The Cosmopolitan Nation in Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks

Italian Diaspora and National Consciousness

Bibliographic Data

ID19225844
AuthorsDaria Kozhanova (Duke University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-22
Publication date2026-05-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueItalian Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1559-0909 • E-ISSN: 0161-4622
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01614622.2026.2670892
OpenAlexW7162440442
LanguageEN
References cited19

This article examines the previously overlooked significance of Antonio Gramsci’s theorization of cosmopolitanism, proper to Italy’s nation formation, for the critical discourse on the Italian nation and diaspora. It argues that Gramsci’s perspective on Italian cosmopolitanism allows us to better understand the complex relationships between the two categories in both historiographical and theoretical terms and illuminate their definitions, shortcomings, and potentials. The essay approaches Gramsci’s shift from the cosmopolitanism of intellectuals to the modern cosmopolitanism of Italian emigrant workers and their organic intellectuals as a response to the liberal and fascist transnational nationalism that considered the Italian diaspora as an extension of the nation and Italian emigrants as agents of imperialist expansion. By contrast, Gramsci suggests that, given the failed nationalization of the masses, a distinct, cosmopolitan national consciousness of the Italian people can be formed in diaspora. Through the diasporic dimension, Gramsci reconceptualizes the Italian nation as cosmopolitan, constituting a different transnational formation beyond the nation-state, and reclaims modern cosmopolitanism as an alternative Italian national project. Gramsci’s account of cosmopolitanism and his notion of a cosmopolitan nation not only anticipate foundational works in Italian diaspora studies but, most importantly, constitute a crucial conceptual contribution to the field on its own terms

Consciousness · Cosmopolitanism · Diaspora · National consciousness · National Identities · National identity · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Political theory and Gramsci

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