Gramsci's Anti-Croce

Why in prison did Gramsci continue to read and think about Croce? Certainly Croce's philosophy had exercised a powerful influence on his own early development, but hardly any longer by the time he was imprisoned and began writing the Notebooks. Why, then, as the Notebooks continue, does Croce keep recurring all over the place? The question seems to me potentially dangerous for literary critics. For it poses a problem close to our territory as it were, a problem where the special skills of reading developed in criticism as a discipline might be usefully employed toward some end beyond the confines of the field. Thus the initial question is likely to devolve very quickly into a whole series of inquiries: what hold had Croce's philosophy on Gramsci's education; what marked for him the decisive break from Croce; how successful was that break, how completely did he escape Croce's influence; to what extent do idealistic elements still remain in the formulations of the Notebooks, and so forth. Each of these questions is

History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Philosophy · Political theory and Gramsci

• Historicizing Gramsci

  Adam David Morton•Review of International Political…•2003

  Add to list

• Gramsci and the Dialectic

  Open Access•Steven R Mansfield•Rethinking Marxism•1993

  Add to list