Gramsci’s early revolutionary voluntarism was accused of Bergsonian influence he had not directly read

Evidence

The meeting in question took place between various leaders and adherents of the “intransigent” current of the Socialist Party on the night of 18 November 1917. It was mainly concerned with preparing a document criticising the reformist wing of the Party for its attitude to the war. In the course of the discussion Trozzi appears to have taken Gramsci to task for Bergsonian voluntarism. That Gramsci’s views at the time were decidedly unorthodox by the standards of the Second International, is shown by his famous article saluting the Soviet revolution, La Rivoluzione contro il ‘Capitale’ , published in Avanti! a week after the meeting with Trozzi and others, which was subsequently widely criticised for apparently counterposing “Leninist” revolutionism to “Marxist” passivity and determinism. Gramsci, in fact, as he makes clear here in the Quaderni , did not know Bergson’s writing at the time. Bergson had, however, influenced Sorel, who in turn had influenced Gramsci in an early period. The result of Trozzi’s charge was to lead Gramsci to a re-examination and criticism of idealistic and Bergsonian influences in Sorel’s work. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2501

Categorization

• QUESTION: Bergsonian voluntarism vs. Marxist determinism — worth chasing how this intellectual lineage shaped Gramsci’s later emphasis on will in hegemony.