From Althusser to Gramsci. «Conjuncture» and «primacy of politics» in Juan Carlos Portantiero’s ‘notes’

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the specific features of Antonio Gramsci's Marxism in the interpretation produced by Juan Carlos Portantiero in his essay ‘Gramsci y el análisis de coyuntura (algunas notas)’ though the categories of «conjuncture» and «primacy of politics». For this purpose, first of all, we critically review the positions of Louis Althusser, whose early theoretical contributions are brought up by Portantiero to characterize Gramsci as a ‘theoretician of the conjuncture’. Secondly, Portantiero's own positions are reconstructed, showing that his invocation of Althusser's contributions allows him to grasp core elements of Gramsci's proposal for the interpretation of Marxism as a ‘science of politics’, especially in terms of the specification of the concept of ‘politics’, as well as the structuring of the social as a frame of relations of force condensed in the State, understood as a ‘hegemonic system’. The paper concludes with a return to the Althusserian polemic on the Hegel-Marx relation from the Gramscian perspective of «This paper aims to identify the specific features of Antonio Gramsci's Marxism in the interpretation produced by Juan Carlos Portantiero in his essay ‘Gramsci y el análisis de coyuntura (algunas notas)’ though the categories of «conjuncture» and «primacy of politics». For this purpose, first of all, we critically review the positions of Louis Althusser, whose early theoretical contributions are brought up by Portantiero to characterize Gramsci as a ‘theoretician of the conjuncture’. Secondly, Portantiero's own positions are reconstructed, showing that his invocation of Althusser's contributions allows him to grasp core elements of Gramsci's proposal for the interpretation of Marxism as a ‘science of politics’, especially in terms of the specification of the concept of ‘politics’, as well as the structuring of the social as a frame of relations of force condensed in the State, understood as a ‘hegemonic system’. The paper concludes with a return to the Althusserian polemic on the Hegel-Marx relation from the Gramscian perspective of «translatability».».