Do sujeito-povo ao sujeito antagonista

The article “From the People-Subject to the Antagonistic Subject” by Dario Gentili reconstructs the trajectory ofItalian Marxism through three decisive moments: Gramsci’s humanist historicism, Galvano Della Volpe’s scientific materialism, and Mario Tronti’s operaismo turn. Gentili examines how Gramsci’s interpretation, consolidated by Togliatti, embedded Marxism in the Italian idealist tradition by promoting the people as the political subject. Della Volpe breaks from this by advocating a scientific-materialist reading of Marx, free from Hegelian mediation. Tronti radicalizes this move by centering theory on the working class as an antagonistic subject, opposing both the concept of “people” and the logic of synthesis. The modern factory becomes the privileged site of class conflict and the production of workers’ knowledge. With the decline of Fordism, Tronti revises his theory, exposing the limits of operaismo and traditional revolutionary politics. Gentili argues that the true legacy of this tradition lies in affirming antagonism as irreconcilable separation, rather than conciliatory synthesis.