The Revolutionary Marxism of Antonio Gramsci Historical Materialism Book Series
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Revolutionary Marxism of Antonio Gramsci Historical Materialism Book Series Editorial Board Sébastien Budgen, Paris – Steve Edwards, London Marcel van der Linden, Amsterdam – Peter Thomas, London VOLUME 62 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm The Revolutionary Marxism of Antonio Gramsci By Frank Rosengarten LEIDEn • BOSTON 2014 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1570-1522 ISBN 978-90-04-26574-5 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-26575-2 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing and IDC Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. To John Cammett In Memoriam Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... ix Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. xi List of Permissions .................................................................................................................... xiii Part One: Gramsci as Political Thinker and Activist Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3 1. The Gramsci-Trotsky Question ....................................................................................... 15 2. Antonio Gramsci and the Italian Communist Press in the Fascist Era .............. 47 3. The Contemporary Relevance of Gramsci’s Views on the Italian ‘Southern Question’ ............................................................................................................ 57 Part Two: Gramsci’s Prison Experience 4. Antonio Gramsci’s Letters from Prison ........................................................................ 69 5. Gramsci’s Analysis of Canto X of Dante’s Inferno ..................................................... 93 6. Gramsci’s Path from ‘Ploughman’ to ‘Fertiliser’ of History .................................... 111 viii • Contents Part Three: Comparative Perspectives on Gramsci 7. Antonio Gramsci and C.L.R. James: Some Intriguing Similarities ..................... 127 8. On the Qualities of Intellectuals: Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, and Betty Friedan ...................................................................................................................... 135 9. Gramsci in the Caribbean ............................................................................................... 149 Part Four: Two Protagonists of Gramsci Studies in the United States 10. Gramscian Influences in Robert Dombroski’s Critical Engagement with Marxism ................................................................................................................................ 161 11. John Cammett’s Writings on Antonio Gramsci and the PCI ............................... 175 References ................................................................................................................................... 191 Index ............................................................................................................................................. 195 Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the special debt I owe to Peter D. Thomas, whose initiative was primarily responsible for the publication of this book of essays on Antonio Gramsci. I was fortunate to have Peter available to help me solve the problems that I encountered in bringing together essays that were written over a long span of time, from 1968 to 2012. I would also like to thank David Broder for his excellent comments, corrections and sug- gestions concerning the text of this book. My thanks are due to three friends and colleagues with whom I have had illuminat- ing discussions concerning the issues that I deal with in the present volume. They are Professors Joe Francese, Kate Crehan, and Ben Fontana, all of whom have offered me the benefit of their expertise through the years. Professor Roberto Dainotto was indispensable to me for Chapter Nine on ‘Gramsci in the Caribbean’, which I presented at a Conference that Roberto, together with Professor Fredric Jameson, organised at Duke University in late April 2013. Finally, it would be difficult for me to exaggerate the importance of the role that Joe Buttigieg has played not only in my own Gramsci studies, but in the work of scholars worldwide. Chapter Five of this book on Gramsci’s analysis of Canto X of Dante’s Inferno appeared first in the journal Boundary 2, of which Joe became an editor in the 1980s. Joe was elected first president of the International Gramsci Society in 1989; since that time, he has been a virtual roving ambassador of Gramsci studies, in which capacity he has used his organisational skills to promote all kinds of worthy initiatives, especially in Italy. The first three volumes of his projected five-volume English translation of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks have already appeared. They feature an impressive introduction and critical apparatus that all serious Gramsci scholars will need to consult. Abbreviations The following abbreviations are used in the text: PCd’I Partito Comunista d’Italia [Communist Party of Italy] IGS International Gramsci Society JMIS Journal of Modern Italian Studies PCI Partito Comunista Italiano [Italian Communist Party] SSC Socialist Scholars Conference List of Permissions The essays collected in this volume appeared originally in the following books and peri- odicals or were presented online or at conferences. They are listed in the order in which they appear in the present volume. “The Gramsci-Trotsky Question: (1922–1932),” Social Text, Winter 1984/85. No. 11, pp. 65–95. “Antonio Gramsci and the Italian Communist Press during the Fascist Era,” taken from Part II of my book The Italian Antifascist Press 1919–1945, Cleveland: Case Western Uni- versity Press, 1968, pp. 33–85. “The Contemporary Relevance of Gramsci’s Views on Italy’s ‘Southern Question’,” Per- spectives on Gramsci – Politics, Culture and Social Theory, ed. Joseph Francese, New York: 2009, pp. 134–144. “Three Essays on Antonio Gramsci’s Letters from Prison,” Italian Quarterly, Summer/Fall 1984, Nos. 97–98, pp. 7–40. “Gramsci’s ‘Little Discovery’: Gramsci’s Interpretation of Canto X of Dante’s Inferno, Boundary 2, Vol. XIV, No. 3, Spring 1986, pp. 71–90. “From ‘Ploughman’ to ‘Fertiliser’ of History: Gramsci as General Secretary of the Com- munist Party of Italy and Gramsci as Political Prisoner of the Fascist Régime,” Rivista di Studi Italiani, June 1988, XVI, No. 1, pp. 39–56. “Antonio Gramsci and C.L.R. James: Some Intriguing Similarities,” is available on line at http://www.inernationalgramscisociety.org/resources/online_articles/rosengarten (2002) “On the Qualities of Intellectuals: Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, and Betty Friedan,” Italian Culture, Vol. XXVIII, No. 7, September 2010, pp. 157–167. “Gramsci in the Caribbean” was presented on April 20, 2013 at a Conference held at Duke University. “Robert Dombroski’s Critical Engagement with Marxism,” From Paradox to Parable – Essays in Memory of Robert S. Dombroski, ed. Joseph Francese, New York: Bordighera Press, pp. 79–96. “John Cammett’s Writings on Antonio Gramsci and the PCI,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Vol. 16 No. 2, March 2001, pp. 195–210. Part One Gramsci as Political Thinker and Activist Introduction Why Gramsci? And why Gramsci now? Each of the eleven chapters of this book addresses one or the other of these questions, but usually not directly and explicitly. That bur- den falls to the following introductory remarks. If we look at the totality of Gramsci’s intellectual produc- tion, from the articles he wrote as a young man for various socialist newspapers to the notebooks on which he laboured in prison, we are struck by their freshness and originality. Gramsci is never uninteresting; no matter what his subject, whether it be an Ibsen play or the relevance of Marxism to the study of history and politics, whether it be a debate over the methods and aims of education or the phenomenon of revolution, he approached his subjects in such a way as to leave his readers not only better informed, but above all challenged, stirred, and engaged. This is not merely a mat- ter of Gramsci’s style, although his prose is exceptionally incisive and free of verbiage. What especially distinguishes his writing is its mixture of spontaneity and rigour, of pas- sion and restraint, rare combinations in one and the same individual. One can speak, in Gramsci’s case, of a ‘heroic’ effort to transcend the always difficult circumstances of his life, beginning with his early years in Sardinia to his arrival in Turin