Gramsci Syllabus

A note on editions

Given that our discussions will be in English, this class will have to cope with a bit of an editorial problem: as of today, there is not a single complete English translation of the Prison Notebooks. While this could in itself be matter for reflection, our syllabus tries to put the notebooks in their (intended? original?) order by relying on the following English translations:

For Notebooks 1-8: Gramsci, Antonio. Prison Notebooks. Ed. Joseph Buttigieg, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992-.

For Notebook 25 on subaltern historiography: Gramsci, Antonio. Subaltern Social Groups: A Critical Edition of Prison Notebook 25. Eds. Joseph Buttigieg and , New York: Columbia University Press, 2021.

And, for the rest of the notebooks, on this concordance table of:

  1. Gramsci, Antonio. Selections From the Prison Notebooks. Eds. Quintin Hoare, and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, 1st ed., New York: International Publishers, 1971.
  2. Gramsci, Antonio. Further Selections From the Prison Notebooks. ed. Derek Boothman, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
  3. Gramsci, Antonio. Selections From Cultural Writings. Eds. David Forgacs, and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985.

Needless to say, you should feel free to read the Notebooks in any other language than English.

Syllabus
  • Week 1 (August 23): Introduction

There are no required readings for today’s class. If, on the other hand, you want to familiarize with some of the current discussions on/around Gramsci, below is a very idiosyncratic list. Read what you please — or nothing at all.

Dal Maso, Juan. “The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci: A Rereading.” Historical Materialism 1 (2021): 1-39. Available here.
The essay reconstructs one of the major diatribes around Gramsci, launched in 1977 by Perry Anderson, and re-ignited more recently as the querelle of Gramscian philologists versus activists.

Mohamed, Eid. “Culture and Society During Revolutionary Transformation: Rereading Matthew Arnold and Antonio Gramsci in the Context of the Arab Spring’s Cultural Production.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 23.2 (2020): 150-68. Available here.
The essay is one example of the growing interest in Gramsci in the Arab world.

Saccarelli, Emanuele. “The Intellectual in Question: Antonio Gramsci and the Crisis of Academia.” Cultural Studies 25.6 (2011): 757-82. Available here.
The so-called “crisis of academia” read through Gramsci categories.

Carley, Robert. “Agile Materialisms: Antonio Gramsci, Stuart Hall, Racialization, and Modernity.” Journal of Historical Sociology 26.4 (2013): 413-41.
On Stuart Hall’s relation to, and use of, Gramsci.

Some topics for discussion: What are the Prison Notebooks? Overview of publication and reception. Structure and composition of the notebooks. Problems of periodization. Distinction between “miscellany” and “special” notebooks. Distinction among A, B, and C notes.

  • Week 2 (August 30): Before the Prison Notebooks

Antonio Gramsci, “The Revolution against Capital” (1917); “Our Marx” (1918); “Letter to the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party” (1926); “Some Aspects of the Southern Question” (1926) (All readings for this week are in Sakai/Resources).

Some topics for discussion: The relation of the Notebooks to Gramsci’s political activity before imprisonment; vitalism; voluntarism; idealism; materialism; relation with Marx and Marxism; “intellectuals”; emergence of the term “hegemony.”

  • Week 3 (September 6): Class Cancelled
  • Week 4 (September 13): Notebook 1 (1929-1930)

From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere

Some topics for discussion: Q1§47. Civil Society and its relation to the State. The relation between “cultural” and “economic” spheres. How does the question of “ideology” emerge?

  • Week 5 (September 20): Notebook 2 (1929-1933)

From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere

Some topics for discussion: Gramsci’s prison readings. The “charismatic leader.” Q2§75.Relation between the intellectual avant-garde and the masses; or between party and “people”. How is the notion of “hegemony” developing/changing? Why?

  • Week 6 (September 27): Notebook 3 (1930)

From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere

Some topics for discussion: Consensus/Coercion; leadership/domination; past/present; nation/nationalism; popular/populist;  Q3§34.

  • Week 7 (October 4): Fall Break
  • Week 8 (October 11): Notebook 4 (1930-1932)

From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere

Some topics for discussion: Relation between philosophy and politics; art and culture; the problem of “everyday life”; structure/superstructure and the notion of “historic bloc”; Taylorism, Weber, and “rationalization”; Q4§52.

  • Week 9 (October 18): Notebook 5 (1930-1932)

From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere

Some topics for discussion: the locution “philosophy pf praxis”; philology and censorship (problems of interpretation).

  • Week 10 (October 25): Notebook 6 (1930-1932)

From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere

Some topics for discussion: Logic and the “language of science”: Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Giuseppe Peano. The notion of “organic crisis”.

  • Week 11 (November 1): Notebook 7 (1930-1931)

From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere

Some topics for discussion: “Conformism” and the “collective man”; the notions of “war of position” and “war of maneuver”; “ideology”.

  • Week 12 (November 8): Notebook 8 (1931-1932)

From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere

Some topics for discussion: The notion of “passive revolution”; “determined market” and the place of economy in Gramsci’s Notebooks; Q8§128.

  • Week 13 (November 15): Notebooks 9-12 (1932-1933)

Further Selection, pp. 99; 140-3; 145-7; 156-160; 164-173; 176-180; 182-4; 189-90; 226-229; 233-4; 268-70; 283; 285-304; 306-313; 315-319; 328-361; 366-377; 379; 382-435; 439; 441; 445-475

Selection from the Prison Notebooks, pp. 5-23; 26-43; 114-120; 200-2; 208; 323-354; 357-60; 362-376; 386-8; 399-402; 402-407; 410-14; 418–472

Selections from Cultural Writings: pp. 138-40; 194-5; 285-6; 333-4; 378-9

Some topics for discussion: “What is Man?”. Sciences, relativism, and quantum physics.

  • Week 14 (November 22): Notebooks 13-20 (1932-1935)

Selection from Cultural Writings, pp. 99-102; 108-112; 117-19; 124-133; 140-145; 203-6; 217-222; 236-7; 241-249; 257-9; 266-7; 272-273; 294-297; 313-314; 340-1; 355-9; 375-377; 379-385; 403-408

Further Selection, pp. 21-2; 25-28; 28-35; 43-44; 55-71; 76-92; 92-94; 96-100; 102-106; 137; 151-154; 174-176; 181-182; 219-226; 237-239; 243-246; 248-534; 256-258; 261; 266-267; 273-274; 283-285; 303; 305; 313-315; 323-325; 380-382; 423-4; 439-442; 461-462

Selection from the Prison Notebooks, pp. 55-114; 125-150; 150-194; 202-205; 210-226; 240-247; 253-257; 265-267; 269-270; 361-365; 372-373; 382-386; 388-599; 414-418

Some topics for discussion: Niccolò Machiavelli; the “Modern Prince”; Renaissance and Reformation; Catholicism and Religion; epoch/duration and the problem of historiography.

  • Week 15 (November 29): Notebooks 21-29

Selection from Cultural Writings, pp. 91-99; 102-103; 112-115; 122-123; 133-134; 146; 171-173; 179-194; 199-202; 206-216; 238-241; 252-255; 264-265; 267-269; 271-272; 277-278; 288-291; 293-294; 301-306; 309-311; 315-326; 328-331; 335-337; 353-355; 359-362; 364-375; 408-425

Further Selection, pp. 23-24; 50-55

Selection from the Prison Notebooks, pp. 52-55; 261-262; 279-318

Some topics for discussion: Americanism; the notion of “subaltern groups”; folklore; linguistics and/as politics; spontaneity and coercion.

Research Paper Due: December 20