1he topir.:s of~ and subaltern social groups appear throughout Antonio Gwnsci's Prison Notebooks. Although Gtanuci often associates the problem of political fragmentation among subaltern groups with issues cnnccrning language and cnmmon sense, there arc only a few notes where he explicitly connects his overlapping analyses of language and subaltcmity. We build on the few places in the literature on Gramsci that focus on how he relates common sense to the questions of language or subaltcrnity. By explicitly tracing out these relarions, we hope to bring into relief the direct connections between subaltemity and language by showing how the concepts overlap with respect to Grarnsci's analyses of common sense, intellectuals, philosophy, folklore, and hegemony. We argue that, for Gramsci, fragmentation of any social group's 'common sense', worldview and language is a political detriment, impeding effective political organisation to counter exploitation bur that such fragmentation cannot be overcome by the imposition of a 'rational' or 'logical' worldview. lns=.d, what is required is a deep engagement with the fugments that make up subaltern historical, social, economic and political conditions. In our view, Gramsci provides an alternative both to the celebration of fragmentation fashionmle in liberal multiculturalism and uncritical postmodernism, as well as other attempts of overcoming it through recourse to some external, transcendental or imposed worldview. lhis is fully in keeping with, and further ducidates Gramsci's understanding of the importance of effi:ctive 'democratic centralism' of the leadership of the party in relation to the rank and file and the popular masses. KeywonbAntonio Grarnsci; language; linguistir.:s; subaltern social groups; subaltcmity; subaltern studies; common sense; fol.klore; hegemony IntroductionWithin Gramsci's legacy, the concept of 'subalternity' and his attention to language politics often take secondary and merdy supportive roles to the more influential themes such as hegemony, passive revolution, organic intdlectuals and war of position. Not only are 'subalternity' and 'language' cast as second Ives I Historical Mattrialmn 17 (2009) 3--30 fiddles, especially in the English-language literature, but many meticulous scholars will note that Gramsd writes specifically about subaltern groups and language quite late in his prison notes. Indeed, when considering the chronological composition of the Prison Notebooks, the two thematically organised 'special notebooks' that Gramsci devoted to subaltern groups and language appear towards the end. Notebook 25 ('On the Margins of History. History of Subaltern Groups') dates to the period of 1934, and Notebook 29 {'Notes for an Introduction to the Study of Grammar'), which is Gramsci's last notebook, dates to the period of 1935. However, the themes of subalternity and language appear throughout the Prison Notebooks. ' Elsewhere, the individual authors of this article have tried to show the profound centrality subalternity and language, sepa...
While it is commonly agreed that language standardisation was an integral feature of the historical formation of the modern nation state, current debates on globalisation and its effects on the nation state rarely address language issues in more than a superficial fashion. Yet the quadrupling of the number of English speakers in the last half‐century and other changes associated with ‘global English’ would seem to have more substantial political implications. Particularly in the recent wave of discussions of cosmopolitanism, language questions seem to lurk below the surface but are rarely addressed explicitly or comprehensively. Important exceptions to this neglect of current language issues include Daniele Archibugi, who addresses these questions head on, and Nancy Fraser's most recent attempt to rethink Habermas' critical theory of the public sphere. This article agrees with both Archibugi and Fraser that language is an important, even central, aspect of political responses to processes of globalisation, specifically cosmopolitanism. However, I argue that Antonio Gramsci's approach to the politics of language in the early twentieth century highlights the insufficiency of Archibugi's reliance on the metaphor of Esperanto as well as the intractable nature of Fraser's critique for any critical theory of global public sphere(s), despite her attempt to advance such a theory. I do this by looking at Gramsci's critique of Esperanto from 1918 and his later prison writings concerning language politics in Italy. Gramsci, I argue, provides a much more adequate approach to contemporary questions of the politics of language, which includes an understanding of the continued role of the state which is most often obscured both by cosmopolitan perspectives and by much research on global English in fields outside political science.
Antonio Gramsci and his concept of hegemony are often invoked in current debates concerning cultural imperialism, globalisation and global English. However, these debates are rarely cognizant of Gramsci's own university training in linguistics, the centrality of language to his writings on education and hegemony, or his specific engagement with language politics in his own day. By paying much greater attention to Gramsci's writings on language and education, this article attempts to lay the groundwork for an adequate approach to the current politics of global English.While Gramsci may have left formal education and his studies in linguistics at Turin University as a young man to become a full time journalist and political activist, he certainly did not 'jettison' his study of language as is commonly implied. It has been widely accepted that Gramsci had an expansive conception of education which would curtail any suggestion that 'education' must be limited to formal schooling or university. Likewise, this article demonstrates the importance of Gramsci's lifelong analysis of language, its role in education and the development of hegemony. It argues that Gramsci's writings on language policy in Italy, specifically la questione della lingua [the language question] and his concern with linguistics, are an integral part of his approach to education and hegemony.
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