Filippini, Michele

Using Gramsci

A New Approach

This is a new approach to one of the greatest political theorists, Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci's Prison Notebooks are one of the most popular Marxist texts available and continue to inspire readers across the world. In Using Gramsci, Michele Filippini proposes a new approach based on the analysis of previously ignored concepts in his works, creating a book which stands apart. Including chapters on ideology, the individual, collective organisms, society, crisis and temporality, Using Gramsci offers a new pattern in Gramscian studies aimed to speak to the broader audience of social sciences scholars. The tools that are provided in this book extend the uses of Gramsci beyond the field of political theory and Marxism, while remaining firmly rooted in his writings. Working from the original Italian texts, Filippini also examines the more traditional areas of Gramsci's thought, including hegemony, organic intellectuals and civil society. This book will be perfect for scholars and students of Gramsci's thought, whether they are experts, or coming to his ideas for the first time.

Series Preface ix Acknowledgements xii Abbreviations xv Introduction 1 1 Ideology 4 The problem of ideology 4 The historicity of the concept of ideology 5 The complexity of ideology 9 The truth/falsity of ideology 14 The conceptual constellation of ideology including hegemony 18 2 The individual 24 The structure of the individual 24 The social production of the individual: Gramsci and Durkheim 28 'Man is a social worker': Gramsci and Sorel 32 The theory of personality and molecular transformations 37 3 Collective organisms 43 Collective organisms between civil society and the State 43 Bureaucracy and officials: Gramsci and Weber 48 The political party and the political class 52 Organic centralism and living philology 57 Machiavelli and the modern Prince 60 4 Society 65 The organicity of society 65 Organic intellectuals and mass intellectuality 67 How society works 73 Gramsci's 'sociological operators' 78 5 The crisis 86 A new understanding of the crisis 86 The multiple meanings of 'crisis' 90 The political science of crisis 94 Crisis and organization 100 6 Temporality 105 The dual character of Gramscian time 105 Signs of time: the theory of personality, common sense, language, East and West 108 The shape of duration: the passive revolution 114 The form of epoch: how novelty emerges 118 Conclusion 122 Notes 124 Bibliography 157 Index 170

Language	eng
Names	[author] Filippini, Michele
Subjects	Marxismo Quaderni del carcere Scienze Sociali Marxism Prison Notebooks Social Sciences