Description: This volume presents the first complete translation of Antonio Gramsci's notes on the concept of subalternity, including the prison notebook devoted to the theme of subaltern social groups. It includes a critical apparatus that clarifies Gramsci's history, culture, and sources and contextualizes these ideas against his earlier writings and letters.
Brief description: Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was an Italian Marxist theorist, one-time leader of the Italian Communist Party, and founder of the official Party newspaper, l'Unita. Widely considered a leading exponent of post-Lenin neo-Marxism, he was imprisoned in 1926 by Mussolini's Fascist regime and remained incarcerated until shortly before his death. During this period he wrote more than 30 notebooks, which detailed his ideas about Italian history, critical theory, and Marxism. Among his key contributions to political theory is the notion of cultural hegemony, the means by which the ruling capitalist class maintains control of the state. In addition to the Prison Notebooks (Columbia, 1992-2007, three volumes), his Letters from Prison (Columbia, 1994, two volumes) and a collection of Pre-Prison Writings (Cambridge, 1994) have been published.
Review Quotes: Essential reading for all those interested in Gramsci. By skillfully combining a thematic with a philological approach and including relevant notes from the other prison notebooks, the editors reveal the profoundly historical nature of their author's thought. History is never shoehorned into predetermined boxes. Gramsci's theoretical concepts emerge out of history itself.--Kate Crehan, author of Gramsci's Common Sense: Inequality and its Narratives