Girl-Gramsci

When I read the section on hegemony it spoke about a social revolution of the working class. Gramsci’ wrote about the concept of hegemony, and how it worked among society. He also believed that hegemony was based primarily on two things ideology and culture. His idea of hegemony was that bourgeoisie had control over the working class; it was also his explanation on why this social revolution had not occurred. One of the reasons he states was that capitalism was still strong amongst society.

I think this idea of one class controlling the other, related to the story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid .In the story the mother explains to her daughter her place in society as a female. Throughout the story the mother is teaching her daughter her place in the world. She tells her how to wash clothes, clean the house, cook, sew and iron. When I read this story I felt as if the mother was giving her daughter guidelines or a checklist of things to do when she becomes a woman. This story relates to Marx’s ideas and Gramsci’s idea of hegemony for the simple fact that the daughter is learning her place, just like the working class of society.

What does this all have to do with literature? This was kind of a challenging question. I think that literature plays an important role sometimes to help understand someone else’s ideas, for example Karl Marx. When I read the “German Ideology “my natural reaction was, what did he just said???? I didn’t understand anything, but after reading more literature relating to his ideas I understood his view points a little better than before. A simple story like “Girl” helped me understand Gramsci’s ideas of hegemony.