During the past nine months a number of publications related to Gramsci have been sent to us or brought to our attention by members of the International Gramsci Society. We are providing here a description of these publications. See also the bibliographical update by Guido Liguori in the Italian language section of this issue.
Antonio Gramsci. Prison Notebooks. Vol. 2. Ed. & Trans. Joseph A. Buttigieg. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
This is the second of the projected five-volume complete critical edition in English of Gramsci's Quaderni. It contains the text of Notebooks 3-5, accompanied by an extensive critical apparatus. Notebooks 3 and 5 contain notes and reflections on a wide range of topics. "Despite the heterogeneousness of the materials contained in these notebooks, however," the editor explains in his preface, "certain strands of Gramsci's multidirectional inquiries stand out in sharper relief than others. Especially prominent are the notes that touch on various aspects of the question of the intellectuals, popular culture (above all, literature and journalism), Italian history, Americanism, and the Catholic Church, both as a religious institution and as a politico-ideological force. Affiliated with these main strands are notes on such disparate topics as the Renaissance, the Reformation, language and linguistics, military and diplomatic history, Japanese culture, and Chinese culture and politics, as well as many of the entries that appear under the recurring heading "Past and Present.'
"The other notebook included in this volume--Notebook 4--represents an important phase in the evolution of Gramsci's project. . . . The entire second half of the notebook is devoted to a series entitled 'Notes on Philosophy. Materialism and Idealism.' (A second and third series of notes on the same topic . . .are also grouped under identical general headings in Notebooks 7 and 8 respectively.) Likewise, Gramsci reserved the first twenty pages of this notebook for a distinctive purpose: namely, a set of notes outlining his original contribution to the interpretation of canto 10 of Dante's Inferno. The rest of the notebook contains miscellaneous entries, and among these, too, one encounters some especially important segments of text. Particularly noteworthy are the two long consecutive notes entitled 'The intellectuals' and 'The common school.'" [END PAGE 32]
Antonio Gramsci. Le opere. La prima antologia di tuti gli scritti. Ed. Antonio Santucci. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1997.
This is the first anthology in Italian that contains selections from all of Gramsci's writings (except the prison letters). In many respects it resembles David Forgacs's A Gramsci Reader, and is meant to achieve a similar goal--namely, to provide general readers and students with an accessible version of Gramsci's most important writings. The brief notes that accompany the chronologically ordered selection are a useful aid to the non-specialist reader.
The volume is divided into five sections. The first section contains 15 articles, starting with "Neutralità attiva ed operante" (Il Grido del Popolo, 31 October 1914). Among the most important articles in this section: "Socialismo e cultura" (Il Grido del Popolo, 29 January 1916), "La rivoluzione contro il Capitale" (Avanti!, 24 December 1917), "Il nostro Marx" (Il Grido del Popolo, 4 May 1918), and "Utopia" (Avanti!, 25 July 1918). The second section comprises twelve selections written in 1919 and 1920. It opens with an article--"La taglia della storia"--published in L'Ordine Nuovo on 21 June 1919, and contains, among other things, articles related to the factory council movement, as well as "Il programma dell' Ordine Nuovo" (published in two parts in L'Ordine Nuovo, 14 and 28 August 1920). The thirteen selections that make up the third section, covering the years 1921-1926, include several very important and widely discussed pre-carceral texts, among them: "Il Congresso do Livorno" (L'Ordine Nuovo, 13 January 1921), "Socialisti e fascisti" (L'Ordine Nuovo, 11 June 1921), "I due fascismi" (L'Ordine Nuovo, 25 August 1921), the letter to Trotsky (8 September 1922) on Italian Futurism (published by Trotsky in his book Literatura i revoljucija; Moscow, 1923), "Capo" (L'Ordine Nuovo, 1 March 1924), the controversial letter of 14 October 1926 to the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party (and here the material provided by Santucci's in his annotations is particularly valuable), and the equally controversial subsequent letter of 26 October 1926 to Palmiro Togliatti. The fourth section of this anthology comprises a single text, namely Gramsci's seminal essay on the "Southern Question" ("Alcuni temi della quistione meridionale").
The fifth and longest section (its 240 pages constitute a little over half the contents of the entire volume) is appropriately devoted to selections from the Prison Notebooks. Here too, the material is presented chronologically. The items selected from the earlier notebooks deal, obviously, with miscellaneous topics--but, of course, the editor chose for inclusion those segments that are most closely related to dominant overall themes and concerns that run like leitmotifs throughout the pages of the Quaderni. The selections from the later notebooks derive their thematic coherence from Gramsci's own disposition of the materials in his "special notebooks." [END PAGE 33]
Antonio Gramsci. Piove, governo ladro! Satire e polemiche sul costume degli italiani. Ed. Antonio Santucci. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1996.
This slim volume (117 pages) consists of a selection of fifty odd short articles that Gramsci originally published under the general rubric "Sotto la Mole" in the Turin edition of Avanti! between 1916 and 1918. Here, Gramsci's journalistic skills, his satiric wit, and his lucid style stand out with striking poignancy. Gramsci, in one of his prison letters, wrote that his journalistic articles were "written for the day" and had no lasting interest or value. Reading this selection gives one sufficient reason to believe that he was excessively modest. It is hard to believe that these articles were written eighty years ago--see, for example, the reflections on organ transplants in "Merce" (6 June 1918), or the critique of the notion of "progress" in "Il tabacco" (28 May 1918), or the ridiculing of the antics of pompous academics in "Colei che non si deve amare" (27 October 1918), or his attack on politicians who ignore the promises and the programs on the basis of which they were elected in "Il regime dei pascià" (28 July 1918).
Antonio Gramsci. Contro la legge sulle associazioni segrete. Ed. Antonio Santucci. Roma: Manifestolibri, 1997.
Gramsci was elected deputy in the Italian national elections of 6 April 1924. He made his only speech in parliament on 22 May 1925. Speaking against a proposed law purportedly aimed at controlling Freemasonry but which, in fact, was meant to suppress the activities of oppositional organizations, Gramsci declared, among other things: "It is not Freemasonry that concerns you. Freemasonry will become a wing of fascism. This law will be used against workers and citizens."
This slim volume reproduces the text of Gramsci's parliamentary speech in its entirety.
Valentino Gerratana. Gramsci. Problemi di metodo. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1997.
This book by the leading authority on Gramsci is a major contribution to two major spheres of Gramscian studies: the philological analysis of the text of the prison notebooks (see the chapters on the "restoration" of the Quaderni), and the interpretation of Gramsci's political philosophy (see, especially, the chapters on "revolution," "hegemony," and the question of the "subject"). It also contains a critical-biographical essay in which the prison letters are considered as Gramsci's self- portrait.
Each of the chapters of this book reproduces, sometimes in modified form, an essay previously published elsewhere. Some of them will be familiar to Gramsci scholars; others are not well- known because they first appeared in publications that are not readily accessible. The sixteen-page- long introductory essay--in which Gerratana asks and reflects on the question: In what sense is Gramsci a classic?--is especially noteworthy. (One hopes that this essay, in particular, will get translated soon into other languages.) [END PAGE 34]
Table of contents:
Intoduzione
I. Il restauro dei «Quaderni»: la preparazione
II. Il restauro dei «Quaderni»: risultati e conferme
III. Dopo il restauro: particolari retrospettivi
IV. L'autoritratto delle «Lettere»
V. Sul concetto di «rivoluzione»
VI. Le forme dell'egemonia
VII. Contro la dissoluzione del soggetto
Appendice. Impaginazione e analisi dei «Quaderni»
Valentino Gerratana discussed some of the views he set forth in this volume in an interview with Guido Liguori, published under the heading "Il cantiere dei Quaderni" in L'Unità, 20 January 1997.
Wolfgang Fritz Haug. Philosophieren mit Brecht und Gramsci. Berlin & Hamburg: Argument, 1996.
In his most recent book, Wolfgang Fritz Haug, the co-editor of the complete critical edition in German of the Prison Notebooks, addresses a number of fundamental philosophical topics-- ranging from the epistemology of the philosophy of praxis, to the philosophy of language, to the question of ethics in politics--with special reference to the thought of Brecht, Gramsci, and (in the fourth chapter) Wittgenstein. The following reproduction of the detailed table of contents serves as "map" or outline of the themes and issues treated in this volume.
Vorwort
Quellenlage und Zitierweise
I. ALLES PHILOSOPHIEREN GEHT VOM VOLKE AUS: 1. Was verstehen wir unter Philosophieren?--2. Der gemeinsame Ausgangspunkt bei Brecht und Gramsci--3. Das Erkenne- dichselbst als Kohärenzpraxis--4. Kohärenz + Hegemonie als philosophische Tatsache II. DIE IDEE EINER PHILOSOPHIE DER PRAXIS: 1. Die Frage--2. Exkurs über Energia, Poiesis und Praxis bei Aristoteles--3. Die Feuerbach-Thesen als Manifest einer neuen Philosophie der Praxis
III. EPISTEMOLOGIE DER PRAXIS ALS KRITIK DES OBJEKTIVISMUS: 1. Gramsci über die »Realität der Außenwelt«--2. Brecht: Erkenntnis führt zu Veränderung, Veränderung zu Erkenntnis--3. Statistische Kausalität und nichtaristotelische Dramatik--4. Relationale Warheit-- 5. Experimentelles Denken
IV. »ERKENNTNISTHEORIE MUSS VOR ALLEM SPRACHKRITIK SEIN« BRECHT GRAMSCI UND WITTGENSTEIN: 1. Piero Sraffa als Diskussionspartner von Gramsci und Wittgenstein--2. Brecht und Wittgenstein: erste Annäherung--3. Gramsci und Wittgenstein: Erste Annäherung und Diskrepanz--4. »Die Bedeutung eines Wortes ist sein Gebrauch in der Sprache-- 5. Die Idee einer philosophischen Grammatik--6. Kritik [END PAGE 35] am Systembegriff: Familienähnlichkeit und Spinnstruktur--7. Sprachspiele, Lebensformen, Praxis/Praxen--8. Sprach- und Ideologiekritik--9. Theoriefreie Theorie?--10. Antipoden in praktischer Hinsicht
V. WAS SPRICHT GEGEN DEN MORALISMUS? GRAMSCI ALS VERMITTLER ZWISCHEN ANDERS UND BRECHT: 1. Der andere Philosoph--2. Anders bei Brecht--3. Ein Ungespräch über Moralphilosophie--4. Der Bruch--5. Vertagung
VI. DIE ETHIK VON DER POLITIK, DIE POLITIK VON DER VERGESELLSCHAFTUNG HER VERSTANDEN: 1. Immoralismus und Moral bei Brecht--2. Politische Ethisierung als Katharsis der Interessen bei Gramsci--3. Katharsis als Kritik bei Brecht--4. Tugendhats moralische Unterstellung aus Freiheit--4.1 DieForm der »eigentlichen Moral«--4.2 Die moralische Entscheidung--4.3 Kooperationspartnerschaft--5. Das Luftreichder Hegemonie und die politisch-ethische Katharsis--6. Gramscis und Brechts Funktionsprüfung des kategorischen Imperativs von Kant--7. Das Auftauchen der Arbeit als Problem der politischen Moral bei Tugendhat--8. Zurück zur Ausgangsfrage
Epilog aus dem Off
Verzeichnis der zitierten Literatur
Guido Liguori. Gramsci conteso. Storia di un dibattito 1922-1996. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1996.
In this volume, Guido Liguori (the editor of Critical Marxista and secretary of IGS-Italia) provides an exhaustive and thoroughly annotated critical analysis of the interpretations, appropriations, instrumentalizations of Gramsci's life and work in Italy from the time of his emergence as a political leader to the present day. This book is a sine qua non for everyone seriously engaged in the study of Gramsci and for anyone genuinely interested in the cultural and political history of Italy in the twentieth century.
Table of contents:
Introduzione
I. GRAMSCI NEGLI SCRITTI DEI SUOI CONTEMPORANEI (1922-1938): Storia di un comista sardo scrittal dai liberali; Fuori dalla «strada maestra»; La condanna; Il carcere; La morte; «Antonio Gramsci capo della classe operaia italiana»; «Una perdita irreparabile»; Tra Carducci e Pascoli II. IDENTITÀ E TRADIZIONE DI PARTITO (1939-1947): Gramsci e Togliatti; Il «partito nuovo» e gli intellettuali; La «politica di Gramsci»; Politica e cultura; Tra Croce e Marx
III. IL «DIAMAT» E I «QUADERNI» (1948-1955): La guerra fredda e i Quaderni del carcere; L'«antifascism» di Gramsci; Le letture dei Quaderni; Marxismi dogmatici e non; Dissonanze; La storia del Pci; Un compagno nella legenda; Primi bilanci e nuove prospettive
IV. GRAMSCI E LA VIA ITALIANA AL SOCIALISMO (1956-1959): 1956; «Troppo poco gramsciani»; Attualità di Gramsci; Gramsci e il leninismo; Il convegno di Roma; Il «ritorno a Marx»; La città futura; La polemica sul Risorgimento [END PAGE 36]
V. DALLA «NUOVA STORIA» DEL PCI ALLA CRISI DELLO STORICISMO (1960-1969): L'ultimo Togliatti; La «nuova storia» del Pci; Tre biografie; La «giovane critica»; La crisi dello storicismo; Gramsci e la società civile; La «storicizzazione» di Gramsci; Nel movimento comunista internazionale; Lo storicismo e il Pci
VI. L'ETÀ D'ORO (1970-1975): Gramsci rimesso sui piedi; Operaismo e americanismo; Gramsci soviettista; Il concetto d'egemonia; Il primato della politica; Il marxismo di Gramsci; Gramsci e lo Stato; Gramsci e la «nuova sinistra»; L'«edizione Gerratana»
VII. APOGEO E CRISI DELLA CULTURA GRAMSCIANA (1976-1977): La discussione sul pluralismo; Egemonia e democrazia; Il seminario di Frattocchie; Il convegno di Firenze; La crisi
VIII. DIECI ANNI «A LUCI SPENTE» (1978-1986): Nella crisi del marxismo; Gramsci «organicista»; Previsione e prassi; Gli intellettuali e il potere; Interpretazioni dell'egemonia; Nella «fabbrica» dei Quaderni; Gramsci, la religione, i cattolici
IX. TRA POLITICA E FILOLOGIA (1987-1996): Gramsci e il Pci nel 1987; Gramsci nel mondo; Il cinquantenario di un «classico»; Gramsciani e post-gramsciani; Tra politica e storia; Gramsci post-comunista; Gramsci, Togliatti, Stalin; Gramsci, Tania, Sraffa; Verso nuove edizioni delle opere di Gramsci; Alla vigilia del 1997: quale Gramsci per il futuro?
Michele Pistillo. Gramsci-Togliatti. Polemiche e dissensi nel 1926. Manduria- Bari-Roma: Piero Lacaita Editore, 1996.
With this book, which is the product of admirably thorough archival research and painstakingly rigorous textual analysis, Michele Pistillo (former Senator and member of the European parliament, and author of several valuable books, including a biography of Ruggiero Grieco) has provided the most persuasive and level-headed account of the circumstances surrounding Gramsci's dissenting letter to the Central Committee of the Soviet Union's Communist Party in 1926, and his subsequent disagreement with Palmiro Togliatti. In addition to a detailed study of Gramsci's relations with Togliatti in 1926, the book's lengthy appendix reproduces all the documents pertinent to this thorny issue that has given rise to seemingly interminable polemics and (often crude) partisan controversies.
For a review of this book, see Guido Liguori, "Storia del Pci. Gramsci Toglaitti e il 1926. Un anno fatale," in Il Manifesto, 6 March 1997.
Antonio Santucci. Gramsci. Roma: Tascabili Economici Newton, 1997.
This slim volume is an excellent introduction to Gramsci for the general reader; and it merits reading even by the "initiated" as a lucid and succinct overarching account of Gramsci life and thought. Table of contents: [END PAGE 37]
I. GRAMSCI DI FINE SECOLO: 1. Dopo l'Ottantanove; 2. Oggi e domani; 3. Perché due Gramsci; 4. Politica e verità; 5. Verità ed egemonia; 6. La riforma della politica; 7. Vittorie transitorie e sconfitte apparenti
II. SARDEGNA: 1. I Gramsci; 2. Primi studi e un morbo subdolo; 3. Liceale a Cagliari; 4. Verso il socialismo
III. TORINO: 1. Una borsa di studio; 2. Il promettente glottologo; 3. Tre scritti importanti; 4. «L'Ordine Nuovo»; 5. La scissione di Livorno e l'ascesa del fascismo
IV. MOSCA E VIENNA: 1. L'amore al tempo del Comintern; 2. Dall'Austria la lotta a Bordiga; 3. La solitudine dell'uomo e un giornale nuovo
V. ROMA: 1. Deputato e segretario comunista; 2. La questione meridionale; 3. Una lettera a Mosca e il dissenso con Togliatti; 4. La condanna
VI. TURI: 1. Le Lettere e i Quaderni del carcere; 2. Egemonia, società civile, Stato; 3. La fine
VII. EUROPA, AMERICA, ASIA: 1. La rinascita; 2. Oltre i confini; 3. Di nuovo in Italia
Cronologia della vita di Antonio Gramsci
Bibliografia essenziale
The French periodical, La Revue Commune (No. 3, 1996) has published a "dossier" on "Gramsci et la culture populaire" (pp. 9-59), edited by Silvia Disegni.
The "dossier" is introduced by a substantial article by Silvia Disegni, entitled "Présence de Gramsci", which discusses, among other things, the letters from prison, the notebooks, Gramsci and Marxism, hegemony, the question of the intellectuals, and popular culture. The other items in dossier are: "Culture populaire", an interview with Dario Fo; "Gramsci et la linguistique", an interview with Tullio De Mauro; and "Lecture de Gramsci aujourd'hui", an interview with Jacqueline Risset. At the end of the dossier, a three-page piece under the heading "La Revue Commune et Gramsci" discusses the reasons for (and the reasons for not) publishing this homage to Gramsci. Here is a brief excerpt:
Nous n'avons pas non plus publié ce dossier pour rendre hommage au penseur, au dirigeant communiste, au militant antifasciste. Car Gramsci n'a pas besoin d'hommage . . .et nous non plus. Mieux vaut simplement le lire . . .
Mais:
1. Nous avons publié ce dossier parce que Gramsci est l'un des rares penseurs de ce siècle á avoir mis au centre de sa réflexion la question des rapports entre le peuple, la culture et la politique. Or penser ce rapport aujourd'hui, c'esy la raison meme de la création de la revue Commune.
2. Nous avons publié ce dossier parce que Gramsci ne nous donne aucune réponse achevée mais nous laisse des concepts qui nous paraissent tout à fait utilisables pour aujourd'hui. Notamment les notions d'hegemonie, de bloc historique, d'intellectuels organiques, de réforme culturelle et morale . . . [END PAGE 38] The Italian paper Liberazione of 25 April 1997 published a special eight-page insert devoted entirely to articles on Gramsci.
Contents:
Arcangelo Leone De Castris: "Per togliere le brache al mondo"
Cesare Bermani: "Con spirito di scissione. Una Busola per l'antagonismo"
Rina Gagliardi: "'Previsione' e credibilità. Spunti di dibattito"
Giorgio Baratta: "Inter-nazionale-popolare"
Antonio Santucci: "Affermare la verità è una necessità politica"
Ugo Dotti: "Intellettuali e passione politica"
Pasquale Voza: "Non c'è Stato senza egemonia"
Alberto Burgio: "Statisti di classe e facitori di piani. Se l'utopia diviene evasività"
Domenico Jervolino: "Le parole della prassi"
Michele Martelli: "L'anti-Croce e l'anti-Gentile"
Andrea Catone: "Capitalismo e psicoanalisi. Americanismo e fordismo"
Jacques Texier: "La civetta di Minerva. La guerra di posizione"
Lea Durante: "Per una nuova cultura. Note letterarie"
Luigi Pestalozza: "Conflitto globale. Necessità di una riscoperta"
Derek Boothman: "Una fioritura di nuove edizioni"
Guido Liguori: "Gli interpreti, i seguaci, i critici feroci. Per un'anagrafe gramsciana"
Il Manifesto of 27 April 1997 devoted a special section to Gramsci; it contained the follwoing items:
Leonardo Paggi: "Antonio Gramsci l'inattuale"
Guido Liguori: "Antologie Gramsciane"
Aldo Natoli: "Tania tra Lui e il mondo"
The weekly journal Cominform 71 (13-20 May 1997) published a special section on Gramsci which contains the following items:
Gianfranco Nappi: "A partire da Gramsci"
Guido Liguori: "Perché ci serve la sua lezione" (an interview with Lucio Magri)
Giuseppe Chiarante: "Oltre la 'rivoluzione passiva'" Joseph Buttigieg: "Chi ha paura di Gramsci?"
G. L.: "Gramsci ha visto più lontano. Il tempo gli ha dato ragione" (interview with Valentino Gerratana)
G.L.: "Tutto è mutato dai suoi tempi. Ma Gramsci ci parla ancora" (interview with Domenico Losurdo)
Luciano Canfora: "Azzardi esegitici" [END PAGE 39]
Antonio Santucci: "Un classico di oggi"
G.L.: "Che cosa si trova in libreria . . ."
G. L. "Che cosa si trova in biblioteca . . ."
Carlos Nelson Coutinho: "Oggi sta nel PT di Lula"
Anne Finger, "Comrade Luxemburg and Comrade Gramsci Pass Each Other at a Congress of the Second International in Switzerland on the 10th of March, 1912" in Ploughshares, Spring 1996, pp. 74-82
A delightful short story that opens with : "It never happened. It could not have happened."--and then proceeds to imagine a brief encounter between Gramsci and Rosa Luxemburg.
Benedetto Fontana, "The Concept of Nature in Gramsci" in The Philosophical Forum, XXVII, 3 (Spring 1996), pp. 220-43
Guido Liguori, "Dewey, Gramsci, e il «pragmatismo neo-gramsciano» di Cornel West" in John Dewey oggi, edited by Mario Alcaro and Romeo Bufalo (Catnzaro: Abramo Editore, 1996), pp. 163-75.
Massimo Lollini, "Literature and Testimony in Gramsci's Letters from Prison: The Question of Subjectivity" in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, XXIII, 2 (June 1996), pp. 519-29.
New Literary History, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Winter 1997)--a special issue devoted to "Cultural Studies: China and the West".
Several essays in this special issue of New Literary History deal with Gramsci's ideas and concepts--some of them in considerable detail--in their analyses of various aspects of Chinese culture and politics. See, especially, the following essays:
Wang Fengzhen: "Third-World Writers in the Era of Postmodernism"
Liu Kang: "Hegemony and Cultural Revolution"
Jonathan Arac: "Postmodernism and Postmodernity in China: An Agenda for Inquiry"
Domenico Jervolino, in his book Le parole della prassi (Napoli: Città del Sole, 1996)--a series of essays on hermeneutics, inspired primarily by Paul Ricoeur--offers some interesting reflections on the philosophy of liberation in relation to the thought of Marx and Gramsci (see, in particular, the introductory essay). [END PAGE 40] We have learned of the recent publication of three new anthologies of Gramsci's writings. They are: Pensare la democrazia. Antologia dai "Quaderni del cacere", ed. Marcello Montanari (Torino: Einaudi, 1997); Filosofia e politica. Antologia dei "Quaderni del carcere", ed. Franco Consiglio and Fabio Frosini (La Nuova Italia, 1997); and La religione come senso comune, ed. Tommaso La Rocca (Nuove Pratiche Editrice, 1997). Since we have not received copies of these books, we are unable to provide a description of their contents.