Gramsci never fixed one consistent definition of the State or civil society

Evidence

Yet, in another of the notes grouped under the title ” Political Struggle and Military War”, Gramsci describes the State in the West as “an outer ditch, behind which there stand a powerful system of fortresses and earthworks”—i.e. in precisely the opposite way. The State is elsewhere defined as “political society + civil society”, and elsewhere again as a balance between political society and civil society. In yet another passage, Gramsci stresses that “in concrete reality, civil society and State are one and the same”. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 827

In the passage referred to above, civil society resists before the frontal assault on the State. Yet, in another of the notes grouped under the title ” Political Struggle and Military War”, Gramsci describes the State in the West as “an outer ditch, behind which there stand a powerful system of fortresses and earthworks”—i.e. in precisely the opposite way. The State is elsewhere defined as “political society + civil society”, and elsewhere again as a balance between political society and civil society. In yet another passage, Gramsci stresses that “in concrete reality, civil society and State are one and the same”. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 827

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci’s shifting definitions of the State and civil society — fortifications analogy, ‘political society + civil society’, identity claim — are exactly the toolkit clarifications this module needs.
• QUESTION: The ‘outer ditch / fortresses and earthworks’ formulation inverts the earlier frontal-assault image — worth chasing which note came when and whether the shift marks a theoretical development.
• XREF: Carries forward as a caution: Islamophobia theory must not wed itself to one frozen reading of ‘civil society’ since Gramsci offers several.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 827