چکیده:
This research looks at Robert Louise Stevenson’s renowned adventure romance, Treasure Island, in the light of its representation of social class struggles and the function of hegemonic conditioning in those struggles. It draws upon Antonio Gramsci's theories of hegemony and culture, coercion and consensus, and his notion of the organic intellectual. The careful analysis of the novel demonstrates the author’s critical attitude toward the dominant social system and his hope for an eventual breach in that system. The novel depicts the underlying hegemonic mind-frames that rule over social relationships from which very few characters can escape, and suggests that mass revolutions might not be successful in the toppling of the existing hegemony. Through the figure of Long John Silver, who is here compared to the organic intellectual of Gramsci’s theories, the novel proposes a cunning method of resistance against hegemonic forces similar to the Gramscian notion of war of position that could free people from hegemonic subjugation and lead them to success.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Through the figure of Long John Silver, who is here compared to the organic intellectual of Gramsci’s theories, the novel proposes a cunning method of resistance against hegemonic forces similar to the Gramscian notion of war of position that could free people from hegemonic subjugation and lead them to success.
Robert Irvine (2010) describes the manifestations of class division in Treas- ure Island, and asserts that Stevenson who was fully aware of the underlying class struggle between the characters, chose to depict it in a simplified manner through the eyes of a young teenager, Jim, whose young mind “understands the conflict in simple terms of right and wrong, unmediated by social categories such as class” though the adult reader can distinguish scenes “in which the so- cial power of the gentleman over the lower classes is unambiguously displayed” (p.
This study demonstrates that the favored way of resistance in this novel is the method used by Long John Silver to chal- lenge the dominant hegemony, which is in tune with Gramsci’s idea of war of position.
Therefore, this article’s significance lies in its refutation of some of the pre- vious readings of the novel by proving that Treasure Island does more than merely observing and representing the social structure of Victorian England; it critically analyzes the possibilities of change and eventually proposes a way of resistance that can be used beyond the world of fiction and in the actual society.