Week 8 Questions (Davis)

Hall emphasizes the importance of “periodization” in Gramsci’s work, noting his insistent hesitancy towards more mechanical characterizations of crisis (p. 422). How might this insight, alongside the dynamic and relational understandings of hegemony that Hall also points towards, shape contemporary treatments of texts? What does it look like to engage in scholarship sensitive to these considerations? I was not previously familiar with “Gramsci’s critical distinction between ‘philosophy’ and ‘common sense’” (p. 431). I would like to discuss this understanding and how it contrasts with alternative characterizations of ideology (Althusser, etc.). How does this inform Hall’s perspective on common sense?