During the past year a number of publications related to Gramsci have been sent to us or brought to our attention by members of the International Gramsci Society. We are providing here a description of these publications. See also the bibliographical update by Guido Liguori in a separate section of this issue.
Antonio Gramsci. Cadernos do cárcere. Volumes 2 & 3. Edited by Carlos Nelson Coutinho with Marco Aurélio Nogueira and Luiz Sérgio Henriques. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1999.
The new Portuguese translation and thoroughly annotated edition of the Prison Notebooks will consist of six volumes--with the appearance of these two new volumes the ambitious project has already reached its half-way point. Although the volumes are organized thematically, the text is based on Valentino Gerratana's critical edition. Volume 2, which gathers together Gramsci's notes on the intellectuals, education, journalism, and Lorianism, is divided into three sections. Under the title "Os intellectuais. O princípio educativo", the first section comprises the text of Notebook 12, followed by notes on the same topic culled from various miscellaneous notebooks. Similarly, the second section of this volume consists of the complete text of Notebook 24 (on journalism) followed by notes on the same topic from different miscellaneous notebooks. The third section comprises Notebook 28 (on Lorianism) in its entirety, together with other notes on Loria and Lorianism from the earlier miscellaneous notebooks. Volume 3 is devoted to "Maquiavel. Notas sobre o Estado e a política." In addition to the complete texts of Notebooks 13 and 18 (both of which Gramsci used for his reflections on Machiavelli and on politics), this volume contains the other notes on the same topics that are scattered in various other notebooks and were never included by Gramsci in his "special" thematic notebooks. Both volumes provide a rich critical apparatus. On this new Brazilian edition of the Quaderni, see also IGS Newsletter, no. 9 (March 1999).
The Antonio Gramsci Reader. Selected Writings: 1916-1935. Edited by David
Forgacs. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
This excellent anthology of Gramsci's writings was first published in 1988 by Shocken, but it has been out of print for a long time. Its reappearance with a new, brief introduction by Eric Hobsbawm,[END PAGE 57] will surely please the many college and university instructors who have been
searching for a volume that could serve as a reliable introduction to Gramsci's writings. Most of
the volume is devoted to selections from the Prison Notebooks; but it also reproduces a substantial
selection from Gramsci pre-prison writings. The annotations and the "Glossary of Key Terms" are
especially useful for students, as well as for more advanced readers who are not already well-
acquainted with Gramsci's work.
Dora Kanoussi. Una Introducción a Los Cuadernos de la Cárcel de Antonio
Gramsci. Mexico D.F.: Plaza y Valdés S.A.; 2000.
Now that Valentino Gerratana's complete critical edition of the Quaderni is available in Spanish. Dora Kanooussi book is meant to introduce Spanish-language readers to Gramsci's text, help them navigate through its complexities, and guide them towards an interpretation of Gramsci's political theory. Each of the four main chapters of the book deals in detail with a specific notebook.
CONTENTS:
Prologo [by G. Vacca]
Introducción
I. Cuaderno 10 según el ordenamiento Francioni
II. El Cuaderno 11
III. El Cuaderno 13
IV. El Cuaderno 16
Conclusiones
Bibliografía
Apéndice: "El baulito inglés. Notas sobre una historia de los 'Cuadernos' de Gramsci" [by Gianni Francioni
Jeremy Lester. Dialogue of Negation. Debates on Hegemony in Russia and the
West. London: Pluto Press, 2000.
In his preface, Jeremy Lester describes his study as "first and foremost a historical and conceptual
analysis of hegemony;" and then hastens to add that "it is written in the desire to restore the very
specific Gramscian-Marxist interpretation and usage of hegemony--and more crucially in the
current climate, counter-hegemony--to center stage." This excellent work constitutes a much
needed corrective to the countless misuses and abuses of the term "hegemony" in current
theoretical, political, and critical discourse. While the analysis of Gramsci's concept rests at the
heart of the book, Lester has much else to offer--particularly noteworthy are his accounts of the
pre-Gramscian genealogy of the concept of "hegemony" and of the debates on Gramsci's concept
(and associated political ideas) in Soviet Russia.[END PAGE 58]
CONTENTS:
Preface
Introduction: Hegemony and the Project of Modernity
Chapt. 1: The Russian Origins of Hegemony
Chapt. 2: The Gramscian Legacy
Chapt. 3: From Monologue to Dialogue: Gramsci's Reception in Soviet Russia
Chapt. 4: Post-Gramscian Debates on Hegemony in the West
Chapt. 5: Does Hegemony Have a Postmodern Future?
Conclusion; The Hegemonic Landscape After the Battle
Rita Medici. Giobbe e Prometeo. Filosofia e politica nel pensiero di Gramsci.
Firenze: Alinea editrice, 2000.
As is clear from its subtitle, this volume is a study of Gramsci's political philosophy. The first section of the book looks at Gramsci in the context of the Italian Marxist tradition and gives special attention to the relation between Gramsci's and Rodolfo Mondolfo's ideas on the philosophy of praxis and on "umanismo." This prepares the ground for a long chapter on Gramsci's "umanesimo filosofico." The next chapter examines the question of elitism and socialism through an analysis of Gramsci's treatment of Robert Michels' political sociology; and that is followed by a chapter on Gramsci, Machiavelli and Sorel. A long chapter on Gramsci's "political lexicon" deals with, among other things, Gramsci's use of the term "giacobinismo" and his concept of civil society. A separate chapter is devoted to such crucial aspects of Gramsci's work as the question of the intellectuals, cosmopolitanism, and the national question. The book concludes with a reflection on Gramsci as a political theorist.
Alberto Burgio. "Methodologie und Kritik der Geschichte. Gramsci, Marx und die 'Geschichte der geschichtlichen Entwicklung'" in Abstrakt und Konkret--Zwei Schlüsselkategorien des Zeitgenössischen Denkens, ed. Eduardo Chitas and Domenico Losurdo. Peter Lang, 2000; pp.157-166
Benedetto Fontana. "Logos and Kratos: Gramsci and the Ancients on Hegemony"
in Journal of the History of Ideas; 61 (2000), pp. 305-326
From the opening paragraph of the essay: "The purpose of this paper is to locate Gramsci's concept of hegemony, and its related ideas of civil society, the national popular, and the people- nation, within the political thought of classical antiquity. In so doing, the paper seeks to identify strands or elements within aspects of ancient political thought which may usefully be seen as conceptual prefigurations or as political anticipations of Gramsci's hegemony. . . . [Hegemony] is [END PAGE 59] rightly seen as a notion developed by Gramsci to explain revolutionary failure in Italy and in the
West generally, and consequently its antecedents are traced to the problems attendant upon the
collapse of the Second International and the rise of Bolshevism in Russia. While such an approach
has been useful in revealing the immediate (both political and tactical) constraints acting upon
Gramsci's thinking, it has overlooked passages in his writings which reveal an interest in, and
familiarity with, philosophical and theoretical themes originally formulated and elaborated by
classical political thought."
Peter Ives. "Translating Revolution: Gramsci's Linguistic Metaphors" in Counter-
Hegemony; no. 3 (May 2000), pp. 36-45.
In the author's own words, this essay aims to show "how in Gramsci's hands, [translation] becomes an inherently political and revolutionary way to understand how difference and particularity relate to unity. Against those who consider translation as a literary practice, or a technical linguistic problem, Gramsci follows Martin Luther in seeing it as an outright political act. Not only is the activity of translation political, but politics can benefit by using translation as a metaphor in order to understand how differing contexts and life experiences can be brought into a dynamic and democratic unity creating true solidarity."
Esteve Morera. "Gramsci's Critical Modernity" Rethinking Marxism, vol. 12,
no. 1 (2000), pp. 16-46.
In his introductory paragraphs, Esteve Morera succinctly describes the trajectory of this finely argued and provocative essay: "In assessing Gramsci's intellectual legacy, I want first to advance the thesis that Gramsci did indeed prefigure many current arguments and that he entertained thoughts that may be characterized as either explicitly or implicitly postmodern. Toward that end, I will make arguments purporting to prove that for Gramsci, myth and meta-narratives ground what we mistakenly have thought to be objective knowledge, the great thinkers of the Enlightenment were wrong in believing in the power of reason and managed only to further new myths in place of the old ones, and truth is power, or a form of disciplining. However, having proven that these fundamentally postmodern theses can be found in Gramsci, I then will seek to show that a more comprehensive reading of the Quaderni fails to corroborate the interpretation of his work as prefiguring postmodernism. Instead we come to understand a Gramsci who was cautiously and critically modern, though not a rationalist (in a narrow sense) or a positivist."[END PAGE 60]
Of related interest:
Francisco Hidalgo Flor. Alternativas al Neoliberalismo y Bloque Popular. Quito:
CINDES-Ecuador; 2000.
The final chapter of this book is entitled "Movimientos populares, el debate de alternativas y
aportes desde Gramsci" and it deals with the following topics: "De los Sin Tierra brasileros a los
Levantamientos ecuatorianos. Ejes para la unidad entre el debate gramsciano y las propuestas
alternativas. Aportes a una lectura actual de Gramsci. Tender puentes y mirar lejos."
John D. Holst (Ed.D. in Adult Education at Northeastern Illinois University) is the author of the doctoral thesis: Social Movements and Civil Society: Implications for Radical Adult Education.
ABSTRACT:
This study is a critical philosophical inquiry into the upsurge of interest in social movements and the concept of civil society within radical adult education. Contextualizing this interest, from a historical materialist perspective, the study examines the historical development of (a) the sociology of social movements and the politics of social movements, defined as the potential of social movements to significantly change society; and (b) the concept of civil society in the works of Locke, Ferguson, Hegel, Marx, Gramsci, Cohen and Arato, and Keane. The study then examines the literature on social movements and civil society within radical adult education, focusing on four major themes: (a) whether education can change society; (b) the nature of education in social movements; (c) linking old and new social movements; and (d) the politics of social movements and civil society. Across the literature examined, the study explores a dichotomy between radical pluralist and socialist perspectives that differ over political economy, globalization, and the nature of the relationship between new and old social movements. The study concludes with a reconceptualization of Gramsci's concept of civil society that places it, as he did, within his analysis of hegemony, spontaneity, alliances, and the necessity of a political party for creating organic intellectuals. The study draws out the implications of this reconceptualization for radical adult education theory and practice.
Alessandro Fellagra's thesis, Antonio Gramsci al confino di Ustica, can be downloaded in pdf format from the following website: http://www.tesionline.it