The public intellectual in critical marxism: from the organic intellectual to the general intellect

the key issue of this essay is to look at antonio gramsci's writings as centered on the theme of public intellectual within the communist experience in the years 1920s and 1930s. the essay also deals with the present significance of what gramsci said about the organic intellectual regarding the existence of the general intellect in the current capitalist relations of production and reproduction of society. it is important to bear in mind that marx is the first one to write about the general intellect in the grundrisse. later on, the extra parliamentary movement autonomia theorized on the mass intellectuality in italy during the 1960s and 1970s. today antonio negri, paolo virno and maurizio lazzarato are the main authors who are working the theory of the general intellect and immaterial labor in the dynamics of the society of information and global capitalism.