Antonio Gramsci(1891-1937)
- Writer
Gramsci grew up in humble circumstances. At the age of four he suffered a back injury that left him hunchbacked for the rest of his life. He already showed extraordinary achievements in elementary school. In 1908, Gramsci began studying linguistics at the University of Cagliari. With the help of a scholarship he was able to move to the University of Turin in 1911, where he enrolled in sociology and philosophy. In 1914, while studying in Turin, Gramsci joined the youth movement of the Socialist Party. When Italy entered the First World War in 1915, he broke off his studies in order to intensify his political involvement with the socialists.
In 1919, Gramsci co-founded the magazine "Ordine nuovo", which promoted the formation of workers' councils and became the most influential medium of the workers' movement in the Turin area. In January 1921, Gramsci founded the Italian Communist Party (Pci). When he was in Russia in 1922, he met Giulia Schucht, whom he married shortly afterwards. The couple had two sons. In the Italian general election of 1924, Gramsci was elected to the chamber for the Pci. He returned to Italy to act as an opponent against Benito Mussolini, who had meanwhile seized power as the fascist "Duce". In November 1926, Gramsci was arrested for treason and initially taken to a prison near Bari.
The communist leader spent the last decade of his life in fascist prison. While in prison, Gramsci wrote his main work, the "Prison Notebooks", which were published posthumously after the collapse of fascism under the title "Quaderni del carcere" (1948-1951). The writings soon came to be seen as the most significant revision of social and political theory in the 20th century, conceiving a new theory of state power based on the categories of coercion, consensus and cultural hegemony. Due to the deterioration of his health, Gramsci was taken to a private clinic in Rome in 1935.
Antonio Gramsci died there on April 27, 1937. Gramsci's "prison notebooks" were secretly smuggled out of the country to Moscow, where they were kept until the end of the Second World War. The publication of the complete edition took until 1975, but then influenced the left in democratic post-war Italy.
In 1919, Gramsci co-founded the magazine "Ordine nuovo", which promoted the formation of workers' councils and became the most influential medium of the workers' movement in the Turin area. In January 1921, Gramsci founded the Italian Communist Party (Pci). When he was in Russia in 1922, he met Giulia Schucht, whom he married shortly afterwards. The couple had two sons. In the Italian general election of 1924, Gramsci was elected to the chamber for the Pci. He returned to Italy to act as an opponent against Benito Mussolini, who had meanwhile seized power as the fascist "Duce". In November 1926, Gramsci was arrested for treason and initially taken to a prison near Bari.
The communist leader spent the last decade of his life in fascist prison. While in prison, Gramsci wrote his main work, the "Prison Notebooks", which were published posthumously after the collapse of fascism under the title "Quaderni del carcere" (1948-1951). The writings soon came to be seen as the most significant revision of social and political theory in the 20th century, conceiving a new theory of state power based on the categories of coercion, consensus and cultural hegemony. Due to the deterioration of his health, Gramsci was taken to a private clinic in Rome in 1935.
Antonio Gramsci died there on April 27, 1937. Gramsci's "prison notebooks" were secretly smuggled out of the country to Moscow, where they were kept until the end of the Second World War. The publication of the complete edition took until 1975, but then influenced the left in democratic post-war Italy.
