Hegemony in Raymond Williams

 

Raymond Williams explains Hegemony in the following ways:

·         Hegemony constitutes lived experience:  Hegemony is embodied in lived experiences, forming an absolute reality that proves challenging for most members of society to surpass in various aspects of their lives.

·        Hegemony exceeds ideology: Hegemony goes beyond mere ideology, refusing to confine consciousness to a formal, articulate system commonly abstracted as 'ideology'

·         Lived hegemony is a process, not a system or structure:  Lived hegemony embodies a process rather than a fixed system or structure, although it can be schematized for analytical purposes.

·        Hegemony is dynamic: Hegemony is a dynamic force; it doesn't merely exist as a form of dominance. It requires continual renewal, recreation, defense, and modification. It is also subject to resistance, limitations, alterations, and challenges from external pressures

·        Hegemony attempts to neutralize opposition: Hegemony strives to neutralize opposition; its crucial function is to either control, transform, or even incorporate alternatives and opposition (Page 113). One could persuasively argue that the dominant culture both produces and sets limits on its own forms of counter-culture

• Hegemony is not necessarily total: Hegemony does not necessarily encompass everything; reducing all political and cultural initiatives and contributions to the terms of hegemony is an oversimplification. Authentic disruptions within and beyond it have often occurred