Antonio Gramsci: Prison Letters

by Antonio Gramsci, Hamish Henderson (Translator)

'These letters are a noble and moving testament both to Mussolini's failure and to the courage and strength of will that drove Gramsci throughout his life' The Observer

'Gramsci's letters ... demonstrate the originality of his brand of communist thought ... An extraordinary character, who does not deserve to be solely the property of academics and name-dropping cultural critics' The Scotsman

Antonio Gramsci is one of the great European Marxists, hailed by Eric Hobsbawm as 'an extraordinary philosopher ... probably the most original communist thinker of twentieth-century Europe'. His primary contribution has been in his insistence on an understanding of popular culture in the battle to create a revolutionary consciousness. It is this humanitarian aspect of his thinking that illuminates the vivid personal testimony of his prison letters, written between 1926 and 1937.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Antonio Francesco Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a founding member and one-time leader of the Italian Communist Party. A vocal critic of Benito Mussolini and fascism, he was imprisoned in 1926, where he remained until his death in 1937.

During his imprisonment, Gramsci wrote more than 30 notebooks and 3,000 pages of history and analysis. His Prison Notebooks are considered a highly original contribution to 20th-century political theory. Gramsci drew insights from varying sources — not only other Marxists but also thinkers such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Vilfredo Pareto, Georges Sorel, and Benedetto Croce. The notebooks cover a wide range of topics, including the history of Italy and Italian nationalism, the French Revolution, fascism, Taylorism and Fordism, civil society, the state, historical materialism, folklore, religion, and high and popular culture.
Gramsci is best known for his theory of cultural hegemony, which describes how the state and ruling capitalist class — the bourgeoisie — use cultural institutions to maintain wealth and power in capitalist societies. In Gramsci's view, the bourgeoisie develops a hegemonic culture using ideology rather than violence, economic force, or coercion. He also attempted to break from the economic determinism of orthodox Marxist thought, and so is sometimes described as a neo-Marxist. He held a humanistic understanding of Marxism, seeing it as a philosophy of praxis and an absolute historicism that transcends traditional materialism and traditional idealism.

Reviews

[Aras Enayati · Rating 5 out of 5]

هیجان خوشایند و اطمینان بخش خاص انسان به مثابه حیوان اجتماعی، هنگامی که می بیند به جز آن جمعی که ناچار است در حکم عددی در یک مجموعه تابعش باشد به جمعی اختیاری نیز تعلق دارد.

[Rjurik Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gramci's prison letters were given a particular kind of focus by the fact that he composed them under the eye of a fascist censor. Thus he couldn't write about practical politics, and we get only glimpses of his political past and intellectual interests. Yet they're filled with intellectual curiosity and vitality: Gramsci roves over all manner of subjects with a restless intelligence. Indeed, these letters are the best way of getting a sense of the man's personality. What was surprising to me was just how finely written they are, with little stories and jokes, remembrances and thoughts. I had never thought of Gramsci as a stylist - the composition of his earlier writings can be quirky and unusual - yet here is some of his best writing. There's not much about his distinctive theoretical work here, but there are all kinds of delights nonetheless.

[Jesus Velasco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prison Letters es una obra significativa en la teoría política y social, donde Gramsci aborda una amplia gama de temas, como la cultura, la política, la hegemonía, la sociedad civil, y la filosofía. Estos escritos fueron producidos entre 1929 y 1935 y son fragmentarios en naturaleza, ya que Gramsci no tuvo la oportunidad de completar sus reflexiones antes de su muerte en 1937.

Las cartas de Gramsci son un testimonio conmovedor de su lucha contra el fascismo y su compromiso con el socialismo. En ellas, Gramsci reflexiona sobre sus ideas políticas, su vida personal y su situación en prisión. Las cartas también son un documento importante para el estudio del pensamiento de Gramsci, ya que en ellas desarrolla algunos de sus conceptos más importantes, como la hegemonía cultural y el bloque histórico.

[Betül K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

ingilizcesini bırakıp tercümesini okudum hızlı okumam gerektigi icin, biraz beynim aktı bu yüzden, çevirisi kötüydü. kısaltılmış versiyonu olduğu için eksik mektuplar olduğu bariz hissediliyor ama uzun halini kafam kaldırmaz diyenler icin ok baya. ben ihtiyac icin okudum yine, hızlı taradım bu yuzden. dönem italyasını ve neo-gramsci metinleri dusunebilmek için good

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing collection of letters. More personally touching than one might expect of such a sharp theoretician.