ABSTRACT
Gramsci in his time The purpose of this volume of essays is to examine the relevance of the ideas of Antonio Gramsci to a world transformed radically from that in which his writings were conceived. Just over 70 years after Gramsci’s death in 1937, it is timely to probe the question of whether the ideas of one of the master-thinkers of the twentieth century still have the power to illuminate political and cultural VWUXJJOHLQWKHYHU\GLIIHUHQWFLUFXPVWDQFHVRIWKHWZHQW\¿UVWFHQWXU\*UDPVci’s life from 1891 to 1937 spanned some of the most turbulent and formative events of the twentieth century: the First World War, the Russian Revolutions of 1917 (February and October), the growth and coming to power of Fascism in Italy and later in Germany, the formation of Communist parties throughout Europe as part of the Communist International, seen as an agent of world revolution, and the failure of revolution, inspired by the Bolshevik model, to spread beyond the borders of what became the Soviet Union. There is no doubting the LPSRUWDQFHRI*UDPVFLDVRQHRIWKHPRVWLQÀXHQWLDOZULWHUVLQZKDWKDVFRPHWR be known as ‘Western Marxism’, a branch of Marxist thought which sought to JUDSSOHZLWKWKHFRPSOH[LWLHVDQGVSHFL¿FFKDUDFWHULVWLFVRI:HVWHUQ(XURSHDQG the prospects for revolution there. Along with other ‘Western Marxists’ like those of the Frankfurt School, but with a perspective very distinct from their PRUH SHVVLPLVWLF DQDO\VHV *UDPVFL¶V ZULWLQJV UHÀHFWHG RQ WKH GHIHDW RI WKH working-class movement in Western Europe and the rise of Fascism, and attempted to draw lessons from that defeat by suggesting a different way of challenging the existing order. The purpose of this introduction is to pose the question of the continuing relevance of Gramsci’s writings, by presenting some of his key ideas, assessing their reception in the English-speaking world and EH\RQGDQGRIIHULQJVRPHUHÀHFWLRQVRQWKHZD\VLQZKLFKWKRVHLGHDVPD\VWLOO µVSHDN WR RXU FRQGLWLRQ¶ LQ WKH QHZ FLUFXPVWDQFHV RI WZHQW\¿UVW FHQWXU\ politics.
