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Antonio Gramsci's Hegemony In White Noise

1269 Words6 Pages

Jamila Hoque
Golam Rabbani Shihab
English-520
2016-2-93-008

Antonio Gramsci’s Hegemony in Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise

This study delineates the use of cultural hegemony in Don DeLillo’s White Noise through the vintage points of Italian critic Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) who clarifies domination of the ruling class over ruled class. Cultural Hegemony is the mastery of the middle class and governing groups among the lower divisions. Antonio Gramsci declares that the only means of keeping cultural hegemony by super leaders is not the handling of power and coercion; instead, consent, language, use of intellectual men and educational instruments are the ways regarding the implementation of cultural hegemony; his distinction between traditional …show more content…

It follows that the role of the organic intellectual is to cross the line between “mass culture” and “high culture”, and to legitimate and institutionalize “mass culture” in order to justify his/her co-option by the logic of the market. That is why the chancellor of the college “was quick to see the possibilities”, that is, the profit that the college would get from the department. It is noteworthy that the Hitler Studies department shares a building with the Popular Culture department which is known as “American …show more content…

As Gramsci wrote hegemony is a reciprocally balanced combination of force and consent, therefore, media must be given the power and maintain the hegemony. One way that this hegemonic power is manifested in American culture can be seen in the concept of media-constructed reality. If the media covers an event, that matters; if there is no coverage, it does not. Media news is more important than reality or logic. While talking at kitchen Babette says that she buys the stuff with good intentions, but just can’t bring herself to eat stuff that doesn’t taste good. She obviously doesn’t know the true taste of eating salad. Babette insists on making a Friday tradition that she and Jack with kids sit down to watch TV and eat Chinese

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