Suchergebnisse

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1. The Gramsci-Trotsky Question -- 2. Antonio Gramsci and the Italian Communist Press in the Fascist Era -- 3. The Contemporary Relevance of Gramsci's Views on the Italian 'Southern Question' -- 4. Antonio Gramsci's Letters from Prison -- 5. Gramsci's Analysis of Canto X of Dante's Inferno -- 6. Gramsci's Path from 'Ploughman' to 'Fertiliser' of History -- 7. Antonio Gramsci and C.L.R. James: Some Intriguing Similarities -- 8. On the Qualities of Intellectuals: Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, and Betty Friedan -- 9. Gramsci in the Caribbean -- 10. Gramscian Influences in Robert Dombroski's Critical Engagement with Marxism -- 11. John Cammett's Writings on Antonio Gramsci and the PCI -- References -- Index.

Antonio Gramsci is one of the few Marxist theoreticians to have considered the role and nature of education, yet paradoxically his revolutionary, political and social theory seems at odds with his conservative approach to the content and processes of schooling. This book, originally published in 1979, examines his educational, political and cultural writings in an effort to resolve this apparent discrepancy. Gramsci's relevance lies in his treatment, in the context of his radical political theory, of themes which currently exercise modern radical educationists. Among the subjects he

The question of whether Italian communist theorist Antonio Gramsci was a "democratic communist" is explored. Gramsci's valuing of the intellectual activity of the intellectual, his discovery of the density & complexity of bourgeois civil society in developed countries, & his distinction between a "war of maneuver" & a "war of position" are laid out. Gramsci's version of the task of the Communist Party as one of intellectual & moral reform is discussed. The role of intellectuals in universalizing the ideas of the ruling class is discussed, as is his view of consciousness. Gramsci's dilemma was that while his task was social criticism, that criticism was not aimed most importantly at the dominant groups or prevailing injustices of society, but at the consciousness, the culture, & the way of life of the very people whom he hoped to lead. For Gramsci, the intellectual hovers uncertainly between the high culture of the old society, of which modern science & Marxism are the most advanced products, & the common sense of the people; it is the purpose of the Communist Party to mediate between these two conceptions. While he recognized the danger of intellectuals becoming a caste or priesthood, it is not clear what he meant to do about it. His attitude to education is discussed; the challenge of a genuinely progressive education is not to produce a new curriculum, but to bring working class & peasant children into touch with what is best in literature & science. Like the Party, the school stands in tension with the common sense of the people. Gramsci's doctrine is considered by looking at two descriptions of wars of maneuver -- the Bolshevik victory in Russia & the Jacobin role in the French Revolution. Gramsci did not resolve the dilemmas of intellectual militancy, but he never ceased to hope that the war of position, led by the Communist Party, could nevertheless be a democratic war. F. S. J. Ledgister