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The Problem of Gramsci Reception in Contemporary Cultural Studies: Gramsci as Althusser’s Other

Recently, various culturalist critics have taken issue with Althusser, and he is now widely seen as the last remnant of Marxist “economism” or even an anti-humanist who practices structural functionalism. However, on the contrary, as Althusser’s Other, Gramsci has been received as a proto-culturalist critic developing a very flexible notion of ‘hegemony,’ which is useful for theorizing cultural studies’ new research foci such as race, ethnicity, body, gender, signification and culture. In this theoretical context, the primary purpose of the present essay is to critically survey receptions of Gramsci in our contemporary cultural studies especially when “from Althusser to Gramsci” has become an imperative thesis among our contemporary cultural critics. This essay examines receptions of Gramsci by Hall, Laclau-Mouffe, and Williams, and shows that the transition “from Althusser to Gramsci” is based on reductive understandings of both thinkers. This thesis is possible only when they overlook the rich Gramscian heritage embedded in Althusser’s works, and the overall force of Gramsci’s own writings, which unmistakably indicate the theoretical, political, and practical necessity of class struggle, including but not confined to cultural struggle.