Antonio Gramsci, Scritti 1910-1916

Abstract

The first volume of the early writings (largely his journalism – the specific form of his political militancy in this period) has come out after the second one, covering 1917, due to the even greater complexity of assembling and ascertaining authorship to the articles. These often appeared anonymously, sometimes with initials or an abbreviated name, and were sometimes subject to rigid censorship. In the latter case all efforts have been made to trace and reinstate the missing sections. In all, about 400 texts of various kinds are included in the volume, which supersedes previous collections dating bak to the last quarter of last century. At the start of the volume is a transcription of Gramsci’s very first journalistic article, published in 1910, as correspondent during his summer vacation, from the township of Aidomaggiore, near Ghilarza. The review pays particular attention to Gramsci’s involvement in education, and especially to the adult educational question, long-ignored by successive governments from unity of the country on to the period covered. There are comments on his own formative school experience. Essays that he wrote at the high school (lycée) in Cagliari are included in the volume, but in the review we also transcribe, as an important key to his later thinking, the essay that marked the end of his elementary school period, a text not published in the volume since it lies outside the time period dealt with. Closely allied to the question of education is that of culture and the type of culture that remained to be acquired by the subaltern classes in order to transform their living conditions.