Gramsci’s Laboratory. Philosophy, History and Politics

Alvaro Bianchi

The purpose of Gramsci’s Laboratory is to interpret the relationship between philosophy and politics in Gramsci’s Quaderni del carcere. A milestone in contemporary Brazilian Gramsci reception, the book argues that in Gramsci’s work the unity of theory and practice is unfolded theoretically through the unity of philosophy, history and politics.

Bianchi argues that this unity was developed in the research project that Gramsci carried out in prison, and was thus a product of the ‘determination in the last instance’ of politics itself. His book demonstrates that a correct understanding of this unity requires us to recognise that history and philosophy are constitutive elements of the political field from which they claim to keep their distance.

This book was first published in Portuguese in 2008 as O Laboratório de Gramsci: Filosofia, História e Política by Alameda, ISBN 9788598325798.

Biographical Note

Alvaro Bianchi is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp – Brazil) and former Director of the Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth – Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação Social. He works on Political Science with an emphasis in History of Political Science in Italy and political thought in the United States and Latin America.

Readership

Gramsci’s scholars, students of Marxism in Latin America, socialist history, history of Italy, Gramsci’s Quaderni del carcere, fascism and socialism.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Chronology of José Soller

Part 1 In Search of Soller

The Vineyards

The Legal Case against José Soller

Origins

The Nature of the Journey

Reconstructing Locales along the Way

On Trial, under Sentence, and in Absentia

Into Thin Air

Part 2 His Majesty’s Representative versus José Soller, Mulatto Pilgrim, for Impersonating a Priest and Other Crimes: Edition and Translation

Note on the Translation

Editorial Norms

Edition and Translation

Part 3 Scholarly Supplement

Proper Names in the Dossier

Linguistic Variants

Scribal Errors

Case Notes

Bibliography
Index