On Gramscian temporality

It has been pointed out several times that one of the most interesting features of Gramsci’s materialism is its relationship with space. The same has been said about the specificity of the notion of time in his thought, i.e. its historicism. From a different perspective, but not in opposition with these readings, this article will present the importance of the concepts marked by space and time in the Notebooks. The analysis of the concepts of “passive revolution” and “Jacobinism” in particular will support a non-linear interpretation of “time” in Gramsci’s texts, characterized by a dual temporal structure that follows the relationship between the permanent and the occasional, political hegemony and social plurality, the historical subject and subaltern groups. This dual structure of Gramscian time – based on the consubstantiality of these temporalities rather than on their consecutiveness – is finally put in a unique comparison with Walter Benjamin’s influential distinction between empty, homogenous time and messianic time.