Gramsci’s dissidence beneath and beyond the First World War

One of the leading Marxist theorists of the 20th century and a founding member and leader of the Italian Communist Party, Antonio Gramsci began his intellectual and political journey essentially at the outbreak of WWI and left a massive body of journalistic work by the end of the war. Despite their scope and significance, his wartime writings remain understudied relative to the Prison Notebooks and other post-wartime writings, particularly in the English language literature. This article outlines some of the central themes that he explored in this period. It provides a synoptic depiction of Gramsci’s conceptual development over the course of the war. Gramsci’s dissident social theory represents a radically different intellectual reaction to the war than we see from prominent conservative and liberal social theorists. What emerges from the picture presented in this article is a conceptual snapshot whose organizing principle centers on a critical understanding of intransigence that Gramsci developed over the course of the war. The notion of intransigence, which for Gramsci went far beyond organizational and strategic struggles and expanded into cultural and philosophical endeavors, helps make sense of the major contours of his wartime activities. In carving out a space for critical engagement during the war, Gramsci developed a critique of liberalism and a commitment to socialism which were both marked by and linked through his critical understanding of intransigence.