An Introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His Life, Thought and Legacy

273 Pages·2016·2.34 MB·English

by  George Hoare and Nathan Sperber

An Introduction to
Antonio Gramsci

An Introduction to
Antonio Gramsci
His Life, Thought and Legacy
GEORGE HOARE AND
NATHAN SPERBER
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
LONDON (cid:127) OXFORD (cid:127) NEW YORK (cid:127) NEW DELHI (cid:127) SYDNEY
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway
London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10018
UK USA
www.bloomsbury.com
BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc
First published 2016
© George Hoare and Nathan Sperber, 2016
George Hoare and Nathan Sperber have asserted their right under
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified
as Authors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting
on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication
can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the authors.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-7277-6
PB: 978-1-4725-7276-9
ePDF: 978-1-4725-7278-3
ePub: 978-1-4725-7279-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hoare, George, 1984-
An introduction to Antonio Gramsci : his life, thought and legacy /
George Hoare and Nathan Sperber.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Gramsci, Antonio, 1891-1937–Political and social views. 2. Gramsci, Antonio,
1891-1937–Influence. 3. Political science–Philosophy–History–20th century.
I. Sperber, Nathan, 1986- II. Title.
JC265.G68H63 2015
320.53'2092–dc22
2015007546
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Contents
A Note on the Text x
Introduction 1
Thinking through Gramsci 1
The structure of the book 2
PART ONE Life
5
1 Antonio Gramsci, 1891–1937 7
Introduction 7
Sardinian origins: Antonu su gobbu 8
Turin 10
Journalism and militancy 10
L’Ordine Nuovo 13
The Communist Party 16
Prison and the Notebooks 20
PART TWO Thought
25
2 Culture 27
Introduction 27
Intellectuals 30
Defining the intellectual 30
The organic intellectual and the traditional intellectual 33
Intellectuals and political struggle 36
Education 39
Defining education 39
The school 41
The dialectic of conformity and spontaneity 43
vi CONTENTS
Journalism 45
The press and the organization of culture 45
The bourgeois press 46
‘Integral journalism’ 48
Popular literature 50
3 Politics 53
Introduction 53
Civil society, political society and the State 55
Difficult definitions 55
‘East’ and ‘West’ 58
War of movement and war of position 59
The interpretation of modern politics 60
Gramsci’s method of historical analysis 60
The era of revolution-restoration 61
The national-popular Jacobin revolution 62
The Risorgimento as ‘passive revolution’ 63
Trasformismo, molecularity and scission 65
Conjunctural processes and organic crises 67
Caesarism 69
The analysis of fascism 71
The modern Prince 73
What is a political party? 73
The modern Prince: The incarnation of revolution 75
The party as living organism 77
Two errors of revolutionary strategy 78
4 Philosophy 81
Redefining philosophy: The individual, philosophy and politics 81
Theory, practice and philosophical anthropology 81
‘Every man is a philosopher’ 83
Common sense 86
The ‘folklore of philosophy’ 86
A pragmatist epistemology 89
CONTENTS vii
Ideology 91
Religion and the Catholic Church 93
The economy: From economic base to historic bloc 98
Point of departure: The base/superstructure metaphor 98
The critique of economism 99
Americanism and Fordism 101
Point of arrival: The ‘historic bloc’ 105
The philosophy of praxis 108
Materialism, idealism and Croce 108
‘Absolute historicism’ 112
The revolution of common sense 114
5 Hegemony 117
Introduction 117
Hegemony: The exercise of leadership 118
Origins 118
Political projects 119
Consent and coercion 122
Hegemony: A cognitive and moral process 125
A culture in formation 125
The ethical State 127
Hegemonic consciousness as catharsis 130
The historical stages of hegemony 132
The pre-hegemonic State 132
Bourgeois hegemony 133
From proletarian hegemony to the ‘regulated society’ 136
PART THREE Applications
139
6 T hinking through Gramsci in Political Theory: Left/Right
and the Critical Analysis of Common Sense 141
Introduction 141
Contextualizing common sense: Left/Right in politics and
everyday life 144
viii CONTENTS
Historicizing common sense: Left/Right since the French
Revolution 150
Analysing common sense: The formal characteristics of the Left/
Right metaphor 154
The conception of the world contained in common sense: The
conception of politics underlying Left/Right 158
The critique of common sense: Interpreting Left/Right as a
political narrative 164
Conclusion 168
7 Thinking through Gramsci in Political Economy:
Neo-Liberalism and Hegemony in Britain and France
in the 1980s 171
Introduction 171
Stuart Hall: Thatcherism as hegemonic project 175
Socialist politics in France before 1981: A Left turn 179
Five years of Socialist government: A rocky path to
neo-liberalism 184
Parti Socialiste discourse during neo-liberalization:
Dissonance and demobilization 189
Coherent vs. split historic blocs 192
Neo-liberalism and intellectuals in France: Transformism
and fatalism 196
Conclusion 201
PART FOUR Legacy
203
8 Mapping Gramsci’s Legacy 205
Introduction 205
Gramsci and Western Marxism 206
Gramsci and Italian communism 210
Gramsci and post-Marxism 214
Gramsci and Postcolonial Studies 217
Gramsci and Cultural Studies 223
CONTENTS ix
Gramsci and International Political Economy 228
Conclusion 232
Guide to Further Reading 235
Gramsci in English 235
Gramsci’s life 236
Secondary sources 236
Other resources 237
A suggestion on reading Gramsci 238
Bibliography 240
Index 250