Using a diachronic method of investigation, this work uncovers the origins and development of Gramsci's core concepts. The first section analyses the relation between structure and superstructure and the concepts of hegemony and the regulated society. The second investigates alternative conceptual pairings to structuresuperstructure, encompassing questions of political and cultural organisation, and Gramsci's relation to Marx, Engels, and Lenin.
Giuseppe Cospito, Ph.D. (1999), University of Turin, is Assistant Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Pavia. He has published monographs and a number of articles on Niccolò Machiavelli, Giambattista Vico, Carlo Cattaneo and Antonio Gramsci.
A Note on the TextPreface: Questions of MethodPART ONE: PHILOSOPHY-POLITICS-ECONOMICS 1. Structure and Superstructures1.1. Working hypothesis 1.2. The ‘Bukharin’ phase (from the party school to Notebook 4, §§ 12 and 15: 1925–30) 1.3. The ‘centrist’ thesis from the end of 1930 (Notebook 4, § 38)1.4. The ‘crisis’ of 1931 (Notebook 7)1.5. Moving beyond the architectural metaphor (Notebook 8: end of 1931 – beginning of 1932) 1.6. The ‘inertia’ of the old formulations (Notebooks 10, 11 and 13: 1932–3)1.7. ‘Unended Quest’ (Notebooks 10, 11, 14, 15 e 17: 1932-35)1.8 Provisional conclusions2. Hegemony2.1. Introduction 2.2. ‘Posing the issue’2.3. Hegemony and civil society2.4. Hegemony and the intellectuals2.5. Hegemony and the party 2.6. The sources of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony2.7. A (re)definition of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony3. Regulated Society3.1. Philosophy-Politics-Economics 3.2. ‘Importuning the texts’3.3. The regulated society ‘from Utopia to science’3.4. Towards a new Reformation?3.5. Gramsci as critic of the ‘critical economy’3.6. Toward ‘a new economic science’PART TWO: THE ANALYSIS OF SEVERAL INTERNAL DYNAMICS OF THE NOTEBOOKS4. The ‘Alternatives’ to Structure-Superstructure 4.1. ‘Quantity and quality’4.2. ‘Content and form’4.3. ‘Objective and subjective’4.4. ‘Historical bloc’5. The Gradual Transformation in Gramsci’s Categories5.1. Methodological premise5.2. Organic centralism; Postilla 5.3. Common sense and/or good sense5.4. Civil society6. Gramsci and the Marxist Tradition6.1. ‘Marx, the author of concrete political and historical works’: Caesarism and Bonapartism6.2. Engels and the Marxist vulgate6.3. Conclusion: Gramsci, from Lenin to MarxBibliographyIndex