International Gramsci Society Newsletter
Number 10 (March, 2000): 25 < prev | tofc | next >  

Gramsci in Japan

The Tokyo Gramsci Society continues to be very active. In addition to holding frequent meetings, the Society also regularly publishes a bulletin, La Città Futura, with short articles and information about its past and future activities.

In April of last year, the Tokyo Gramsci Society held its second annual assembly at which Profesor Tadao Uemura of Tokyo Foreign Languages University delivered a lecture entitled "On Totalitarianism in Gramsci." The text of the lecture was subsequently published in pamphlet form as an extraordinary issue of La Città Futura. Its contents are subdivied in the following sub- sections: At the Beginning; Significance of the Critical Edition of the Prison Notebooks; Reverse of Praxis; The Case of the Concept of Historical Bloc; About Civil Society; Totalitarianism of the Regulated Society; Opening Gramsci. Furthermore, on October 8th, 1999, the Tokyo Gramsci Society organized a study meeting to discuss the question of the "subaltern". As a basis for the discussion, the group used a complete Japanese translation of Gramsci's Notebook 25 and an article on the same topic by Joseph A. Buttigieg that had appeaered in Critica Marxista. A general account of the discussion was later published in La Città Futura. In addition, the Tokyo Gramci Society published the Japanese translation of Notebook 25 (prefaced by Buttigieg's article) as a pamphlet.

The contents of La Città Futura, listed below, provide some indication of the activities and the interests of the Tokyo Gramsci Society:

#6 (April 1999): Gramsci and the 20th Century (5)--An Earnest Exchange with the Kyoto Gramsci Society--A Cordial Meeting with a Chinese Scholar of Gramsci--Review of "Gramsci in Rome, Togliatti in Moscow: Letters of October 1926" edited by G. Vacca and C. Daniele--Gramsci and His Pictures (2)--Video-Theater: 8 1/2--What I Learned From the Gramsci Reader Study Group.

#8 (August 1999): Gramsci and the 20th Century (7)--Preview: Access to Gramsci Institute Bi-Monthly Magazine & Gramsci and Red Wine--Book Reviews of G. Turner's "Cultural Studies: An Introduction" and Antonio Negri's "Constituent Power"--Presentation: Mainichi Mook Series: Recollections of the 20th Century--Video- Theater: "Edipo re"--Grido di guerra!

#9 (September 1999): Gramsci and the 20th Century (8)--For a Study of Notebook 25--Book Review of Donald Sassoon's "Social Democracy in Contemporary Europe"--Yukichi Fukuzawa and his Conception of Hegemony--Video-Theater: "Ferroviere"--Grido di guerra!

#10 (December 1999): Gramsci and the 20th Century (9)--Gist of the Fruitful Discussion at Joint Study Meeting on "Subaltern Notebook" of Gramsci--Book Review of Kuni Uemura"s "Between PCI and PDS"--Video- Theater "Paisa"--Grido di guerra!

The editor of the IGS Newsletter wishes to thank Koichi Ohara for regularly supplying information about Gramscian studies in Japan.   ^ return to top ^ < prev | tofc | next >