On the concept of War of Position. A Gramscian Trajectory in France (1975–1979)

Abstract

The essay reconstructs the trajectory of the Gramscian concept of war of position in France between 1975 and 1979, years marked by the publication of the critical edition of the Prison Notebooks and by the debate on Eurocommunism. After tracing a diachronic account of Gramsci’s elaboration, from the shift from the war of manoeuvre to the war of position, to the broadening of the concept of the State as a dialectical unity of political society and civil society, and finally to its connection with passive revolution, the essay examines the specific French reception of the concept in the 1970s.