Post on Williams and Gramisci

Willams and Gramisci literary works on Marxism were very intriguing. Williams wrote about ideology and the three senses. What I got out of this reading is Williams was comparing Marx and Engles studies to the past, and philosophical ideas that relate to ideology. I found Gramsci’s work more interesting. He writes about intellectuality and how he states that “All men are intellectuals, one could therefore say: but not all men in society the function of intellectuals”(pg.5). To me he is saying that as humans we all have our own minds that wander and think, we all have our own philosophy’s about how the world should be and where it is at. But we accept certain “intellectuals” to be seen as intellectuals and basically call everyone else non-intellectuals when non-intellectuals don’t exist. We people create this idea of certain people being intellectuals, but deep inside we are all “philosophers”. We all have our own morals and virtues that make us who we are, but as a society we listen to other people that also have their own morals and virtues and consider them to be right because they are “intellectuals”. Now comes the question of what does this al have to do with literature? The way I see it is that the study of ideology and thinking, and all the fact that we all are intellectuals with our own philosophy is what creates the ideas behind all literature. Whether its fiction or non-fiction there is a mind behind all literature. What we were taught or took in ourselves and how our minds were developed will determine how we think and spark ideas that create literature.