the political project of Antonio Gramsci.

205 Pages·2017·12.03 MB·English

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Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014
1-1-2006
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Manuel S. Almeida Rodriguez
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Almeida Rodriguez, Manuel S., "Reading the Quaderni del carcere : the political project of Antonio
Gramsci." (2006). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2401.
https://doi.org/10.7275/fj95-f622 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2401
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READING THE QUADERNI DEL CARCERE: THE POLITICAL PROJECT OF
ANTONIO GRAMSCI
A
Dissertation Presented
by
MANUEL ALMEIDA RODRIGUEZ
S.
Submitted to the Graduate School ofthe
University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment
ofthe requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
February 2006
Department of Political Science
© Copyright by Manuel S. Almeida Rodriguez 2006
All Rights Reserved
READING THE QUADERNIDEL CARCERE: THE POLITICAL PROJECT OF
ANTONIO GRAMSCI
A
Dissertation Presented
by
MANUEL ALMEIDA RODRIGUEZ
S.
Approved as to style and content by:
£
Nicholas Xenos, Chair
DEDICATION
To my loving daughter.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is the end result ofa long intellectualjourney began almost seven
years ago, when I first read Gramsci and visited the Fondazione Istituto Gramsci in
Rome. I have incurred in many debts ofgratitude since then. First, 1 would like to thank
my
chair, Nicholas Xenos, forhis continual support, engaging discussion, and constant
feedback through graduate school. 1 also owe thanks to the other members ofthe
committee, Srirupa Roy and Roberto Ludovico, fortheir insight and support.
A
special appreciation and thanks are also due to mentor and friend Georg H.
Fromm ofthe University ofPuerto Rico with whom I first discussed the dissertation
project and with whom I have maintained a constant dialogue over it.
I want to thank a number ofpeople in the Political Science Department for
support and help provided in various capacities, including: Donna Dove, Barbara Ciesluk,
M. J. Peterson, Barbara Cruickshank, and Dean Robinson. I owe avery special thanks to
Roberto Alejandro, teacher and friend, to whose theory seminars I owe so much. My
thanks also to colleagues and friends Antonio Y. Vazquez, Alex Betancourt, and Robert
Venator.
My
Finally, I owe very special thanks to a particular group ofpeople. brother
Gabriel De La Luz, for his friendship, encouragement, and invaluable intellectual
camaraderie. Carlos Suarez for his insight, friendship, and support. Jon E. Zibbel, for
being my unofficial committee member, for the great intellectual stimulus, his friendship,
and for wanting to convince me ofthe importance ofthe work I was doing. To my loving
and supporting parents, Manuel Almeida and Enid Rodriguez. And to my daughter Laura
V. Almeida Delgado, who has been my north throughout these last three years.
V
ABSTRACT
READING THE QUADERNl DEL CARCERE: THE POLITICAL PROJECT OE
ANTONIO GRAMSCI
FEBRUARY
2006
MANUEL S. ALMEIDA RODRIGUEZ, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO
M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
Directed by: Professor Nicholas Xenos
The present work provides an interpretative key with which to render a consistent
approach to the mature politico-theoretical coipus ofAntonio Gramsci, the Quaderni del
carcere, composed from 1929 to 1935 while imprisoned under the fascist regime in Italy.
My contention is that the concern over the relations between leaders and led, governing
and governed, lies as a basic matrix underneath the different groups ofthematic notes
contained in his prison notebooks. Thus, in his notes regarding political matters the most
important reflection concerns his notion of hegemony to describe the specificity ofthe
modern state, which rests in the constant organization ofthe consent ofthe subjects and
not in its coercive capacity. In his notes regarding philosophical matters, in interlocution
with Benedetto Croce and N. Bukharin, Gramsci’s thinking centers on the relationship of
Marxism towards common sense and proposing a dialectical relationship between them.
In his notes concerning literature, Gramsci’s approach is equally political in that he
reappraises the committed literary criticism ofFrancesco De Sanctis in the 19“^ Century
for Marxism, and in addition critiques the lack a ot a national-popular literature in Italy as
well as the paternalistic attitude of some Italian literary figures. Finally, in his notes on
VI
language, he shows great interest in the relationship between dialects and unitary
language surely out of the social and political problem of the ‘language question’ in Italy.
Gramsci values the progressive effect ofthe unification of language under standard
Italian for the purpose of international communication, but is extremely sensible to the
dialectal reality of the different regions in the Italian peninsula. My work is both a
theoretical and historico-critical reflection on Gramsci’s intellectual enterprise while in
prison. I have drawn my interpretations and conclusions from a close reading of the main
texts in their original language and from a detailed analysis of the pertinent secondary
literature.
vii
CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
vi
CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
I. 1
APPROACHING GRAMSCI AND THE QUADERNIDEL
II.
CARCERE
13
III. FIRST STEPS: READING THE FIRST NOTEBOOK 53
IV. GRAMSCrS THEORY OF HEGEMONY, THE STATE, AND POLITICAL
STRATEGY
72
V. PHILOSOPHY AND MARXISM IN THE QUADERNI 19
1
VI. LITERARY CRITICISM, LITERATURE, AND LANGUAGE IN THE
QUADERNI 149
VII. CONCLUSION 181
BIBLIOGRAPHY 184
viii