Retorno a Gramsci: hacia una lectura de la subalternidad den los escritos precarcelarios.

Despite of being one of the central figures in regard to the notion of subalternity, Antonio Gramsci seems to be more evoked than actually studied from scholars of the Subaltern Studies group. Paradoxically, frequent references to his name and an eclectic and contradictory handling of his work have lead to a disregard of his theoretical contributions. In order to counteract such tendencies, Gramscian studies have initiated a debate to reconstruct the theoretical value of the notion of subalternity. This effort concentrated above all on the Prison Notebooks and the analysis of the relation between subalternity, common sense, hegemony and the integral State. In this work, however, and in order to complement these theoretical efforts, it is held that a full comprehension of the notion of subalternity is possible only if one is regarding Gramsci’s political struggles as a member of the socialist and communist party. By reconstructing his political experience up to the time of the workers’ councils in Turin, I will show that the problem of subalternity is a central concern which guided Gramsci’s political and theoretical efforts from his youth in Sardinia up to his imprisonment by the fascist government.