Sillanpoa, Wallace P.

Cultural Theory and Literary Criticism in the «Prison Notebooks» of Antonio Gramsci

Ph.D. Dissertation.
: University of Connecticut, 1981, 465 p.
The present dissertation comprises four major sections. The first of these analyzes the particular conformation of the Notebooks and contends that the fragmentary, non-hierarchical nature of the notes is only in part due to the special circumstances of their composition. Indeed, these expressive modes are assessed positively as textual acts challenging the conventions of traditional politico-philosophical discourse. The second major division concentrates on Gramsci's critique of the works and import of Benedetto Croce. The "Anti-Croce" of the Notebooks is shown to be the result of a dialectical interchange of rejection and appropriation. The third area of concentration locates and analyzes the grammar of Gramsci's theories on the organization of culture in Italy and the West. Attention is focussed on key Gramscian concepts (e.g., structure and superstructure, the traditional and the "organic" intellectual, hegemony, etc.). From this point emerges an analysis of those areas in the Notebooks constituting a possible sociology of literature. The last major section examines elements of literary criticism in Gramsci's work... Cf. http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/AAI8111914 (Accessed January 8, 2010).
Lingua eng
Nomi [author] Sillanpoa, Wallace P.
Soggetti
Letteratura
Quaderni del carcere
Literature
Prison Notebooks