Antonio Gramsci Research Articles

Gramsci’s dissidence beneath and beyond the First World War

One of the leading Marxist theorists of the 20th century and a founding member and leader of the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci began his intellectual and political journey essentially at the outbreak of WWI and left a massive body of journalistic work by the end of the war. Despite their scope and significance, his wartime writings remain understudied relative to the Prison Notebooks and other post-wartime writings, particularly in the English language literature. This article outlines some of the central themes that he explored in this period. It provides a synoptic depiction of Gramsci’s conceptual development over the course of the war. Gramsci’s dissident social theory represents a radically different intellectual reaction to the war than we see from prominent conservative and liberal social theorists. What emerges from the picture presented in this article is a conceptual snapshot whose organizing principle centers on a critical understanding of intransigence that Gramsci developed over the course of the war. The notion of intransigence, which for Gramsci went far beyond organizational and strategic struggles and expanded into cultural and philosophical endeavors, helps make sense of the major contours of his wartime activities. In carving out a space for critical engagement during the war, Gramsci developed a critique of liberalism and a commitment to socialism which were both marked by and linked through his critical understanding of intransigence.

Pure act, impure act: A critical comparison between Giovanni Gentile and Antonio Gramsci

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, European Marxists participated in the difficult process of self-interrogation known as revisionism. In Italy, through multiple authors, publications and debates, these reflections culminated in Antonio Gramsci's philosophy of praxis, which will have an outsized importance not only for Italian communism. Although the direct ascendency of Italian Neo-Idealism over Gramsci's thought, and especially Benedetto Croce's philosophy, has always been evident and universally recognized, the influence of Giovanni Gentile's actualism on the philosophy of praxis is still debated, and often underestimated. Starting from an analysis of Gramsci's 64th note of the 11th Quaderno del carcere, where he distinguishes his ‘impure act’ from Gentile's ‘pure act’, this article intends to compare the two authors’ thoughts and their role in the philosophical revision of Marxism. By discussing various interpretations about the alleged connections between Gramsci's and Gentile's conceptions—from the most orthodox Marxist readings to the ones that, first of all, see a form of ‘post-actualism’ in the philosophy of praxis —it will attempt to highlight from a philosophical perspective their contact points, and to demonstrate how and where they are different.

Marxism-leninism: the Ideology of Twentieth Century Communism- A Philosophical Reading from Gramscian Perspective

This article explores Marxism-Leninism, the dominant ideology of 20th-century communism, through a philosophical lens rooted in the thought of Antonio Gramsci. By analysing Gramsci's critique of hegemony, state power, and cultural domination, this study re-examines Marxism-Leninism's theoretical foundations and practical applications. Gramsci’s perspective provides a critical assessment of the ways in which Leninist vanguardism and centralized authority both fulfilled and diverged from classical Marxist theory. The article delves into the tensions between the Leninist approach to revolution and Gramsci’s more nuanced understanding of class struggle, civil society, and cultural hegemony, highlighting the implications for revolutionary praxis. This Gramscian reading allows for a reappraisal of the successes and limitations of Marxism-Leninism, particularly in its ability to address the ideological and cultural challenges of maintaining socialist states during the 20th century. Ultimately, the paper argues that Gramsci’s insights offer valuable critiques and alternatives to the orthodoxies of Marxism-Leninism, opening pathways for rethinking communist ideology in contemporary political context.

Hegemony and Transformism: Post-Soviet Trade Unions as an Object of Study

The article discusses Maksim Kulaev’s book “Trade Unions, Workers’ Movements, and Hegemony in Contemporary Russia”, which is dedicated to the history of trade union and workers’ movements in the post-Soviet era. The author attempts not only to reconsider what has happened to trade unions over the last thirty years but also to make sense of them drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s theory, which emphasized the need for the formation of hegemony as a sociocultural framework rather than purely political framework, enabling the establishment of value foundations for the dominance of the working class and resistance to the dominant hegemony of capitalist elites.The book chapters, in which the author describes the history, discourse, and interactions of trade unions with various political forces and social movements, are undoubtedly valuable. Importantly, this analysis is built on a vast array of diverse information—observations, documents, interviews, and data by other researchers. This allowed the author to critically reassess the data obtained in the 1990s, a time when much was still unknown and unclear. Now, this work represents a significant milestone, providing a perspective on the post-Soviet development of the workers’ and trade union movements after a quarter of a century. The book is of interest to researchers studying social structures, trade union and workers’ movements, and socio-labor relations.

Crises of Authority in the Arab World: Readings from Contemporary Tunisia

Antonio Gramsci’s thought has increasingly inspired the study of the contemporary MENA, reaching far beyond the complex and specific details of politics, history, and culture in which his writings are steeped. Taking the cue from a new generation of Gramscian research, this article provides an additional temporal and geographical test case for such critical scholarship. Through primary and secondary sources, it deploys a Gramscian toolkit to empirically explore the first post-2011 uprisings decade in Tunisia. It argues that the country is mired in an ‘interregnum’ condition due to the combined effect of a ‘crisis of authority’ from above and lacking viable alternatives from below. Since opposing masses advanced disorganized yet revolutionary claims, leadership hinging on consensus to pursue ‘great political feats’—from delivering substantive democracy through political and socio-economic change to navigating the country during Covid-19—continued to fail. Whereas protests persistently pointed to the distance between political elites and the ‘people,’ the hyper-homogenizing look at the latter unmasked citizenry’s lack of cohesion and homogeneity. This ‘double fragmentation’ of the ruling—and, eventually, dominant—classes and the subaltern groups adds to the unbridged disjoin between them for the crisis to persist, and thus reopens the way to coercion.

Culturally constituted self in Taylor and Gramsci: A concern for philosophy of education

This article addresses the problem of two extreme positions in the self-understanding of human beings namely ignoring culture or its over-determination. Though Charles Taylor and Antonio Gramsci are widely known to differ from each other in many respects, we endeavor a congruent reading to evolve a comprehensive perspective. We make avail of their concepts, such as background, horizon, and common sense, to comprehend the nature of the culturally constituted self and its relevance for education. For both Taylor and Gramsci, the human self is situated in a cultural framework. Though the relation between self and culture is constitutive and inevitable, culture does not entirely determine or overshadow the self. This stance gives space for upholding freedom, dignity and liberation of the human self in both of them. While preserving the essential role of culture in the formation of the human self, education must not be reduced to identity politics. Education must incorporate culture, be critical of it and pay attention to forming a critical self.

"Insurgent Indigeneity": A New Threshold of Indigenous Politics

Abstract: Celebrating Indigenous zones and movements of revival and "resurgence" has become a dominant frame of sorts for Indigenous political theory. Emergent Indigenous political praxis in Hawai'i, led by certain grassroots groups and organizers, leads me to theorize a qualitatively and quantitatively different modality of Indigenous politics—what I offer as "insurgent Indigeneity." This essay traces a genealogy of resurgence paradigms, presenting a set of philosophical presuppositions that entail circumscriptions on Indigenous political horizons and praxis: namely, an inward focus and a dyadic politics of a friend-enemy distinction. Drawing from the emergent practices of Hawaiian insurgent Indigeneity, and the political schema of expanding hegemony in Antonio Gramsci's The Modern Prince , I theorize how actors build upon resurgence to strategically proliferate outward, building mass power in a complex field of forces and actors to pursue a wider horizon of change.

GRAMSCI AND SAVIANI

This article explores the contributions of Antonio Gramsci and Dermeval Saviani to the critical theory of education, highlighting its distinct views on the role of education in social transformation. While Gramsci emphasizes cultural hegemony and the formation of organic intellectuals, Saviani develops historical-critical pedagogy, focusing on concrete educational practice and material conditions of education in Latin America. This study investigates the theoretical contributions of Antonio Gramsci and Dermeval Saviani to education, exploring its complementary and distinct perspectives on how education can be an instrument of social transformation. Gramsci, influenced by Western Marxism, highlights cultural hegemony and the formation of organic intellectuals as strategies to challenge the ideological domination of the ruling classes. In contrast, Saviani, with his historical-critical pedagogy, focuses on concrete educational practice and educational policies, especially in the Latin American context, proposing an education that promotes critical awareness and the emancipation of the oppressed.

Luxemburg and Gramsci. The Role of Optimism and Pessimism during the Struggle for an Alternative to Capitalism

What I try to do in this paper is to analyze and probe what Rosa Luxemburg and Antonio Gramsci understand by pessimism and optimism. Luxemburg and Gramsci demonstrate how liberal capitalist ideology uses “a false form of hope to keep people yoked to the system that oppresses them.” In this “terrible world” and under the current capitalist circumstances which lead to economic, social, political and ecological crises, it may be difficult to be optimistic about the future. Besides, not only the multiple crises but also the many defeats suffered by progressive movements in the different areas of struggles against ongoing economic and political regression bring along a depressive and desperate feeling that could also be called pessimism. </p><p>The questions I am asking are very simple: What is pessimism and optimism for Luxemburg and Gramsci? For them, what sort of social conditions lead to pessimism or optimism? In this paper, I will try to demonstrate that both Rosa Luxemburg and Gramsci adopted a dialectical approach to pessimism and optimism, they were “pessoptimists” so to speak. Based upon what Hegel once said, “the negative is just as much positive”, I will explain this dialectical relationship by claiming that pessimism exists in optimism and vice versa. For this purpose, I will focus on some of Rosa Luxemburg’s texts in the recently published volumes on Revolution as well as in her letters. Furthermore, I will concentrate on some texts by Gramsci in which he makes particular reference to pessimism and optimism as symbolized by his famous “pessimism of the intelligence, optimism of the will”

People, class, democracy: re-mapping left populism from populist social democracy to popular socialism

ABSTRACT This article builds on the insights of Antonio Gramsci and Stuart Hall to introduce the ‘critical-relational’ approach to the analysis of left-wing ideologies that have been defined as populist. In doing so, we identify four distinctive ideologies: ‘populist social democracy’, ‘populist socialism’, ‘popular social democracy’ and ‘popular socialism’. Two key contributions are made. First, the ‘relational’ aspect of this conceptualization establishes clear distinctions between ideologies that appeal to the ‘people’ either to: (i) democratically empower (‘popular’) or disempower (‘populist’) disenfranchised groups; and/or (ii) disrupt economic class relations (‘socialist’) or redistribute them without transforming them (‘social democratic’). These distinctions, we contend, shed light on important differences between left-wing ideologies that are often conflated in the literature on left populism. Second, the ‘critical’ aspect of our interpretation aims to reveal how discourses of the ‘people’ are mobilized within left-wing ideologies to either reproduce or contest economic and political structures of power. Overall, this provides grounding for a more precise empirical analysis of the diverse ideologies that characterize the political left.

Āl-e Ahmad's Faustian Bargain? Antonio Gramsci, the “Progressive Clergy,” and the Search for Hegemony in Late-Pahlavi Iran

This article explores the first translations of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci into Persian and a more speculative reconstruction of Gramsci's reception during the second half of the 1960s by two prominent Iranian intellectuals and dissidents close to the League of Iranian Socialists. After examining the initial translations by the influential translator and political activist, Manūchehr Hezārkhānī (d. 2022), the author moves to unpack, Jalāl Āl-e Ahmad's (d. 1969) interpretations, reconstruction, and deployment of these fragmentary translations from an already disjointed and curated edition of the Prison Notebooks. Gramsci's analyses of culture, religion and religious institutions, intellectual production, and political mobilization were drawn upon for a variety of purposes. Thus, while some intellectuals, most famously Āl-e Ahmad, hypothesized that the politically engaged clergy's moral and political leadership was essential to the successful mobilization of the masses against imperialism and the overthrow of the US-backed Pahlavi dictatorship, others, including Hezārkhānī, ultimately came to advocate in favor of a popular front and coalition of secular and religious forces in defense of “democratic freedoms” against the threat of clerical domination in the 1979 revolution's aftermath.

The Analysis of Hegemony in Terra Nullius Novel by Claire G. Coleman

<div><p class="AbstractHead">A B S T R A C T</p></div>This research aims to analyze hegemony in Terra Nullius a novel by Claire. G. Coleman uses Antonio Gramsci’s theory in literary studies and sociology. The research focuses on discussing the concept of hegemony that occurs in the main character. The theory in literary studies is used to analyze the novel, using an intrinsic approach including characterization, plot, and setting which is elaborated through an extrinsic approach related to hegemony. This research used a qualitative method with data collection techniques including literature study, observation, and note-taking. The main data used are novels and several books and journals to support the research. The results of the research in the novel Terra Nullius are the concept of hegemony and the state involving civil society, namely the Natives called Aboriginals, with Settlers communities, Europeans. In the hegemony that occurs, the practice of supremacy has been found, namely a group that manifests itself in leadership that dominates the opposition to destroy or subdue the Aboriginals with weapons. All done to win power over the nobody land called Australia. Consequently, it became an Integral state, a hegemony shielded by the systems of violence.

Hegemoni Partai Keadilan Sejahtera Pada Pilkada Kota Depok 2020

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is an Islamic-based political party that has won the Depok City Regional Election (Pilkada) four times in a row since the first Pilkada was held in the city. The consistent change in leadership in Depok raises questions about PKS’s hegemonic practices to maintain and expand its influence among the people of Depok. This research aims to identify PKS Depok’s hegemonic practices according to Antonio Gramsci’s theory, which emphasizes creating ideological consensus, the role of intellectuals, and political leadership. The study uses qualitative methods, collecting data through interviews and literature review. It is conducted in Depok, focusing on the DPD PKS Depok and the 2020 Depok City regional Election as a case study. The study concludes that Idris-Imam, PKS-backed candidates for Mayor and Vice Mayor of Depok, won the election through the dissemination of the Rahmatan Lil Alamin Islamic ideology, the role of intellectuals such as ustad, and educational institutions, as well as the religious political leadership of Kiai Idris, the former Depok Mayor.

Repressive suspicion, or: the problem with conspiracy theories

ABSTRACT Conspiracy culture cultivates suspicion towards the hidden workings of power. While some modes of suspicion direct critical attention towards the crimes and cruelties of oppressive social relations, other modes misdirect that same attention. When such misdirection serves to reproduce oppressive social relations, entrapping its adherents in the promise of emancipation, this may be understood as ‘repressive suspicion’. Empirically, this concept is characterized, herein, via a reception study of the QAnon conspiracy theory, reconstructing how one of the most prominent participants in the insurrection in Washington, D.C., on 6th January 2021 became wrapped up in ‘Q’ culture – a story that paints a poignant, complex picture of repressive suspicion. This concept is then further developed in historical and theoretical terms, in dialogue with the works of Herbert Marcuse, leading to an analysis of QAnon as a microcosm of the contemporary crisis of hegemony, drawing on Antonio Gramsci, Stuart Hall, and Nancy Fraser. While, in the 1960s, and even in the 1990s, repressive suspicion could be largely ignored by practitioners of political critique, in the current conjuncture this is no longer the case. Thus, as well as constructing a diagnosis, this article also poses a question: If this is what repressive suspicion looks like, how must we conceive its opposite?

ყალბი კოლექტიური ნების კონსტრუირების მექანიზმი და ძალაუფლების დიქტატი 2003-2021 წლების საქართველოში

The reasons for changes of Governments in Georgia since 1990 have been officially cited to be the fight against dictatorships. Dictatorships have been occurred in Georgia under the various motives for the years, even in the 2000s, although Georgia acknowledged the classical meaning of the term “Dictatorship” like the rest of the contemporary world. It is worthwhile to study not only the dynamic of changing the meaning of the term “Dictatorship”, but to examine the content and occurrences of “Dictatorship” in Georgia, that is the core subject of the represented article. The paper "Fake collective will construction mechanism and power dictation 2003-2021 in Georgia“ examines the forms and reasons of government changes of the mentioned period exploring the new governments’ management styles and attitudes of society. The research topic also covers the elections of 2021 that is regarded as the basis of the next political era in Georgia. This article attempts to find the solutions to the following issues: “Dictatorship”, “Democracy” and Georgia – the ways of the development of a public opinion in the period of government changes in 2003-2020; Etymology of the evaluation of new authorities (dictatorship, democracy); Illusion of the democratic changes/reforms or development – replacement of dictatorship with a democracy or replacement of dictatorship with a new dictatorship; How is democracy evaluated in Georgia? – The national characteristics, dynamics and public opinion of the evaluation of democracy and dictatorship; How to manage democracy to get the essential progress in Georgia? (regarding public opinion, citizenship and participation). The paper discusses the theories of Hans Kung, Max Weber, Eric Hoffer and Jurgen Habermas, in order to find the answers to the above mentioned issues. Furthermore, here is reviewed the theories of public opinion formation according to the Antonio Gramsci’s “Cultural Hegemony” and Jim Sharp’s “From Dictatorship to Democracy – A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”. The article hypothesis that the forms of dictatorship are changed in the 21st century. It is well wrapped and significantly differ from its classical meaning and nowadays, there is no need of tyranny and absolute autocracy. The mentioned topic is discussed in a multidiscipline perspective, like service and political marketing, policy philosophy, theories of political sciences, service management and in the overall context of various communication fields. The article develops the criteria for evaluation of modern dictatorship and finds answers to the questions why is it considered that the replacement of dictatorship with democracy is illusion and how is dictatorship wrapped into the cloak of democracy.

Gramsci in International Relations Theory: an analysis of concepts

This article derives from the I Virtual Meeting Regional Southeast promoted by IGS-Br and aims to historically introduce Antonio Gramsci in the Theory of International Relations (TRI) and discuss the main Gramscian concepts that are inserted in the theoretical debate of the area. Standing in the debate between Positivists versus Post-positivists, Gramsci exerts an important inflection in theoretical studies as concepts such as national-international, hegemony and State become central in the debate, new conceptual and methodological interpretation in the field of International Relations. And although Gramscian writings also advance in the international field, some authors such as Robert Cox, Stephen Gill, Craig Murphy introduce such concepts in the IRT, but do not delve with due merit. Such insertion demands a field of study with a more grounded analysis in Gramsci, both of its concepts and of the methods also in the international field.

Semiotic Analysis: Essential Moral Study in the Film "The Sinking of the Van der Wijck Ship

This article aims to explore and understand the use of signs and symbols in the film "The Sinking of the Van Der Wijck Ship" as tools for communicating moral and ethical messages. Through a semiotic approach, this study highlights how visual and narrative elements contribute to the formation and understanding of cultural hegemony in Indonesia, based on Antonio Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony. The urgency of this research arises from the need to understand how films influence and shape social and cultural perspectives, particularly in the context of the Minangkabau community, which is rich in tradition and customs. The methodology used is qualitative descriptive, with data collected through observation and in-depth analysis of the film's narrative and the interpretation of the symbols used. The results of the study show that this film functions not only as an entertainment medium but also as a powerful moral education tool that communicates the conflict between traditional and modern values through the rich use of symbols. The discussion in this article emphasizes how the film depicts the struggle for hegemony in society, highlighting the conflict between personal desires and social demands. This research provides new insights into the role of media in influencing and understanding social and cultural dynamics, offering a broader perspective on how visual narratives can impact public understanding of social and cultural issues.

Hegemonic struggles and the role of contemporary ‘organic intellectuals’: A different perspective for the analysis of discourses

The ‘populist moment’ and the growing number of non-liberal discourses indicate that we are in the presence of a counter-hegemonic phase against the established liberal order involving several sites of ideological production. However, the analysis of these counter-revolutions still focuses on agency, looking mainly at political parties or leaders. This article tries to reverse this picture suggesting to look first at discourses as such to understand the contestation of the dominant worldview. Thus, it proposes a methodological platform for studying (counter-)hegemonic discourses that abandons agent-centrism. To achieve this goal, it introduces the notion of ‘ organic intellectuals of a discourse-coalition’, linking two concepts developed respectively by Antonio Gramsci and Maarten Hajer. This formula allows focusing on all actors articulating and propagating the same demands and discourse, regardless of their affiliation. Using this approach, a discourse-coalition may include parties or politicians as well as journalists or influencers as long as they exert an intellectual function, that is, they are able to mould common sense. By developing this formula, the article is aimed at researchers that use Poststructuralist Discourse Theory in the study of hegemonic discourses as it provides a sound justification for the selection of a valid and representative discourse-coalition.

Sebuah pemikiran perlawanan Chudori terhadap cengkeraman kekuasaan dalam Laut Bercerita

This study aims to prove the ideology of resistance of Leila Salikha Chudori towards oppressive force via Laut Bercerita. Literary work is a product of the author’s critical thinking; therefore, it is important to understand Chudori’s ideology in her work. From a Marxist point of view, there is a battle for domination in every society. This study tries to understand where is the ideological position of Chudori in the battle for domination. The method used to conduct this research is qualitative descriptive. Research on Laut Bercerita was a literature study that uses a Marxist approach. Theories that will be used are Antonio Gramsci's Theory of Hegemony and Louis Althusser's Theory of State Apparatus. The study concludes that Chudori is a figure of resistance in a battle for domination, which means Chudori's ideological position belongs to the group that refuses to be dominated.

EXPLORING GRAMSCI’S REFLECTIONS

The arrest of Antonio Gramsci in 1926 was a landmark event in the political history of 20th century Italy. As Mussolini's fascist regime consolidated its power, Gramsci, a communist leader and prominent intellectual, was detained due to his influence on the political opposition. His arrest was part of a campaign to suppress dissent. Despite facing adverse conditions in prison, Gramsci continued his intellectual production, writing the “Prison Notebooks”, a testament to his erudition and resilience. His arrest and production of the “Notebooks” highlight the power of intellectual resistance and commitment to social justice.