The sixtieth anniversary of Antonio Gramsci's death occasioned numerous conferences, seminars, and lectures on various aspects of his life and work. A quick survey of these events reveals more than the vitality of Gramscian studies across the world; it is indicative of the impact of Gramsci's ideas on a remarkably wide range of debates in many different spheres of inquiry, and of the rich diversity of approaches to contemporary issues that the study of his writings has inspired.
The IGS co-ordinated three sessions at the large international conference on the "Politics and Languages of Contemporary Marxism" that was organized by the journal Rethinking Marxism at the University of Massachusetts--Amherst on 5-8 December 1996. One of these sessions was devoted to "Gramsci's Political Language" and chaired by John Cammett. Three papers were delivered at this session. Evan Watkins (Pennsylvania State University) spoke on "Common Sense"; Benedetto Fontana (Baruch College--CUNY) discussed "Gramsci's Concepts of State and Nation"; and William Hartley (Chicago) dealt with the concept of "Hegemony." The second IGS session was chaired by Benedetto Fontana and it focussed on "The Presence of Gramsci in Different Fields/Disciplines." At this four-hour long session, Kate Crehan (New School for Social Research) delivered a paper on "Gramsci Among the Anthropolgists"; Robert Dombroski (CUNY) discussed the presence of "Gramsci in Literary Studies"; Carl Dyke (California State University-- Hayward) examined the place of "Gramsci in History and Sociology"; and Maurice Finocchiaro (University of Nevada--Las Vegas) spoke on "Gramsci and Philosophy." In the third IGS- sponsored session, entitled "Reading Gramsci" there were four presentations: Antonio Santucci (Rome) on "Gramsci, a 'Classic' from Abroad"; Wolfgang F. Haug (Freie University of Berlin) on "The Publication of Gramsci's Work in Germany"; Charles Klopp (Ohio State University) on "The New Columbia University Press Edition of the Letters from Prison in the Context of Italian Prison Writings"; and Joseph Buttigieg on "The Critical Edition of the Prison Notebooks in English." An additional session was devoted entirely to a discussion of Gramsci; under the general rubric "Hegemony, Language, Politics: New Directions in Gramscian Marxism" the following papers were delivered: Nancy Bell and Lily Ling (Syracuse University) on "Theorizing Hegemony: [END PAGE 8] A Critical Examination of Race and Gender in Gramscian IPE", Derek Boothman (University of Perugia) on "The Historical Bloc and Notions of a Dynamical Totality", Peter Ives (York University) on "Incongruous Languages: Where Gramsci and Bakhtin Diverge", and Jeff Williams (Texas Tech University) on "Gramsci and Comic Books."
Gramsci and "gramscian themes" featured prominently in many other sessions and individual papers at the Amherst conference. In a session on "Hegemony in a Transnational Context" (cosponsored by the journal boundary 2) Terry Cochran (University of Montreal) spoke on "Hegemony in the Age of Media Globalism" and Joseph Buttigieg on "The Emergence of the Concept of Hegemony in Gramsci's Prison Notebooks." A session on "Althusser, Gramsci, Weber" included a paper by James Beeby (Bowling Green State University) on "Antonio Gramsci, Hegemony, and the Marxist Historical Project." Equally noteworthy papers delivered in other sesions include: Wolfgang F. Haug on "Brecht, Gramsci, and Wittgenstein: The Language Question in the Philosophy of Praxis"; Jo-Young Shin (University of Massachusetts--Amherst) on "Gramsci's Marxism in Light of Althusserian Overdetermination"; and Joe Galbo on "Gramsci, Popular Film, and the Politics of Empire." Aldo Tortorella, a founding member of IGS-Italia, attended the Amherst conference and delivered a paper on "The Feasability of Communism: Past and Present" in which he discussed, among other things, the way in which "Gramsci rejects Marxism as a form of absolute certainty, and therefore puts it forward as radically critical thought, anti-dogmatic and anti-ideological, including in relation to itself."
The Amherst conference inspired a five-page spread entitled "Marx è vivo e lotta negli States" by Chiara Valentini in the Italian weekly, L'Espresso. It included a "boxed" item with the headline "Gramsci a stelle e striscie" (Gramsci in Stars and Stripes) which highlighted the circulation of Gramsci's works and ideas in U.S. intellectual and oppositional circles.
Gramsci's life and thought were the main focus of a week-long seminar held in Havana, Cuba, on 13-21 February 1997. The seminar was co-sponsored by the Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Cultura Cubana Juan Marinello, the Italian Associazione di Cultura Marxista (directed by Luigi Pestalozza) and the Department of Philosophy of the University of Pavia (Italy).The overall theme of the conference was "Los intellectuales y la sociedad actual: La creación de una nueva cultura." In the course of the seminar, the participating Cuban and Italian scholars talked on wide range of issues, including the following: "Verdad y hegemonía de Gramsci"; "El marxismo de Gramsci"; "Los usos de Gramsci en Cuba y la actual discusión sobre la sociedad civil"; "Anticapitalismo y problemas de hegemonía"; "Gramsci y la crítica del Americanismo"; "Por qué Gramsci hoy"; "La nueva figura del intelectual y su tareas"; "Pensamiento de Gramsci y su época"; "Intelectuales ante la necesidad actual"; "Intelectuales, la protesta social y politica, y construcción de una nueva cultura"; "Presencias femeninas en la vida de Antonio Gramsci." Giorgio Baratta, Nicola Cipolla, and Guido Liguori were among the IGS members participating in [END PAGE 9] the seminar. The Cuban daily Granma published articles on the seminar on 12 and 20 February 1997.
Professor Roberto Racinaro, the Rector of the University of Salerno, and Professor Mariapaola Fimiani, chair of the Department of Philosophy at the same university, organized a seminar on "Gramsci e la tradizione democratica nel pensiero moderno e contemporaneo" (Gramsci and the Democratic Tradition in Modern and Contemporary Thought) at their university. The seminar, which took place on 26 February 1997, was held to honor Valentino Gerratana (who served as professor at the University of Salerno for over twenty-five years) and to celebrate the publication of his most recent book, Gramsci: Problemi di metodo (Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1997). The speakers included Roberto Racinaro and Livio Sichirollo (University of Urbino) who discussed Gerratana's contributions to political philosophy and to Gramscian studies, Antonio Santucci who delivered a paper on the "classic" status of Gramsci's work, and Joseph Buttigieg who spoke on Gramscian philology and on Gerratana's special contribution to the study and interpretation of Gramsci's texts. Valentino Gerratana was also present and concluded the formal presentations with some observations on his scholarly work and its reception. In the open discussion that followed, several of Gerratana's colleagues intervened, including Giuseppe Cacciatore who touched upon, among other things, the significance of Gerratana's reading of Gramsci--a topic he treated more fully in an article "Dall'intellettuale politico al 'filosofo democratico'" (From Political Intellectual to Democratic Philosopher) that had appeared that same day in the cultural pages of La Città (26 February 1997). The event was the subject of an article by Eugenio Manca--"Il curatore dei Quaderni dà l'addio alla cattedra (Valentino Gerratana ha tenuto a Salerno la sua ultima lezione alla presenza di numerosi colleghi e allievi)"--published in L'Unità on 8 March 1997.
The city of Palermo has been the site of several "Gramscian events." The cultural association CEPES (presided by Nicola Cipolla) organized an evening conference on the recent book by Guido Liguori, Gramsci conteso (Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1996) on 21 January 1997 that was attended by the author. Another evening conference organized by CEPES on 28 February 1997, focussed on Gramsci in Europa e in America (Bari: Laterza, 1995)--the speakers included the editor of the volume, Antonio Santucci, as well as Joseph Buttigieg and Nicola De Domenico (University of Palermo). Also in Palermo, on 7 March 1997, a round table discussion was held to mark the publication of Antonio Santucci's new edition of the Lettere dal carcere (Palermo: Sellerio Editore, 1996) and to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of Gramsci's death. The event was hosted by Giovanni Giudice, president of the Istituto Gramsci Siciliano and Elvira Sellerio. Among the speakers: Nicola De Domenico (University of Palermo), Franco Lo Piparo (University of Palermo), Nicola Mineo (University of Catania), Francesco Renda (honorary president of the Istituto Gramsci Siciliano), Antonio Santucci, and Aldo Tortorella (director of Critica Marxista) [END PAGE 10] .
At the University of Naples, Domenico Jervolino (Department of Philosophy) has organized a year-long seminar (which meets weekly on Thursdays) on "Il linguaggio e la prassi in Gramsci" (Language and Praxis in Gramsci). The seminar was launched on 11 November 1996 with a lecture by André Tosel of the Sorbonne on "La filosofia della prassi e la traducibiltà dei linguaggi scientfici e coma riforma del senso comune." The question of "translatability" was further explored in a seminar that was given by Paul Ricoeur (on 29 April 1997) as part of Domenico Jervolino's university course on the philosophy of language. Also in Naples, the student members of Rifondazione Comunista organized a round-table discussion "Gramsci, gli intelletuali e lo stato". The speakers at the event--which was held in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Univerity of Naples on 23 April 1997--were Francesco Borelli, Domenico Jervolino, and Raul Mordenti. (Domenico Jervolino, representing IGS-Italia, also gave talks in Ales and Ghilarza in Sardinia on 24 and 25 April 1997 at events commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of Gramsci's death.)
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University in New York City, in collaboration with the Fondazione Istituto Gramsci of Rome, and the Italian Cultural Institute in New York sponsored a day-long international conference on "Gramsci and Modernity" that was held in the "Teatro" of the newly refurbished Casa Italiana, at Columbia University, on 3 April 1997. The Director of the Italian Academy, Professor Richard Brilliant, opened the conference and chaired the morning session. The following presentations were made in the morning session: Giuseppe Vacca: "The Prison Notebooks and Twentieth Century Politics"; Joseph A. Buttigieg: "Gramsci's Analysis of Modernity and Modernization"; Renato Zangheri: "Notes on Gramsci and the Twentieth Century"; Gianfranco Corsini, "The American Way to Gramsci". Nadia Urbinati was the discussant. The afternoon session included the following presentations: Frank Rosengarten: "The Problem of Will and Coercion in Gramsci's Prison Letters"; Claudia Mancina: "Praxis and Pragmatism: The Influence of James on Gramsci"; John Cammett: "A Bibliography on Gramsci on the Internet." The discussant of the afternoon papers was Benedetto Fontana. On the eve of the conference, the participants also participated in a round table discussion on "The Impact of Gramsci's Thought at the End of the 20th Century" that was held at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and was chaired by the director of the Istituto, Gioacchino Lanza Tomassi. Il Manifesto published two articles on the events in New York: "Antonio Gramsci ha conquistato l'America" by Elisabetta Castellani (3 April 1997); and "Gramsci in giro per gli States" by Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan (5 April 1997).
The Berliner Institut für kritische Theorie organized a large conference on Gramsci that was held on 18-20 April 1997 at the Jagdschloss Glienicke in Berlin. The opening plenary session, chaired by Wolfgang Fritz Haug, included presentations by Frank Deppe (Marburg) on "Gramsci und Machiavelli", and Harald Neubert (Berlin) on "Parteientheorie bei Gramsci." The overall [END PAGE 11] rubric of the four simultaneous sessions held on the morning of 19 April was "Gramsci-Studien." In the afternoon, four more simultaneous sessions focussed on "applications" of Gramsci's thought. The four simultaneous sessions scheduled for the morning of 20 April were devoted to presentations on various issues related to postfordism and to neoliberalism.
In Brazil, Professor Alberto Aggio, of the Faculdade de História, Direito e Serviço Social of the Universidad Estadual Paulista, coordinated a four-day conference--"Gramsci-60 Anos. A Vitalidade De Um Pensamento"--that was held on 19-22 May 1997 at UNESP, Campus de Franca (Sao Paolo). The advance copy of the program (kindly provided by Alberto Aggio) listed Carlos Nelson Coutinho as the opening speaker. He was to speak on "A Atualidade de Gramsci." Other plenary speakers included Ivete Simionatto on "O Social e o Politico no pensamento de Gramsci" and Marco Aurélio Nogueira on "Gramsci e os desafios da política democrática." Luis Werneck Vianna was to conclude the conference with a talk on "Gramsci e nós: perguntas e desafios." Three round table discussions were planned, dealing with: "Gramsci, os intelectuais e a política"; "Gramsci e a esquerda occidental"; and "A presença de Gramsci na politica brasileira." In addition, three workshops were to be held on: "Gramsci, a História e os Historiadores"; "Gramsci, o Direito e a Justiça"; and "Gramsci e a Teoria do Serviço Social."
On 19 July 1997 the Calabrian-Albanian comune of Plataci (in the province of Cosenza, where Albanians settled in the 15th century) will host a conference on "Gramsci: origini e pensiero." During the conference, members of the Centro Studi di Politica ed Economia della Calabria (CESPE.CA) will present the results of their genealogical research which traced Gramsci's forebears back to the Albanian community of Plataci. (They also conducted research in Albania and specifically in the province of Gramsh.) Albanian scholars will also be participating in the conference.
(See also the reports on conferences and events in San Francisco, Cagliari, and Rome in the other sections of this Newsletter.)