This book marks a missed encounter between two of the most influential Marxists thinkers of our age, Walter Benjamin, and Antonio Gramsci, studied here for the first-time side by side.
Benjamin and Gramsci were contemporaries, whose births and deaths took place within a few years of each other in Western Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Two Marxists sui generis, they radically changed Marxism-s themes and vocabulary, profoundly influencing the most significant analyses and debates. At a time in which Marxism was considered to be outdated and in crisis, both Gramsci''s and Benjamin''s thought provided resources for its renewal: particularly in post-colonial studies for Gramsci and in new media studies for Benjamin. Both were victims of fascism, on the threshold of the catastrophe of the Second World War. These two philosophers- posthumous fortune depended on the transmission of their thought, which was first entrusted to friends and comrades, and then to entire gen
