Hegemony as a protean concept

The concept of hegemony is the one most identified with Antonio Gramsci’s writings and is by far the most used word from the wider Marxist vocabulary. It is influential across the humanities and social sciences, as well as in social movements. This chapter overviews the influences on, and multiple meanings of, Gramsci’s concept, by situating it in his broader framework of historical materialism as a philosophy of praxis. The chapter outlines the challenges in illuminating Gramsci’s notion, how previous uses of the term influenced his thinking, and how he developed and elaborated the concept in his pre-prison writings and the Prison Notebooks. The notion is situated in Gramsci’s wider conceptual framework, by examining in turn the terrain of hegemony (in civil society and the ‘integral state’) and the political project of hegemony (effected through intellectuals and the ‘modern prince’).