The Philosopher
Antonio Gramsci
The face
The background
- Nationality:
- Italian
- Period:
- 20th-century
The synopsis
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher, linguist, and politician, born on January 22, 1891, in Ales, Sardinia, and died on April 27, 1937, in Rome. He was a founding member and leader of the Italian Communist Party. A critic of Benito Mussolini and fascism, he was imprisoned in 1926 and remained incarcerated until shortly before his death. During his imprisonment, Gramsci produced over 3,000 pages of analysis in his "Prison Notebooks," covering history, politics, and philosophy. His work introduced concepts such as "cultural hegemony," which describes how ruling classes maintain power through ideology and consent rather than just coercion. Gramsci's thought significantly influenced Western Marxism and critical theory, offering a nuanced understanding of power, culture, and social change.
The works
Prison Notebooks
The quotes
I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.
The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination.
My practicality consists in this, in the knowledge that if you beat your head against the wall it is your head which breaks and not the wall - that is my strength, my only strength.
The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.
To tell the truth is revolutionary.
Pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will.
I turn and turn in my cell like a fly that doesn't know where to die.