started relatively late. Since reform and opening up, some representatives of the research results have been published which compensate for the shortcomings of the domestic research, but the study of the cultural hegemony is only preliminary. It has not become a national research centre and hot on Gramsci. In contrast, research on Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony abroad started earlier and was in front of the domestic research whether in researches or research methods, which can be used for reference for the domestic research on Gramsci's theory on cultural hegemony.The thesis is mainly composed of three parts: the introduction, the text and closing remarks.The introduction part mainly discusses the proposal and its theoretical and practical significance, gives a brief introduction to the status quo of the research on cultural hegemony theory at home and abroad as well as the basic structure and main contents of the thesis.The text consists of four main sections. The first section ananlyzes the background of the emergence of cultural hegemony at that time from social history and theory. It also points out that the failure of the proletarian revolutionary movement and Benito Mussolini's fascist regime in 1920s and 1930s in Western Europe provided the social history of the establishment of the cultural hegemony, and Machiavelli's political ideology and Marxist philosophy Provided a theoretical basis. The second section discusses the theory premise and philosophical foundation of cultural hegemony. The thesis maintains that "cultural hegemony" was given a unique meaning by Gramsci: he put forward the theory of cultural hegemony based on practical philosophy through reunderstanding and re-elaborating the civil society. At the same time, Gramsci interpreted the civil society and the practical philosophy from the perspective of cultural values, opened a new starting point of the theoratical research on the civil society and the practical philosophy. The third section of the this part expounded the basic content of the cultural hegemony in four specific ways: organizers and leaders, policy and practice. The thesis states that a proletarian party is the main force of the practice of cultural hegemony, the proletariat organic intellectuals are the organizers and leaders to achieve cultural hegemony, "Zhen Dezhan" is the practical strategy of cultural hegemony, proletarian culture and ideology are the practical ways of cultural hegemony. The fourth section focuses on the impact and contemporary values of the cultural hegemony. The thesis maintains that the Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony has had a profound impact on of Althusser, Said and Habermas and has become the basic theory sources and ideological foundation for their theories. At the same time, cultural hegemony theory also has significant flaws, the thesis analyzes it from three angles. As for the contemporary value, the thesis thinks that the it is mainky reflected in the social, political and cultural aspect.The concluding part puts forward the essence of Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony and the necessity of correctly viewing and understanding cultural hegemony theory. At the same time, the thesis think that it is necessary to understand The Enlightenment of cultural hegemony correctly from the theoretical and practical levels through excavation of contemporary values of cultural hegemony.Upholding the basic principles and methods of dialectical materialism and historical materialism , using historical research method, the present thesis analyzes Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony as well as Prison Notebooks and other related literature specificly and historically. using specific evidence of Gramsci's cultural hegemony on the deep-seated social and historical significance. Combined with the comprehensive analysis of the research results of domestic and foreign scholars, based on China's specific national conditions and the latest trends of the contemporary world political, economic and social development, the present thesis expounds the contemporary values of Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony.