ABSTRACT
The writings of Antonio Gramsci are highly suggestive for rethinking the meanings of violence. The term ‘violence’, along with its cognates, appears in Gramsci’s writings as part of the wider formation of his thought. This semantic field includes related concepts, such as the notions of coercion, brutality and force, as well as apparently opposing terms, such as consensus and education. While Gramsci’s writings intersect with the theme of violence across a range of topics too wide to address in a single chapter, his discussions return repeatedly to, and are often flanked by, his reflections on the political philosophy of Machiavelli and Sorel. It is something of an understatement to argue that an efficacious deployment of Sorel’s terminology in the present conjuncture requires a preliminary work of intellectual archaeology. Gramsci describes a type of violence that arises as a function of the dominant group’s hegemonic project through the imposition of its own ‘present.’
