The rhythm of thought in Gramsci: a diachronic interpretation of Prison notebooks

263 Pages·2017·2.452 MB·English

by  Cospito, Giuseppe

TheRhythmofThoughtinGramsci
Historical Materialism
Book Series
EditorialBoard
SébastienBudgen(Paris)
DavidBroder(Rome)
SteveEdwards(London)
JuanGrigera(London)
MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam)
PeterThomas(London)
volume130
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm
The Rhythm of Thought
in Gramsci
ADiachronicInterpretationof Prison Notebooks
By
GiuseppeCospito
Translatedby
AriannaPonzini
leiden | boston
Thisbookhasbeentranslatedthankstoatranslationgrantawardedbythe
ItalianMinistryofForeignAffairsandInternationalCooperation,the
FondazioneGramsciOnlusandtheDipartimentodiStudiUmanisticiofthe
UniversitàdegliStudidiPavia,Italy.
Questolibroèstatotradottograzieaduncontributoallatraduzione
assegnatodalMinisterodegliAffariEsteriedellaCooperazione
Internazionaleitaliano,dallaFondazioneGramsciOnlusedalDipartimento
diStudiUmanisticidell’UniversitàdegliStudidiPavia,Italia.
FirstpublishedinItalianasIlritmodelpensiero:perunaletturadiacronicadei«Quadernidelcarcere»di
GramscibyBibliopolis,Naples,2011.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Cospito,Giuseppe,1966-author.
Title:TherhythmofthoughtinGramsci:adiachronicinterpretationofPrisonnotebooks/byGiuseppe
Cospito;translatedbyAriannaPonzini.
Othertitles:Ritmodelpensiero.English
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,[2016]|Series:Historicalmaterialismbookseries,issn1570-1522;
volume130|"FirstpublishedinItalianasIlRitmodelPensiero:perunaletturadiacronicadeiQuaderni
delcarcerediGramscibyBibliopolis,Naples,2011."|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:lccn2016029418(print)|lccn2016039362(ebook)|isbn9789004266322(hardback:alk.
paper)|isbn9789004326903(e-book)
Subjects:lcsh:Gramsci,Antonio,1891-1937.Quadernidelcarcere.|Politicalscience–Philosophy.|
Philosophy,Marxist.
Classification:lccHX288.G6963C67132016(print)|lccHX288.G6963(ebook)|ddc300.1–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016029418
TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn1570-1522
isbn978-90-04-26632-2(hardback)
isbn978-90-04-32690-3(e-book)
Copyright2016byGiuseppeCospito.
KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillHes&DeGraaf,BrillNijhoff,BrillRodopiand
HoteiPublishing.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,translated,storedinaretrievalsystem,
ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,
withoutpriorwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
AuthorizationtophotocopyitemsforinternalorpersonaluseisgrantedbyKoninklijkeBrillnvprovided
thattheappropriatefeesarepaiddirectlytoTheCopyrightClearanceCenter,222RosewoodDrive,
Suite910,Danvers,ma01923,usa.Feesaresubjecttochange.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner.
Contents
ANoteontheText vii
Preface:QuestionsofMethod ix
part 1
Philosophy–Politics–Economics
1 StructureandSuperstructures 3
1 WorkingHypothesis 3
2 The‘Bukharinian’Phase(fromthePartySchooltoNotebook4,§§12
and15:1925–30) 6
3 The‘Centrist’ThesisfromtheEndof1930(Notebook4,§38) 12
4 The‘Crisis’of1931(Notebook7) 19
5 MovingbeyondtheArchitecturalMetaphor(Notebook8:Endof
1931–Beginningof1932) 23
6 The‘Inertia’oftheOldFormulations(Notebooks10,11and13:
1932–3) 27
7 ‘UnendedQuest’(Notebooks10,11,14,15and17:1932–5) 35
8 ProvisionalConclusions 44
2 Hegemony 49
1 Introduction 49
2 ‘PosingtheIssue’ 50
3 HegemonyandCivilSociety 55
4 HegemonyandtheIntellectuals 67
5 HegemonyandtheParty 71
6 TheSourcesofGramsci’sConceptofHegemony 82
7 A(Re)definitionofGramsci’sConceptofHegemony 86
3 RegulatedSociety 91
1 Philosophy–Politics–Economics 91
2 ‘ImportuningtheTexts’ 95
3 TheRegulatedSociety‘fromUtopiatoScience’ 97
4 TowardsaNewReformation? 105
5 GramsciasCriticofthe‘CriticalEconomy’ 113
6 Toward‘aNewEconomicScience’ 118
vi contents
part 2
TheAnalysisofSeveralInternalDynamicsoftheNotebooks
4 The‘Alternatives’toStructure-Superstructure 135
1 ‘QuantityandQuality’ 136
2 ‘ContentandForm’ 145
3 ‘ObjectiveandSubjective’ 155
4 ‘HistoricalBloc’ 162
5 TheGradualTransformationinGramsci’sCategories 168
1 MethodologicalPremise 168
2 ‘Organic’,‘Bureaucratic’,‘DemocraticCentralism’ 169
3 ‘CommonSense’and/or‘GoodSense’ 184
4 CivilSociety 199
6 GramsciandtheMarxistTradition 207
1 ‘Marx,theAuthorofConcretePoliticalandHistoricalWorks’:
CaesarismandBonapartism 207
2 EngelsandtheMarxistVulgate 217
3 Conclusion:Gramsci,fromLenintoMarx 227
Bibliography 231
NameIndex 242
SubjectIndex 246
A Note on the Text
InthefollowingpagestheNotebookswillbecitedaccordingtothesequencing,
internaldivisionsandsectionnumberingusedinAntonioGramsci,Quaderni
delcarcere,criticaleditionpublishedbytheIstitutoGramsci,editedbyV.Ger-
ratana,Turin:Einaudi,1977,4volumes(vol.4,CriticalApparatus,willbecited
usingtheabbreviationqfollowedbythepagenumber),evenwherethesedo
not correspond with those of the Edizione Nazionale degli Scritti of Anto-
nio Gramsci, ii: Quadernidelcarcere, critical edition edited by G. Francioni,
vol. 1, Quaderni di traduzioni (1929–1932), edited by G. Cospito and G. Fran-
cioni,Rome:IstitutodellaEnciclopediaItaliana,2007(containing: Notebooks
a [a]–[b]; b [a]–[b]; 9 [a]; c [a]–[d]; 7 [a]; d); vol. 2, Quaderni miscellanei
(1929–1935),currentlyinpreparation(containing:Notebooks1,2,4[a]–[d],3,
5, 6, 7 [b]–[c], 8 [a]–[d], 14, 15, 17); vol. 3, Quaderni speciali (1932–1935), cur-
rently in preparation (containing: Notebooks 10, 12, 13, 11, 16, 18–29). The fol-
lowing English translations were used for the quotations: Antonio Gramsci,
Prison Notebooks, edited with an Introduction by Joseph A. Buttigieg, New
York: Columbia University Press, 2011, 3 vols. (corresponding to Notebooks
1–8, quoted without any further indications); Selection from the Prison Note-
books, translated and edited by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith,
New York: International Publishers, 1971 (henceforth spn); FurtherSelections
from the Prison Notebooks, translated and edited by Derek Boothman, Min-
neapolis:MinnesotaUniversityPress,1995(henceforthfs);SelectionsfromCul-
turalWritings,editedbyDavidForgacsandGeoffreyNowell-Smith,Cambridge,
ma:HarvardUniversityPress,1985(henceforthcw);LettersfromPrison,edited
byFrankRosengarten,translatedbyRaymondRosenthal,NewYork:Columbia
UniversityPress,1994(henceforthlp); Pre-PrisonWritings,editedbyRichard
Bellamy, translated by Virginia Cox, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994 (henceforth ppw); Selection from Political Writings, selected and edited
by Quintin Hoare, translated by John Mathews, London: Lawrence and Wis-
hart, 1977–8, vol. 1 (1910–20) (henceforth spw i), vol. ii (1921–6) (henceforth
spw ii);History,PhilosophyandCultureintheYoungGramsci,editedbyPedro
CavalcantiandPaulPiccone,SaintLouis:TelosPress,1975(henceforthhpc).
Textsnotfoundintheabove-mentionedsourcesweretranslateddirectlyfrom
Italian, as were the quotations from the secondary literature, which was not
updated with respect to the original edition of this book, published in 2011.
Nevertheless, deserving of mention are several books that could not be con-
sideredbackthenbutwhichtodayrepresentanessentialreferencepointfor
several questions dealt with in the present work: P. Thomas, TheGramscian
viii a note on the text
Moment. Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism, Leiden: Brill, 2009; L. Rapone,
Cinque anni che paiono secoli. Antonio Gramsci dal socialismo al comunismo
(1914–1919),Rome:Carocci,2011;andG.Vacca,VitaepensieridiAntonioGramsci
(1926–1937),Turin:Einaudi,2012.
preface
Questions of Method
Six decades have passed since the initial publication, partial and topic-ori-
ented,ofGramsci’s PrisonNotebooks,andmorethanthreedecadessincethe
chronologicaledition.Atpresentanewcriticaltextisbeingpreparedofthis
work for the Edizione Nazionale of his writings. Over this period an endless
bibliographyonGramscihasarisenwhichatpresentnumbersslightlyfewer
than 20,000 texts (in almost all the world’s languages), treating every aspect
of Gramscian thought, from his life to his political writings, from his letters
totheextraordinaryinterplayoftopicsinhisprisonnotebooks.1Nevertheless,
inrecentyearsmanyscholarshaveseentheneedforfurtherexaminationof
thenotebooksinordertoemphasisethediachronicplanofthewritingswith
respecttothesychronicone,Gramsci’sopenreflectionsregardinghis(never
definitive)objectives,andthepolysemousconceptsandcategoriesadoptedfor
theindividualdefinitions.2
Involved here is a (re)reading of the Notebooks from the same perspect-
iveGramscisuggestedusingtostudyMarx,settingforthseveral‘Questionsof
Method’towhomeverwished‘tostudythebirthofaconceptionoftheworld
whichhasneverbeensystematicallyexpoundedbyitsfounder(andonefur-
thermorewhoseessentialcoherenceistobesoughtnotineachindividualwriting
orseriesofwritingsbutinthewholedevelopmentofthemultiformintellectual
workinwhichtheelementsoftheconceptionareimplicit)’.TothisendGramsci
underscoredthat‘somepreliminarydetailedphilologicalworkhastobedone.
Thishastobecarriedoutwiththemostscrupulousaccuracy,scientifichonesty
andintellectualloyalty,andwithoutanypreconceptions,apriorismorpartipris’,
inorder‘toreconstructtheprocessofintellectualdevelopmentofthethinker
inquestioninordertoidentifythoseelementswhichweretobecomestable
and“permanent”–inotherwordsthosewhichweretakenupasthethinker’s
ownthought,distinctfromandsuperiortothe“material”whichhehadstud-
iedearlierandwhichservedasastimulustohim’.Moreover,Gramsciwrotethat
‘thisselectioncanbemadeforperiodsofvaryinglength,determinedbyintrinsic
1 Cf.Cammett(ed.)Bibliografiagramsciana,availableon-lineat:http://213.199.9.13/
bibliografiagramsci/.
2 AneffectivemeanstoguideusthroughGramsci’sconceptuallabyrinthisLiguoriandVoza
(eds.)2009,whichthereadershouldrefertoforalltheindividualtermsmentionedinthe
presentwork.