Interrogating the Interregnum

Of the various theoretical concepts utilised to understand our current global conjuncture, one, Antonio Gramsci's interregnum, has increasingly breached both academic and popular consciousness. The evocative power of Gramsci's century-old analysis whereby the dying out of an existing order bears witness to a variety of morbid symptoms seems to speak to our own era in which systemic morbidities are overt and omnipotent. Yet despite a flourishing literature base, no systematic review of the interregnum as a concept has been undertaken. This paper acts to fill that lacuna, offering a review of the key themes which emerge from an interrogation of the interregnum. In doing so, the paper allows the concept to advance from its previously under-analysed status and permits for a fuller consideration of the benefits and limitations of utilising the interregnal concept as a methodological tool to assist in understanding the current global conjuncture.