Description
This lecture looks at social movements and culture in history through three theoretical models of social, political and historical change: Karl Marx’s theory of historical materialism as expressed in the “base-superstructure” model, Antonio Gramsci’s theories of intellectuals and of consent and coercion in the shaping of hegemony, and Black feminism as expressed by Combahee River Collective. Marx’s theory influenced the formation of the movements of the19th century; the labor movement, the women’s suffrage movement and the abolitionist movement. Gramsci’s context of Italian fascism is discussed as is the question of historical fascism as a backlash against the gains made by the social movements that preceded it. Through the Combahee River Collective we come to see how Black feminism represents a revolutionary force not only against the systems of state and economic oppression, but against the narrowly constructed identities that shaped the previous history of social movements. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 36285]