TextBooks
- Gramsci, Antonio. Prison Notebooks. Ed. Joseph Buttigieg, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
- Gramsci, Antonio. Selections From the Prison Notebooks. Eds. Quintin Hoare, and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, 1st ed., New York: International Publishers, 1971. Available here.
- Gramsci, Antonio. Further Selections From the Prison Notebooks. ed. Derek Boothman, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995. Available here.
- Gramsci, Antonio. The Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916-1935. Ed. David Forgacs, New York: New York University Press, 2000. Available here.
- Gramsci, Antonio. Selections From Cultural Writings. Eds. David Forgacs, and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985. Available here.
- Gramsci, Antonio. Quaderni del carcere. Ed. Valentino Gerratana, Torino: Einaudi, 1975.
Syllabus
- Week 1 (January 15): Introduction
Primary topics for discussion: What are the Prison Notebooks? Overview of publication and reception.
- Week 2 (January 22): 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 anthologized in The Gramsci Reader).
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 (January 29): Notebook 1 (1929-1930)
From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere
Some topics for discussion: Structure and composition of the notebooks; problems of periodization; “miscellany” and “special” notebooks; Civil Society and its relation to the State. Q1§47.
- Week 4 (February 5): Notebook 2 (1929-1933)
From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere
Some topics for discussion: Gramsci’s prison readings; Gramsci’s bibliographies; the “charismatic leader”; Q2§75.
- Week 5 February 12): 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 6 (February 19): 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 7 (February 26): Notebook 5 (1930-1932)
From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere
Some topics for discussion: the locution “philosophy pf praxis”; humanism; historicism; immanence; philology and censorship (problems of interpretation).
- Week 8 (March 5): Notebook 6 (1930-1932)
From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere
Some topics for discussion: Masses and intellectuals; Nationalism and internationalism; bureaucracy and/as caste; “crisi organica”; Q6§32.
- SPRING BREAK: March 12
- Week 9 (March 19): Notebook 7 (1930-1931)
From Prison Notebooks or Quaderni del carcere
Some topics for discussion: “Conformism” and the “collective man”; east/west; war of position and war of maneuver.; “ideology”.
- Week 10 (March 26): 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 11 (April 2): 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: Benedetto Croce; Materialism and idealism; “What is Man?”‘ Q10ii§54.
- Week 12 (April 9): 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 13 (April 16): 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.
