Gramsci, Language, and Translation

In the crowded field of Gramsci studies, this is a gem of rare beauty. It provides an English readership with a wide-ranging introduction to an important set of insights, developed initially in Italy but taken up elsewhere, into Gramsci’s theory, methods, the key concept of hegemony, his approach to the language question, and more general issues of political strategy. The contributors are the key figures in this debate and, together, they productively highlight the role of arguments about language, philology, and translation for understanding Gramsci’s working methods and his theoretical and political conclusions. With a strong introduction and some excellent translations of earlier contributions, this book will enable readers to gain a better understanding of Gramsci’s place in Italian culture and politics as well as ideas about how to develop his arguments in their own work. I recommend this text wholeheartedly.

(Bob Jessop, Lancaster University, Lancaster University)

A significant body of scholarship already exists that illuminates the manner in which Gramsci’s views on language and translation inform his analyses of the relationship between politics and culture. Yet, Anglophone readers have remained generally unaware of this very important dimension of Gramsci’s thinking and writing, even though it features prominently in his elaboration of such key concepts as hegemony, common sense, and subalternity. Peter Ives and Rocco Lacorte provide the perfect remedy by gathering in a single volume the seminal essays on the topic, including previously untranslated contributions by Tullio De Mauro, Franco Lo Piparo, Utz Maas, Derek Boothman, and Francisco Buey. Together with the recent publication of Gramsci’s translation notebooks, this timely volume will invigorate discussions on the intersections of language, politics, and culture.

(Joseph A. Buttigieg, University of Notre Dame)

This collection of essays inaugurates a new era of scholarly exchanges within and beyond the specialized fields of humanistic cultural studies. Expertly edited by Peter Ives and Rocco Lacorte, Gramsci, Language, and Translation gathers the rigorous and provocative inquiries of an impressive array of international scholars crossing the traditional boundaries of political science, sociology, linguistics, translation studies, history, etc. It’s a historic event that, by way of opening up the Gramscian/Marxist canon, promises to renew critical thinking on the problems of global political economy while implicitly engaging protagonists in the urgent controversies on justice, human rights, religion, terrorism, race, ethnicity, immigration, and the post-9/11 ‘culture wars.’ A major scholarly achievement and an extremely valuable equipment for the civic intelligence of our troubled times.

(E. San Juan, Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, and director, Philippines Cultural Studies Center, Connecticut)

The collected essays provide a detailed introduction to the complex ideas of the Italian philosopher. They show the originality and independence of his thought, and enable one to see in Gramsci the forerunner of current trends in, among others, discourse analysis and translation theory.

(Marx & Philosophy Review of Books)

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Peter Ives, PhD, is associate professor of politics at the University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada. He is the author of Gramsci’s Politics of Language: Engaging the Bakhtin Circle and the Frankfurt School (2004).

Rocco Lacorte, MA, is a doctoral candidate in Italian literature at the University of Chicago.

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