Le concept de subalterne chez Gramsci

The article analyses how the concept of « subaltern » emerges and evolves through the whole corpus of writings by Antonio Gramsci. The starting point are the articles edited before the capture, thus we will follow the use of the term in The Prison Notebooks. The term « subaltern » is initially used to name the intermediate levels within a hierarchy, and it is later adopted to define either the most marginalized social groups, or the one among the main classes which is not yet dominant. In parallel with the reflection leading to the transcribed notes of Notebook 25, in his letters Gramsci uses the term « subaltern » to refer to a single person subjected to cultural and psychological domination. While emphasizing the Marxist origins of this way of thinking, the articles argues that the couple dominant/subaltern gives Gramsci the possibility to introduce categories broader than the traditional ones (bourgeoisie/proletariat) in connecting subjectivity, social status, structural, cultural and ideological variables. The archaeology of the concept in the writings of Gramsci gives the possibility to better understand the origins of a concept that social sciences often use today in referring to the social individuals « at the margins of history ».

Available online: Le concept de subalterne chez Gramsci (Accessed November 28, 2016)