Antonio Gramsci and the Ancient World Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies Series

Antonio Gramsci and the Ancient World explores the relationship between the work of the Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci and the study of classical antiquity.

The collection of essays engages with Greek and Roman history, literature, society, and culture, offering a range of perspectives and approaches building on Gramsci?s theoretical insights, especially from his Prison Notebooks. The volume investigates both Gramsci?s understanding and reception of the ancient world, including his use of ancient sources and modern historiography, and the viability of applying some of his key theoretical insights to the study of Greek and Roman history and literature. The chapters deal with the ideas of hegemony, passive revolution, Caesarism, and the role of intellectuals in society, offering a complex and diverse exploration of this intersection.

With its fascinating mixture of topics, this volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of classics, ancient history, classical reception studies, Marxism and history, and those studying Antonio Gramsci?s works in particular.

Introduction: The Reception of Gramsci’s Thought in Historical and Classical Studies (Emilio Zucchetti); 1. Negotiating Hegemony in Early Greek Poetry (Laura Swift); 2. Upside-down Hegemony? Ideology and Power in Ancient Athens (Mirko Canevaro); 3. Gramsci and Ancient Philosophy: Prelude to a Study (Phillip Sidney Horky); 4. A Gramscian Approach to Ancient Slavery (Kostas Vlassopoulos); 5. The Etruscan Question. An Academic Controversy in the Prison Notebooks (Massimiliano Di Fazio); 6. Polybios and the Rise of Rome. Gramscian Hegemony, Intellectuals and Passive Revolution (Emma Nicholson); 7. Antonio Gramsci Between Ancient and Modern Imperialism (Michele Bellomo); 8. Plebeian Tribunes and Cosmopolitan Intellectuals: Gramsci’s Approach to the Late Roman Republic (Mattia Balbo); 9. Between Caesarism and Cosmopolitanism: Julius Caesar as an Historical Problem in Gramsci (Federico Santangelo); 10. Gramsci and the Roman Cultural Revolution (Christopher Smith); 11. Caesarism as Stasis from Gramsci to Lucan: an "Equilibrium with Catastrophic Prospects" (Elena Giusti); 12. Hegemony in the Roman Principate: Perceptions of Power in Gramsci, Tacitus and Luke (Jeremy Paterson); 13. Gramsci’s View of Late Antiquity: between longue durée and Discontinuity (Dario Nappo); 14. Cultural Hegemonies, ‘NIE-orthodoxy’, and Social Development Models: Classicists’ ‘Organic’ Approaches to Economic History in the Early XXI Century (Cristiano Viglietti); Afterthoughts;1. The Author as Intellectual? Hints and Thoughts for a Gramscian ‘Re-reading’ of the Ancient Literatures (Anna Maria Cimino); 2. Hegemony, Coercion and Consensus: A Gramscian Approach to Greek Cultural and Political History (Alberto Esu); 3. Hegemony, Ideology, and Ancient History. Notes towards a Development of an Intersectional Framework (Emilio Zucchetti)

Emilio Zucchetti is Germanicus Scholar of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (London, UK) and Teaching Assistant at Newcastle University, UK.

Anna Maria Cimino is a PhD student in Classics at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy.