Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the legacy of Antonio Gramsci and Leon Trotsky in the shadow of Stalinism in order to reassess the very different and distorted academic reception of the two figures, as well as to contribute to the revitalization of Marxism for our time. While Gramsci and Trotsky lived and died in a similar fashion, as revolutionary Marxist leaders and theoreticians, their reception in academia could not be more different. Gramsci has become tremendously popular, becoming a central figure in many disciplines, while Trotsky remains largely ignored. Saccarelli argues that not only is Gramsci popular for the wrong reasons--being routinely distorted and depoliticized--even when rescued from his contemporary users, Gramsci remains inadequate. Conversely, the fact that Trotsky remains beyond the pale of theory is a terrible indictment of the current state of academic thinking.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Chapter One: Introduction: Enter Stage Left, Gramsci and Trotsky
Part I: The Mummy, the Professor, and the Cannibal: The Contemporary Uses and the Marxist Reclamation of Antonio Gramsci
Chapter Two: Out of the Wrappings: Gramsciology and the Embalming of Political Theory
Chapter Three: A Man of Modest Appetite: Gramsci and Political Cannibalism
Part II: The Fortune-Teller and the High-Wire Act: Leon Trotsky, Stalinism, and Political Theory
Chapter Four: Telling Fortunes to the Doomed: Trotsky from Clairvoyance to Theory
Chapter Five: The Balance of Criticism: Trotsky’s High-Wire Act
Chapter Six: Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
