The Rhythm of Thought in Gramsci. A Diachronic Interpretation of Prison Notebooks

Many scholars have recently shown great interest in a diachronic re-examination of Antonio Gramsci’s main theoretical-political categories in the Prison Notebooks in order to uncover the origins and development of these concepts, using the same method Gramsci suggested be adopted with Marx to grasp “the rhythm of the thought”. In embracing this perspective, the first part of the present work analyzes the relation between structure and superstructure and the concepts of hegemony and the regulated society. The second part extends the diachronic analysis to the conceptual pairings which represent alternatives to structure-superstructure, encompassing questions of political and cultural organization as well as the relation between Gramsci and the major proponents of historical materialism (Marx, Engels, Lenin).