PSC 800: Gramsci and Hegemony

Course Description

This course will examine the writings of the Italian political theorist, Antonio Gramsci, and the implications of Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony for contemporary politics and social inquiry. Roughly the first half of the course will be spent reading a sampling of Gramsci's political writings and prison notebooks, along with a few of the major commentaries and controversies about Gramsci's political significance. The second half will examine the contested legacy of Gramsci's political thought for contemporary political inquiry, with specific reference to global political economy and contemporary cultural studies.

Reading Schedule

Week 2: Gramsci's early intellectual development and the Factory Council Movement

Walter Adamson, Hegemony and Revolution, Introduction, chapters 1-2

Gramsci , Political Writings, 1910-20, selections 2, 3, 11, 13, 54, 17, 19, 21-28, 32, 43, 51, 52, 56, 57, 61.

Week 3: Gramsci and Marxism

Hegemony and Revolution, chapters 3-4

Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach" in D. McClellan, ed., Karl Marx: Selected Writings (Oxford, 1977), pp. 156-8.

Marx, "Preface to A Critique of Political Economy" (1859) in D. McClellan, ed., Karl Marx: Selected Writings, pp. 388-92.

Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, pp. 351-80, 404-48, 461-2, 465-8.

Week 4: Intellectuals and Common Sense

Hegemony and Revolution, chapter 5

Selections from the Prison Notebooks, pp. 3-16, 24-43, 321-51, 366-7, 418-25.

G. Nowell Smith, "Common Sense" Radical Philosophy 7 (1974), pp. 15-16.

Week 5: Hegemony and historic bloc

Hegemony and Revolution, chapter 6

Selections from the Prison Notebooks, pp. 123-205, 365-6, 375-7, 106-110, 55-9.

Ann ShowstackSassoon, "Passive Revolution and the Politics of Reform" in A.S. Sassoon, ed., Approaches to Gramsci(London: Writers and Readers, 1982), pp. 127-148.

Week 6: Gramscian politics: state, civil society, war of position

Hegemony and Revolution, chapter 7, Conclusion

Selections from the Prison Notebooks, pp. 206-76.

Ann Showstack Sassoon, "Hegemony, War of Position, and Political Intervention" in A.S. Sassoon, ed., Approaches to Gramsci, pp. 94-115.

Christine Buci-Glucksman, "Hegemony and Consent: A Political Strategy" in A.S. Sassoon, ed., Approaches to Gramsci, pp. 116-126.

Week 7: Some controversial readings of Gramsci

Perry Anderson, "The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci" New Left Review 100 (1976-77), pp. 5-78.

Norberto Bobbio, "Gramsci and the conception of civil society" in Mouffe, ed., Gramsci and Marxist Theory (London: Routledge, 1979), pp. xx-xx.

Jacques Texier, "Gramsci, theoretician of the superstructures" in Mouffe, ed., Gramsci and Marxist Theory (London: Routledge, 1979), pp. 48-79.

Week 8: Gramsci andInternational Political Economy, Part I

Enrico Augelli and Craig Murphy, America's Quest for Supremacy and the Third World, pp. TBA

Week 9: Spring Break

Week 10: Gramsci and IPE, Part II

Robert Cox, Production, Power, and World Order, pp. 1-9, 105-267.

Week 11: Gramsci and IPE, Part III

Robert Cox, Production, Power, and World Order, pp. 273-391

Week 12: Fordism and Hegemony

Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, pp. 277-318

M. Rupert, Producing Hegemony, chapters 4-8

Week 13: Neo-Gramscian cultural studies

Chantal Mouffe, "Hegemony and Ideology in Gramsci" in Mouffe, ed., Gramsci and Marxist Theory (London: Routledge, 1979), pp. 168-204.

S. Hall, "The Problem of Ideology - Marxism without Guarantees" in B. Matthews, ed., Marx: A Hundred Years On (Humanities, 1983), pp. 57-85.

S. Hall, "Gramsci and Us" in The Hard Road to Renewal (London: Verso, 1988), pp. 161-73.

S. Hall, "The Great Moving Right Show" in The Hard Road to Renewal , pp. 39-56.

Bob Jessop, et al., "Authoritarian POopulism, Two Nations, and Thatcherism" New Left Review 147 (1984) pp. 32-60.

S. Hall, Authoritarian Populism: a Reply to Jessop, et al." in The Hard Road to Renewal , pp. 150-160.

Week 14: New Times and New Politics?

Robin Murray, "Fordism and Post-Fordism" in S. Hall and M. Jacques, eds., New Times: The Changing Face of Politics in the 1990s (London: Verso, 1990), pp. 38-53.

Stuart Hall, "The Meaning of New Times" in S. Hall and M. Jacques, eds., New Times, pp. 116-33.

John Clarke, New Times and Old Enemies, pp. 1-72.

Week 15: New Times??

John Clarke, New Times and Old Enemies, pp. 73-179.