Abstract

This article addresses the issue of the legacy of Gramsci in current debates within critical theory on questions of social transformation, political struggle and social movements. A survey of the current state of the literature reveals the existence of a number of strikingly opposed interpretations and “translations” of Gramsci. On the one hand, scholars and intellectuals in phase with the “anarchist moment” characteristic of recent upsurges and struggles tend to regard Gramsci as an old-fashioned and totalitarian Marxist, due to his insistence on the necessity of building a new hegemony. On the other hand, certain radical theorists focus on the possibility of using Gramsci’s theories as a tool for devising new forms of popular resistance and subaltern politics. The article argues that both positions rely on a partial understanding of Gramsci’s dialectical categories, hegemony/subaltern, political society/ civil society. More recently, the possibility of a resolution of these contradictions has become apparent thanks to the emergence of Gramscian approaches to contemporary political struggles which insist on the necessity of conceptualising a new political and cultural subject, a contemporary “modern prince”, capable of producing a new collective will.