Peter D. Thomas | Brunel University (original) (raw)
Books by Peter D. Thomas
The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, 2017
Introduction to The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, ... more Introduction to The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, edited by Vittorio Morfino and Peter D. Thomas, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2017, pp. 1-19.
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French philosopher Louis Pierre Althusser (1918 -1990) helped define the politico-theoretical con... more French philosopher Louis Pierre Althusser (1918 -1990) helped define the politico-theoretical conjuncture of pre- and post-1968. Today, there is a recrudescence of interest in his thought, especially in light of his later work, published in English as Philosophy of the Encounter (Verso, 2006). This has led to renewed debates on the reformulation of conflicting notions of materialism, on the event as both philosophical concept and political construction, and on the nature of politics and the political.
These original essays by leading scholars aim to provide a new assessment of Althusser's thought, especially in relation to contemporary debates. Organized in four sections that represent the main currents in Althusser's scholarship, the book discusses materialism and the different formulations of the relationship between politics and philosophy, Althusser's interpretations of political thinkers (including Machiavelli, Deleuze and Gramsci), the resources he provides to critique political economy and politics in post-Marxist thought, and the theorization of ideology and politics.
Encountering Althusser is a groundbreaking resource that highlights Althusser's continuing relevance to contemporary radical thought. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/encountering-althusser-9781441146366/#sthash.qsXzSemE.dpuf
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Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks are today acknowledged as a classic of the human and social sc... more Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks are today acknowledged as a classic of the human and social sciences in the twentieth century. The influence of his thought in numerous fields of scholarship is only exceeded by the diverse interpretations and readings to which it has been subjected, resulting in often contradictory 'images of Gramsci'. This book draws on the rich recent season of Gramscian philological studies in order to argue that the true significance of Gramsci's thought consists in its distinctive position in the development of the Marxist tradition. Providing a detailed reconsideration of Gramsci's theory of the state and concept of philosophy, The 'Gramscian moment' argues for the urgent necessity of taking up the challenge of developing a 'philosophy of praxis' as a vital element in the contemporary revitalisation of Marxism.
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Journal Articles by Peter D. Thomas
International Gramsci Journal 3:4, 2020
While Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Task of the Translator” has long been considered one of the fu... more While Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Task of the Translator” has long been considered one of the fundamental texts of translation theory, Gramsci’s important remarks on the question of translatability were not noted in the canonical studies of the history of translation theory nor, for a long time, in
Gramscian studies themselves. Nevertheless, the notion of translatability plays a crucial role in the general economy of the Prison Notebooks. This paper proposes a dialogical reading ‘against the grain’ of three constellations of some of Gramsci and Benjamin’s key concepts regarding the nature of translation and its philosophical presuppositions and implications. These constellations revolve around the Gramscian notions of hegemony, of translation between ethico-political contexts, and of reciprocal translatability; they are here read through the Benjaminian notions of translation as generative of the ‘afterlife’ of a literary work, as participating in a ‘pure language’ that functions as translation’s ‘horizon’,
and as constituting an ‘echo’ of the original text in a new linguistic and historical context. The encounter of Gramsci and Benjamin is not only on their points of clear convergence but also on those points where they might seem to diverge: this forms the basis for translation and transposition between their respective thought-worlds – a translation that at the same time represents an attempt to open their works up to their immanent transformation.
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Contemporary Political Theory, 2020
Hegemony is one of the most widely diffused concepts in the contemporary social sciences and huma... more Hegemony is one of the most widely diffused concepts in the contemporary social sciences and humanities internationally, interpreted in a variety of ways in different disciplinary and national contexts. However, its contemporary relevance and conceptual coherence has recently been challenged by various theories of 'posthegemony'. This article offers a critical assessment of this theoretical initiative. In the first part of the article, I distinguish between three main versions of posthegemony-'temporal, 'foundational and 'expansive'-characterized by different understandings of the temporal and logical implications of hegemony. I then offer a critical assessment of the shared presuppositions of these theories, including their 'pre-Gramscianism', their indebtedness to Laclau and Mouffe's formulation of hegemony, and their characterization of hegemony in terms compatible with modern theories of sovereignty. I conclude by arguing that the contradictions and oversights of the debate on posthegemony encourage us to undertake a reassessment of the real historical complexity of hegemonic politics and its different traditions of conceptualization.
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International Gramsci Journal, 2018
Questo testo ricostruisce il rapporto integrale tra lo sviluppo della nozione gramsciana del “nuo... more Questo testo ricostruisce il rapporto integrale tra lo sviluppo della nozione gramsciana del “nuovo concetto di immanenza” della filosofia della praxis e le originali riflessioni di Gramsci sul significato teorico dell’economia politica classica e la critica ad essa. Contro le prospettive che sostengono l’opposizione dentro il marxismo tra la filosofia e la critica dell’economia politica, in questo testo si sostiene invece che i Quaderni del carcere presentano un potente argomento a favore del loro sviluppo complementare in una teoria marxista sociale e politica genuinamente critica.
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ΟΥΤΟΠΙΑ, 2012
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τετράδια μαρξισμού , 2017
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Revista Novos Rumos 54:2, 2017
Desde as primeiras publicações dos Cadernos do Cárcere até hoje, se argumentou com frequência que... more Desde as primeiras publicações dos Cadernos do Cárcere até hoje, se argumentou com frequência que a metáfora do moderno Príncipe deveria ser entendida meramente como um "código" para um Partido Comunista, concebido tanto em continuação com uma concepção de partido onde vigesse o centralismo democrático "leninista" quanto como uma alternativa "marxista ocidental" a ele, dependendo das predisposições particulares dos intérpretes. Este artigo esclarece as condições em que Gramsci construiu esta caracterização em sua obra.
Palavras-chave: Gramsci. Cadernos do Cárcere. Moderno Príncipe
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Thesis Eleven, 2018
This article explores the ways in which Gramsci's engagement with Machiavelli and The Prince in p... more This article explores the ways in which Gramsci's engagement with Machiavelli and The Prince in particular result in three significant developments in the Prison Notebooks. First, I analyze how the 'heroic fury' of Gramsci's lifelong interest in Machiavelli's thought develops, during the composition of his carceral writings, into a novel approach to the reading of The Prince, giving rise to the famous notion of the 'modern Prince'. Second, I argue that the modern Prince should not be regarded merely as a distinctive (individual or collective) figure, but rather, should be understood as a dramatic development that unfolds throughout 'the discourse itself' of the Prison Notebooks, particularly in the crucial phase of reorganisation in the 'special notebooks' composed from 1932 onwards. Third and finally, I suggest that the combination of the two preceding themes is decisive for understanding the modern Prince as a distinctive form of political organization. Rather than equated with a generic conception of the '(communist) political party', this notion was developed as a part of Gramsci's larger argument regarding the necessity for anti-Fascist political forces in Italy in the early 1930s to grow into an antagonistic collective body guided by principles of 'living philology'.
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Modern Intellectual History, 2018
Antonio Gramsci's notion of " passive revolution " has often been understood as a distinctive his... more Antonio Gramsci's notion of " passive revolution " has often been understood as a distinctive historical narrative, political concept, or theory of state formation. This article proposes to consider it instead as a " heuristic formula " within the " lexical architecture " of the Prison Notebooks. Based upon a diachronic and contextualist analysis of the usage of the formula, I argue that Gramsci's research on passive revolution emerged as a critical element within the development of his own distinctive conception of the " sublation " and " actualization " of the slogan of " the revolution in permanence. " Attending to this dialectical relationship allows the political and strategic dimensions of passive revolution to be highlighted, and suggests new paths of research for the debate about its analytic fertility and contemporary relevance.
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Political Theory, 2018
The subaltern has frequently been understood as a figure of exclusion ever since it was first hig... more The subaltern has frequently been understood as a figure of exclusion ever since it was first highlighted by the early Subaltern Studies collective's creative reading of Antonio Gramsci's carceral writings. In this article, I argue that a contextualist and diachronic study of the development of the notion of subaltern classes throughout Gramsci's full Prison Notebooks reveals new resources for " refiguring " the subaltern. I propose three alternative figures to comprehend specific dimensions of Gramsci's theorizations: the " irrepressible subaltern " , the " hegemonic subaltern " , and the " citizen-subaltern ". Far from being exhausted by the eclipse of the conditions it was initially called upon to theorize in Subaltern Studies, such a refigured notion of the subaltern has the potential to cast light both on the contradictory development of political modernity and on contemporary political processes.
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Gramsciana, 2016
Gramsci’s sojourn in the capital of the world revolution in 1922-3 had a profound impact upon bot... more Gramsci’s sojourn in the capital of the world revolution in 1922-3 had a profound impact upon both his personal and political lives, constituting a fundamental ‘turning point’ in his maturation as a person and political leader. Drawing upon archival research, this paper aims to reconstruct key moments in the dialogue between Gramsci, the Bolshevik leadership and the wider experiences of the Russian Revolution in 1922-3. It focuses in particular upon the importance of this period for the emergence of a distinctive notion of hegemony as a central dimension of Gramsci’s political thought and practice. While Gramsci’s earlier writings tended to utilise a received meaning of hegemony as a form of political power, the ‘svolta di Mosca’ produced a greater emphasis upon hegemony as a concrete ‘method of political work’. It was in Moscow in 1922-3 that Gramsci discovered the concrete forms of what he had earlier called the ‘vivifying thought’ ‘immanent’ to both Das Kapital and the Russian Revolution. His distinctive elaboration of the notion of hegemony in subsequent years represents a concentration and critical elaboration of these intense experiences.
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Revista Outubro, 2018
O artigo investiga o pensamento de Antonio Gramsci no período 1922-1923, contexto em que o marxis... more O artigo investiga o pensamento de Antonio Gramsci no período 1922-1923, contexto em que o marxista sardo esteve contato direto com a experiência soviética. Propõe que a característica específica da concepção “madura” de Gramsci a respeito hegemonia foi moldada por uma problemática profunda surgida neste período. Isto é, conformada pela transição bolchevique no sentido de uma noção dialética do “progresso hegemônico-histórico”. Trata-se, portanto, de uma perspectiva que propõe a hegemonia em termos de sua capacidade (ou incapacidade) de produzir instâncias reais de progresso histórico.
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Rethinking Marxism, 2017
Louis Althusser’s critique of Gramsci’s “absolute historicism” involved the elaboration of a dist... more Louis Althusser’s critique of Gramsci’s “absolute historicism” involved the elaboration of a distinctive notion of plural historical temporalities or times. This argues, first, that Althusser’s theory of plural historical temporalities should be understood as integrally linked to his critique both of structuralism and of theories of the subject. Second, the essay argues that, Althusser’s early criticisms notwithstanding, Gramsci can be understood to have elaborated a consistently nonformalist notion of constitutive
temporal plurality, particularly with his notion of “prevision” as a method of political work. Rather than culminating in a figure of temporal synchronization, hegemonic politics should instead be thought as a mode of intervention that valorizes rather than negates the “non-presence of the present,” or constitutive noncontemporaneity, as the fundamental condition of revolutionary politics.
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History of Political Thought, 2017
Gramsci's 'modern Prince' has often been interpreted in relation to his theory of political parti... more Gramsci's 'modern Prince' has often been interpreted in relation to his theory of political parties. According to this reading, Gramsci was constrained by carceral censorship to use this Machiavellian metaphor as a 'codeword'. This interpretation has tended to direct attention away from the novelty of Gramsci's reading of The Prince in the Prison Notebooks. This article argues that a contextualist and diachronic reading of the development of the figure of the modern Prince allows it to be understood as also a novel contribution to the Machiavelli scholarship of Gramsci's time and the tradition of 'democratic' readings of The Prince.
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O artigo examina o pensamento político e estratégico de duas figuras marxistas chave do período e... more O artigo examina o pensamento político e estratégico de duas figuras marxistas chave do período entreguerras, Leon Trotsky e Antonio Gramsci. Para tal, explora como estes dois pensadores formularam novos desdobramentos teóricos no marxismo durante o período entreguerras, com suas respectivas teorias de revolução permanente e revolução passiva. Além disso, lança questões para entender como essas teorias foram recepcionadas no pensamento marxista ao longo do século XX e sua atualidade.
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International Gramsci Journal 4, Jun 2015
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The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, 2017
Introduction to The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, ... more Introduction to The Government of Time: Theories of Plural Temporality in the Marxist Tradition, edited by Vittorio Morfino and Peter D. Thomas, Leiden: Brill Academic Press, 2017, pp. 1-19.
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French philosopher Louis Pierre Althusser (1918 -1990) helped define the politico-theoretical con... more French philosopher Louis Pierre Althusser (1918 -1990) helped define the politico-theoretical conjuncture of pre- and post-1968. Today, there is a recrudescence of interest in his thought, especially in light of his later work, published in English as Philosophy of the Encounter (Verso, 2006). This has led to renewed debates on the reformulation of conflicting notions of materialism, on the event as both philosophical concept and political construction, and on the nature of politics and the political.
These original essays by leading scholars aim to provide a new assessment of Althusser's thought, especially in relation to contemporary debates. Organized in four sections that represent the main currents in Althusser's scholarship, the book discusses materialism and the different formulations of the relationship between politics and philosophy, Althusser's interpretations of political thinkers (including Machiavelli, Deleuze and Gramsci), the resources he provides to critique political economy and politics in post-Marxist thought, and the theorization of ideology and politics.
Encountering Althusser is a groundbreaking resource that highlights Althusser's continuing relevance to contemporary radical thought. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/encountering-althusser-9781441146366/#sthash.qsXzSemE.dpuf
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Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks are today acknowledged as a classic of the human and social sc... more Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks are today acknowledged as a classic of the human and social sciences in the twentieth century. The influence of his thought in numerous fields of scholarship is only exceeded by the diverse interpretations and readings to which it has been subjected, resulting in often contradictory 'images of Gramsci'. This book draws on the rich recent season of Gramscian philological studies in order to argue that the true significance of Gramsci's thought consists in its distinctive position in the development of the Marxist tradition. Providing a detailed reconsideration of Gramsci's theory of the state and concept of philosophy, The 'Gramscian moment' argues for the urgent necessity of taking up the challenge of developing a 'philosophy of praxis' as a vital element in the contemporary revitalisation of Marxism.
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International Gramsci Journal 3:4, 2020
While Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Task of the Translator” has long been considered one of the fu... more While Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Task of the Translator” has long been considered one of the fundamental texts of translation theory, Gramsci’s important remarks on the question of translatability were not noted in the canonical studies of the history of translation theory nor, for a long time, in
Gramscian studies themselves. Nevertheless, the notion of translatability plays a crucial role in the general economy of the Prison Notebooks. This paper proposes a dialogical reading ‘against the grain’ of three constellations of some of Gramsci and Benjamin’s key concepts regarding the nature of translation and its philosophical presuppositions and implications. These constellations revolve around the Gramscian notions of hegemony, of translation between ethico-political contexts, and of reciprocal translatability; they are here read through the Benjaminian notions of translation as generative of the ‘afterlife’ of a literary work, as participating in a ‘pure language’ that functions as translation’s ‘horizon’,
and as constituting an ‘echo’ of the original text in a new linguistic and historical context. The encounter of Gramsci and Benjamin is not only on their points of clear convergence but also on those points where they might seem to diverge: this forms the basis for translation and transposition between their respective thought-worlds – a translation that at the same time represents an attempt to open their works up to their immanent transformation.
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Contemporary Political Theory, 2020
Hegemony is one of the most widely diffused concepts in the contemporary social sciences and huma... more Hegemony is one of the most widely diffused concepts in the contemporary social sciences and humanities internationally, interpreted in a variety of ways in different disciplinary and national contexts. However, its contemporary relevance and conceptual coherence has recently been challenged by various theories of 'posthegemony'. This article offers a critical assessment of this theoretical initiative. In the first part of the article, I distinguish between three main versions of posthegemony-'temporal, 'foundational and 'expansive'-characterized by different understandings of the temporal and logical implications of hegemony. I then offer a critical assessment of the shared presuppositions of these theories, including their 'pre-Gramscianism', their indebtedness to Laclau and Mouffe's formulation of hegemony, and their characterization of hegemony in terms compatible with modern theories of sovereignty. I conclude by arguing that the contradictions and oversights of the debate on posthegemony encourage us to undertake a reassessment of the real historical complexity of hegemonic politics and its different traditions of conceptualization.
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International Gramsci Journal, 2018
Questo testo ricostruisce il rapporto integrale tra lo sviluppo della nozione gramsciana del “nuo... more Questo testo ricostruisce il rapporto integrale tra lo sviluppo della nozione gramsciana del “nuovo concetto di immanenza” della filosofia della praxis e le originali riflessioni di Gramsci sul significato teorico dell’economia politica classica e la critica ad essa. Contro le prospettive che sostengono l’opposizione dentro il marxismo tra la filosofia e la critica dell’economia politica, in questo testo si sostiene invece che i Quaderni del carcere presentano un potente argomento a favore del loro sviluppo complementare in una teoria marxista sociale e politica genuinamente critica.
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ΟΥΤΟΠΙΑ, 2012
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τετράδια μαρξισμού , 2017
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Revista Novos Rumos 54:2, 2017
Desde as primeiras publicações dos Cadernos do Cárcere até hoje, se argumentou com frequência que... more Desde as primeiras publicações dos Cadernos do Cárcere até hoje, se argumentou com frequência que a metáfora do moderno Príncipe deveria ser entendida meramente como um "código" para um Partido Comunista, concebido tanto em continuação com uma concepção de partido onde vigesse o centralismo democrático "leninista" quanto como uma alternativa "marxista ocidental" a ele, dependendo das predisposições particulares dos intérpretes. Este artigo esclarece as condições em que Gramsci construiu esta caracterização em sua obra.
Palavras-chave: Gramsci. Cadernos do Cárcere. Moderno Príncipe
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Thesis Eleven, 2018
This article explores the ways in which Gramsci's engagement with Machiavelli and The Prince in p... more This article explores the ways in which Gramsci's engagement with Machiavelli and The Prince in particular result in three significant developments in the Prison Notebooks. First, I analyze how the 'heroic fury' of Gramsci's lifelong interest in Machiavelli's thought develops, during the composition of his carceral writings, into a novel approach to the reading of The Prince, giving rise to the famous notion of the 'modern Prince'. Second, I argue that the modern Prince should not be regarded merely as a distinctive (individual or collective) figure, but rather, should be understood as a dramatic development that unfolds throughout 'the discourse itself' of the Prison Notebooks, particularly in the crucial phase of reorganisation in the 'special notebooks' composed from 1932 onwards. Third and finally, I suggest that the combination of the two preceding themes is decisive for understanding the modern Prince as a distinctive form of political organization. Rather than equated with a generic conception of the '(communist) political party', this notion was developed as a part of Gramsci's larger argument regarding the necessity for anti-Fascist political forces in Italy in the early 1930s to grow into an antagonistic collective body guided by principles of 'living philology'.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Modern Intellectual History, 2018
Antonio Gramsci's notion of " passive revolution " has often been understood as a distinctive his... more Antonio Gramsci's notion of " passive revolution " has often been understood as a distinctive historical narrative, political concept, or theory of state formation. This article proposes to consider it instead as a " heuristic formula " within the " lexical architecture " of the Prison Notebooks. Based upon a diachronic and contextualist analysis of the usage of the formula, I argue that Gramsci's research on passive revolution emerged as a critical element within the development of his own distinctive conception of the " sublation " and " actualization " of the slogan of " the revolution in permanence. " Attending to this dialectical relationship allows the political and strategic dimensions of passive revolution to be highlighted, and suggests new paths of research for the debate about its analytic fertility and contemporary relevance.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Political Theory, 2018
The subaltern has frequently been understood as a figure of exclusion ever since it was first hig... more The subaltern has frequently been understood as a figure of exclusion ever since it was first highlighted by the early Subaltern Studies collective's creative reading of Antonio Gramsci's carceral writings. In this article, I argue that a contextualist and diachronic study of the development of the notion of subaltern classes throughout Gramsci's full Prison Notebooks reveals new resources for " refiguring " the subaltern. I propose three alternative figures to comprehend specific dimensions of Gramsci's theorizations: the " irrepressible subaltern " , the " hegemonic subaltern " , and the " citizen-subaltern ". Far from being exhausted by the eclipse of the conditions it was initially called upon to theorize in Subaltern Studies, such a refigured notion of the subaltern has the potential to cast light both on the contradictory development of political modernity and on contemporary political processes.
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Gramsciana, 2016
Gramsci’s sojourn in the capital of the world revolution in 1922-3 had a profound impact upon bot... more Gramsci’s sojourn in the capital of the world revolution in 1922-3 had a profound impact upon both his personal and political lives, constituting a fundamental ‘turning point’ in his maturation as a person and political leader. Drawing upon archival research, this paper aims to reconstruct key moments in the dialogue between Gramsci, the Bolshevik leadership and the wider experiences of the Russian Revolution in 1922-3. It focuses in particular upon the importance of this period for the emergence of a distinctive notion of hegemony as a central dimension of Gramsci’s political thought and practice. While Gramsci’s earlier writings tended to utilise a received meaning of hegemony as a form of political power, the ‘svolta di Mosca’ produced a greater emphasis upon hegemony as a concrete ‘method of political work’. It was in Moscow in 1922-3 that Gramsci discovered the concrete forms of what he had earlier called the ‘vivifying thought’ ‘immanent’ to both Das Kapital and the Russian Revolution. His distinctive elaboration of the notion of hegemony in subsequent years represents a concentration and critical elaboration of these intense experiences.
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Revista Outubro, 2018
O artigo investiga o pensamento de Antonio Gramsci no período 1922-1923, contexto em que o marxis... more O artigo investiga o pensamento de Antonio Gramsci no período 1922-1923, contexto em que o marxista sardo esteve contato direto com a experiência soviética. Propõe que a característica específica da concepção “madura” de Gramsci a respeito hegemonia foi moldada por uma problemática profunda surgida neste período. Isto é, conformada pela transição bolchevique no sentido de uma noção dialética do “progresso hegemônico-histórico”. Trata-se, portanto, de uma perspectiva que propõe a hegemonia em termos de sua capacidade (ou incapacidade) de produzir instâncias reais de progresso histórico.
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Rethinking Marxism, 2017
Louis Althusser’s critique of Gramsci’s “absolute historicism” involved the elaboration of a dist... more Louis Althusser’s critique of Gramsci’s “absolute historicism” involved the elaboration of a distinctive notion of plural historical temporalities or times. This argues, first, that Althusser’s theory of plural historical temporalities should be understood as integrally linked to his critique both of structuralism and of theories of the subject. Second, the essay argues that, Althusser’s early criticisms notwithstanding, Gramsci can be understood to have elaborated a consistently nonformalist notion of constitutive
temporal plurality, particularly with his notion of “prevision” as a method of political work. Rather than culminating in a figure of temporal synchronization, hegemonic politics should instead be thought as a mode of intervention that valorizes rather than negates the “non-presence of the present,” or constitutive noncontemporaneity, as the fundamental condition of revolutionary politics.
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History of Political Thought, 2017
Gramsci's 'modern Prince' has often been interpreted in relation to his theory of political parti... more Gramsci's 'modern Prince' has often been interpreted in relation to his theory of political parties. According to this reading, Gramsci was constrained by carceral censorship to use this Machiavellian metaphor as a 'codeword'. This interpretation has tended to direct attention away from the novelty of Gramsci's reading of The Prince in the Prison Notebooks. This article argues that a contextualist and diachronic reading of the development of the figure of the modern Prince allows it to be understood as also a novel contribution to the Machiavelli scholarship of Gramsci's time and the tradition of 'democratic' readings of The Prince.
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O artigo examina o pensamento político e estratégico de duas figuras marxistas chave do período e... more O artigo examina o pensamento político e estratégico de duas figuras marxistas chave do período entreguerras, Leon Trotsky e Antonio Gramsci. Para tal, explora como estes dois pensadores formularam novos desdobramentos teóricos no marxismo durante o período entreguerras, com suas respectivas teorias de revolução permanente e revolução passiva. Além disso, lança questões para entender como essas teorias foram recepcionadas no pensamento marxista ao longo do século XX e sua atualidade.
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International Gramsci Journal 4, Jun 2015
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The international discussion of the communist hypothesis has quickly developed into a debate rega... more The international discussion of the communist hypothesis has quickly developed into a debate regarding the adequate party-form for radical politics today. This article argues that the stakes of this development become clearer when it is related to the central debates of the earlier alternative globalization movement. The article then explores some significant models of organization that emerged in previous periods in which the renewal of communist politics was closely linked to attempts to rethink the party-form: the notion of the ‘compositional party’ of Italian operaismo, Lukács’s concepts of a ‘political subject’, and Gramsci’s ‘modern Prince.’ The modern Prince is argued to represent the type of ‘expansive’ party-form that might be able to respond productively to the challenges of contemporary political movements.
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Crítica marxista, 2017
Neste texto, exploro algumas das consequências da noção de hipótese comunista em relação à “quest... more Neste texto, exploro algumas das consequências da noção de hipótese comunista em relação à “questão da organização” e, em particular, ao debate emergente relacionado à forma-partido adequada para uma política radical hoje. Primeiramente, irei argumentar que as implicações organizacionais por vezes obscuras da afirmação genérica de comunismo se tornam mais claras quando situamos essa discussão historicamente como uma transposição e continuação, “em termos filosóficos”, de alguns dos debates centrais do movimento altermundialista. Em segundo lugar, pretendo explorar alguns modelos significativos de organização que emergiram em períodos precedentes, nos quais a renovação da política co- munista estava intimamente ligada às tentativas de se repensar a forma-partido: a) a noção de “partido composicional”, derivado da experiência do operaísmo italiano, recentemente – e talvez surpreendentemente – reproposto em Bem-estar comum (Commonwealth), de Hardt e Negri; b) a conceitualização do partido como “laboratório” no qual um “sujeito político” unitário poderia ser forjado, o que foi teorizado mais coerentemente pelo trabalho do jovem Lukács; e c) a exortação de Gramsci para a formação de um “príncipe moderno”, como direção da conflitualidade inerente à modernidade política por uma forma-partido constituinte.
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Gramsci’s concept of hegemony has been interpreted in a wide variety of ways, including a theory ... more Gramsci’s concept of hegemony has been interpreted in a wide variety of ways, including a theory of consent, of political unity, of ‘anti-politics’, and of geopolitical competition. These interpretations are united in regarding hegemony as a general theory of political power and domination, and as deriving from a particular interpretation of the concept of passive revolution. Building upon the recent intense season of philological research on the Prison Notebooks, this article argues that the concept of hegemony is better under- stood as a ‘dialectical chain’ composed of four integrally related ‘moments’: hegemony as social and political leadership, as a political project, as a hegemonic apparatus, and as the social and political hegemony of the workers’ movement. This alternative typology of hegemony provides both a sophisticated analysis of the emergence of modern state power and a theory of political organization of the subaltern social groups. This project is encapsulated in Gramsci’s notion of the formation of a ‘modern Prince’, conceived as both political party and civilizational process, which represents an emancipatory alter- native to the dominant forms of political modernity.
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Critica marxista , Nov 2012
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Gramsci in the World, 2020
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Revisiting Gramsci's Notebooks, 2019
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Tempora multa: il governo del tempo, 2013
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Reading Poulantzas, 2011
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DIE FASTNACHTSZEIT DER PHILOSOPHIE: IL MARX DELLA DISSERTAZIONE DI LAUREA, 2005
“Die Fastnachtszeit der Philosophie: il Marx della tesi di laurea”, Sulle tracce di un fantasma, ... more “Die Fastnachtszeit der Philosophie: il Marx della tesi di laurea”, Sulle tracce di un fantasma, Rome: Manifestolibri, 2005, pp. 133-144.
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Reading ‘Capital’ ’s promotion of the Spinozist sources of Marxism has stimulated a series of imp... more Reading ‘Capital’ ’s promotion of the Spinozist sources of Marxism has stimulated a series of important studies in several major zones of Marxist theoretical work. A more general reassessment of Spinoza’s thought in the project of a ‘radical Enlightenement’ provides the opportunity to consider critically the contribution of these studies to the elaboration of Marxist political theory. Vittorio Morfino, well known Italian scholar of Spinoza and Althusser, proposes to study Engels’s reading of Spinoza in the context of the inheritance of classical German idealism in the Marxist theory of history. He argues that Spinoza provides resources for rethinking Marxist notions of temporality and structure. The result is a theory of conjunctural analysis, in distinction from ‘normative’ and ‘prescriptive’ perspectives.
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Historical Materialism has previously published a significant number of studies from the contempo... more Historical Materialism has previously published a significant number of studies from the contemporary ‘Marx Renaissance’. Roberto Finelli’s intervention into the debate over Chris Arthur’s The New Dialectic and Marx’s ‘Capital’ provides an opportunity to consider the international reverberations of this movement and its political presuppositions and consequences. Working in a very different tradition of Marxism, Finelli’s interpretation of Marx has decisive similarities with Arthur’s reading of the importance of Hegel’s Logic for the conceptual structure of Capital. Yet whereas Arthur argues for a ‘direct homology’, Finelli proposes a heuristic ‘analogy’. The diff erent conclusions reached by the two theorists reflect different orientations, both theoretical and political. Comparison to theses of the Italian workerist tradition and other contemporary readings of Marx suggest that these differences are best comprehended in a political rather than solely intellectual register. Despite their differences, these various research projects are in agreement regarding the necessity of deriving concrete strategies for the contemporary socialist movement from theoretical debate.
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Historical Materialism 13:1, 2005
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Tampere University Press
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Page 1. Department of Communication University of Helsinki Mapping Media and Communication Resear... more Page 1. Department of Communication University of Helsinki Mapping Media and Communication Research: The Netherlands Communication Research Centre, University of Helsinki Department of Communication, Research Reports 6/2008 Liina Puustinen Peter Thomas Mervi Pantti Page 2.
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Abstract: Mapping Communication and Media Research is a project of the Communication Research Cen... more Abstract: Mapping Communication and Media Research is a project of the Communication Research Center (CRC, University of Helsinki) that examines the contents and trends of the current communication and media research in seven countries. These countries include Finland, the USA, Germany, France, Japan, Estonia and Australia. The research project is funded by Helsingin Sanomat Foundation, which has also funded a similar project on communication and media research conducted in South Korea. The focus of the project is ...
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C17 - La conferenza di Roma sul comunismo 18 gennaio 2017 TAVOLA ROTONDA: COMUNISMI
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This paper explores similarities and divergences between the notions of passive and permanent rev... more This paper explores similarities and divergences between the notions of passive and permanent revolution in the work of Antonio Gramsci and Leon Trotsky. Although Gramsci himself explicitly rejected Trotsky’s notion of permanent revolution as a reversion to a strategy of ‘war of movement’, he also claimed that his development of the theory of hegemony could be regarded as a contemporary form of Marx and Engels’s notion of the ‘Revolution in Permanence’. The paper analyses the similarities and differences of the two seemingly divergent claims to inherit a central perspective of the classical Marxist tradition, and argues that thinking the concepts of passive and permanent revolution together enables us to clarify and to make explicit dimensions that remain underdeveloped in each theorist’s respective work.
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Introduction: in Marx's Laboratory PART ONE: ACHIEVEMENTS AND LIMITS OF THE GRUNDRISSE The Gr... more Introduction: in Marx's Laboratory PART ONE: ACHIEVEMENTS AND LIMITS OF THE GRUNDRISSE The Grundrisse after Capital, or how to Re-read Marx Backwards, Riccardo Bellofiore Method: from the Grundrisse to Capital, Juan Inigo Carrera The Four Levels of Abstraction of Marx's Concept of 'Capital'. Or, Can We Consider the Grundrisse the Most Advanced Version of Marx's Concept of Capital?, Roberto Fineschi PART TWO: ABSTRACT LABOUR, VALUE AND MONEY The Practical Truth of Abstract Labour, Christopher J. Arthur Unavoidable Crises: Reflections on Backhaus and the Development of Marx's Value-Form Theory in the Grundrisse, Patrick Murray PART THREE: THE CONCEPT OF CAPITAL The Transformation of Money into Capital, Martha Campbell The Concept of Capital in the Grundrisse, Howard Engelskirchen PART FOUR: TECHNOLOGY, DOMINATION, EMANCIPATION The 'Fragment on Machines': A Marxian Misconception in the Grundrisse and its Overcoming in Capital, Michael Heinrich The 'G...
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Modern Intellectual History, 2018
Antonio Gramsci's notion of “passive revolution” has often been understood as a distinctive h... more Antonio Gramsci's notion of “passive revolution” has often been understood as a distinctive historical narrative, political concept, or theory of state formation. This article proposes to consider it instead as a “heuristic formula” within the “lexical architecture” of the Prison Notebooks. Based upon a diachronic and contextualist analysis of the usage of the formula, I argue that Gramsci's research on passive revolution emerged as a critical element within the development of his own distinctive conception of the “sublation” and “actualization” of the slogan of “the revolution in permanence.” Attending to this dialectical relationship allows the political and strategic dimensions of passive revolution to be highlighted, and suggests new paths of research for the debate about its analytic fertility and contemporary relevance.
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