Baratta Giorgio - Gramsci, Language, and Translation

Gramsci, Language,
and Translation

Cultural Studies/Pedagogy/Activism

Series Editors

Rachel Riedner, The George Washington University

Randi Kristensen, The George Washington University

Kevin Mahoney, Kutztown University

Advisory Board

Paul Apostolidis, Whitman College;
Byron Hawk, George Mason University;
Susan Jarratt, University of California, Irvine;
Robert McRuer, The George Washington University;
Dan Moshenberg, The George Washington University;
Pegeen Reichert Powell, Columbia College;
Dan Smith, University of South Carolina;
Susan Wells, Temple University

The Lexington Press book series Cultural Studies/Pedagogy/Activism offers books that engage questions in contemporary cultural studies, critical pedagogy, and activism. Books in the series will be of interest to interdisciplinary audiences in cultural studies, feminism, political theory, political economy, rhetoric and composition, postcolonial theory, transnational studies, literature, philosophy, sociology, Latino studies, and many more.

Titles in Series:

Cultural Studies and the Corporate University , by Rachel Riedner and Kevin Mahoney

Democracies to Come: Rhetorical Action, Neoliberalism, and Communities of Resistance, by Rachel Riedner and Kevin Mahoney

Gramsci, Language, and Translation , edited by Peter Ives and Rocco Lacorte

Gramsci, Language, and Translation

Edited by
Peter Ives and Rocco Lacorte

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gramsci, language, and translation / edited by Peter Ives and Rocco Lacorte.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7391-1859-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7391-1860-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7391-4785-6 (electronic)

1. Gramsci, Antonio, 18911937Criticism and interpretation. 2. Gramsci, Antonio, 18911937Political and social views. 3. Language and languagesPolitical aspects. 4. Sociolinguistics. 5. Critical theory. 6. Marxist criticism.
7. Historical materialism. 8. Political sciencePhilosophy. I. Ives, Peter, 1968 II. Lacorte, Rocco, 1969

P85.G72G73 2010

335.43092dc22 2010003948

` The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

We would like to dedicate this volume to the memory of Giorgio Baratta, whose intelligence, humanity, energy and enthusiasm will always be with us.

FSPN Further Selections from the Prison Notebooks . Edited and translated by Derek Boothman. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.

LP1 Letters from Prison, vol. 1 . Edited by Frank Rosengarten. Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

LP2 Letters from Prison, vol. 2 . Edited by Frank Rosengarten. Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

PN1 Prison Notebooks, vol. 1. Edited by Joseph Buttigieg. Translated by Joseph Buttigieg and Antonio Callari. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

PN2 Prison Notebooks, vol. 2. Edited and translated by Joseph Buttigieg. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.

PN3 Prison Notebooks, vol. 3 . Edited and translated by Joseph Buttigieg. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

QC Quaderni del carcere. 4 volumes. Edited by Valentino Gerratana. Turin: Einaudi, 1975.

SCW Selections from Cultural Writings . Edited by David Forgacs and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. Translated by William Boelhower. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1985.

SPN Selections from Prison Notebooks. Edited and translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers, 1971.

SPW1 Selections from Political Writings, 19101920. Edited by Quintin Hoare. Translated by John Matthews. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1977.

SPW2 Selections from Political Writings, 19211926. Edited and translated by Quintin Hoare. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1978.

Edited collections are by definition collective projects, as are translations. Fortunately and appropriately, so too is Gramscian scholarship. It is the wide community of Gramscian scholars, in Italy and throughout the world, who made this volume possible. Most immediately, of course, we thank the fifteen contributors not only for allowing us to include their work, but also because that work has inspired both of our own scholarship. Making the issues and debates over Gramsci, language and translation available to a wider audience will hopefully reciprocate the generosity and commitment of this community of intellectuals working with Gramscis ideas and writings. We would specifically like to thank Joseph Buttigieg for his kind advice and encouragement and for his own efforts in translating Gramscis prison writings, which are essential to the broader project. Bob Jessop and Daniel Moshenberg also provided valuable suggestions. We would like to thank the Instituto Italiano for Philosophical Studies in Naples and its president, Gerardo Marotta, for their support. Silvio Pons and Fondazione Instituto Gramsci kindly provided images for the cover. Peter Ives would like to acknowledge the support of Adele Perry, Nell Perry and Theo Perry, who always provide the perspective on the smaller and richest moments of life. Rocco Lacorte would like to thank his mother, Sara Lacorte, for her support, and his father, Carmelo Lacorte, whose memory, energy and vitality also live on through this work. And thank you also to Joseph Parry and Lexington Press for their patience, enthusiasm and understanding of the particular requirements, delays and obstacles of such a project.

Peter Ives and Rocco Lacorte

There is a fascinating silence concerning Antonio Gramscis writings on language and translation despite his wide ranging and profound influence, particularly in fields and debates in which language features prominently such as poststructuralism and cultural studies. For example, Stuart Hall, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Gayatri Spivak all draw on Gramsci in different and significant ways and have also been influenced by linguistically informed poststructuralism. Yet neither they, nor the important work that has followed in their paths, ever address Gramscis own writings on language. It is as if the linguistic roots of poststructuralism, through structualism, block out or obscure Gramscis studies in linguistics at the University of Turin, his lifelong interest in the standardization of the Italian language, and his extensive discussions and practices of language and translation throughout his famous Prison Notebooks . This is symptomatic of a more general reluctance within scholarship on Gramscis political and cultural theory to fully integrate his approach to language and translation. From neo-Gramscian international political economy to social history, literary studies and political theory, Gramscis wide influence remains constrained due to the neglect of many of his specific arguments especially concerning language and translation. This volume is, in part, an attempt to remedy this both through the act of translation but also by presenting a collection of diverse essays addressing this reluctance to recognize the significance and centrality of Gramscis writings on language and translation to his entire social, political and cultural theory. After discussing the background and the organization of this volume, we will introduce several themes and examples to illustrate the potential significance of Gramscis writings on language and translation for an array of debates across many fields and disciplines.