Marxism, Politics and Culture: An Introduction to Reading Antonio Gramsci

Hesam Salāmat: Among the thinkers who profoundly transformed the Marxist tradition both theoretically (and practically), Antonio Gramsci undoubtedly holds a decisive place and has played a fateful role. Gramsci's interventions, especially those later published as the "Prison Notebooks," deeply altered the coordinates of Marxist thought. These interventions, however, must be understood in the context of Gramsci's explicit and implicit dialogue with other Marxist traditions. Hence, in the first three sessions of the "Marxism, Politics and Culture: An Introduction to Reading Antonio Gramsci" meetings, I have endeavored to briefly discuss the key problematics of four traditions: Russian Marxism, German Social Democracy, French Socialism, and Italian Communism. In the remaining three sessions, Gramsci's own interventions concerning these problematics and his analytical innovations in providing a creative formulation of a "socialist strategy" have been presented. These sessions were held in the spring of 2015 by the Sociology Association of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Tehran. I would like to thank the association's friends for the opportunity they provided me to discuss my ideas.

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Session One: An Introduction to the Coordinates and Problematics of Russian Marxism

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Session Two: An Introduction to the Coordinates and Problematics of German Social Democracy

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Session Three: An Introduction to the Coordinates and Problematics of a) French Socialism; b) Italian Communism

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Session Four: Gramsci, the State and Civil Society: The Question of the Difference in Socialist Strategy in East and West

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Session Five: Gramsci, the State and Civil Society: An Introduction to the Ethical State

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Session Six: The State, Civil Society and Hegemonic Struggles

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