Lignes, an Intellectual Revue: Twenty-Five Years of Politics, Philosophy, Art and Literature Adrian May University of Cambridge Clare Hall Supervisor: Martin Crowley Submitted: September 2014 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. The dissertation does not exceed the word limit set by the Degree Committee. Word count: 79,987 2 Acknowledgements Martin Crowley has been an invaluable supervisor, both for his unflagging attention and empathy alongside an uncompromising integrity and critical insight. Sincere thanks also to Michel Surya for his time and indulgence in the project, and Lisa Jeschke for proof-reading the manuscript. Emma Wilson and Ian James have provided constant and generous support and inspiration and, alongside Martin, form the intellectual heart of a vibrant and engaging French Department at Cambridge of which it has been a pleasure to be member. This thesis would not have occurred, or in any case not taken the same form, without the previous help and input of Simon Swift, Timothy Mathews and Patrick ffrench. Whilst taking a circuitous route towards this eventual doctorate, these three provided the first academic models to follow. It is easy to forget the ease provided by an AHRC doctoral award to be able to immerse oneself in such work without financial concerns: it has been a rare and appreciated three years. Many friends and colleagues at the University of Leeds, University College London and Cambridge have ensured that academia has consistently proved to be more of a pleasure than a pain: to those, then. Above all, my gratitude to my Mother is constant, for raising me single-handedly alongside two siblings who have since become friends. 3 Thesis title – Lignes, an Intellectual Revue: Twenty-Five years of Philosophy, Politics, Art and Literature Author – Adrian May Institution – The University of Cambridge, Modern and Medieval Languages Supervisor – Dr. Martin Crowley Abstract The thesis takes the French revue Lignes (1987-present) as its object of study to provide a new account of French intellectual culture over the last twenty-five years. Whilst there are now many studies covering the role of such revues throughout the twentieth-century, the majority of such monographs extend no further than the mid-1980s: the major novelty of this thesis is extending these accounts up until the present moment. It is largely assumed that a reaction against the Marxist and structuralist theories of the 1960s and 1970s led to embrace of liberalism and an intellectual drift to the right in France from the 1980s onwards: whilst largely supporting this account, the thesis attempts to nuance this narrative of the fate of the intellectual left in the following years by showing the persistence of what can be called a politicised ‘French theory’ in Lignes, and a returning left-wing militancy in recent years. In doing so, it will both reveal under-studied aspects of well-known thinkers, such as Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Rancière and Alain Badiou, as their thought develops through their participation in a collaborative, periodical publication, and introduce lesser known thinkers who have not received an extended readership in Anglophone spheres. Lignes also argues for the continued persistence and relevance of the thought of a previous generation of thinkers, notably Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot and Dionys Mascolo, and the thesis concludes by examining the potential role ‘French Theory’ could still have in France. Furthermore, as revues provide a unique nexus of intellectual, cultural, social and political concerns, the thesis also provides a unique history of France from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the 2007 financial crisis and the Arab Spring. Much of the thesis is concerned with contextualising intellectual debates within a period characterised by the moralisation of discourses, a return of religion, the global installation of neo-liberalism and the eruption of immigration as a controversial European issue. From a relatively theoretical and politically stable position to the left of the Parti socialiste, Lignes therefore provides a privileged vantage point for the mutations in French social and cultural life throughout the period. 4 Contents Introduction Lignes: An Intellectual Revue after the Death of both Intellectuals and Revues …8 Intellectuals and Revues – A Mutual History …9 Approaches to the Revue Form …15 Chapter Plan …18 Lignages: Political, Intellectual, Literary Chapter 1 Lignes and the 1930s: Fascism, Anti-parliamentarianism and the Political …22 The 1980s – Les années d’hiver …23 The Obsession with French Fascism …25 Maurice Blanchot: The Silent Politics of Friendship …27 Blanchot in the 1930s: la surenchère journalistique? …30 Bataille in the 1930s: Sacred Sociology …36 Jean-Luc Nancy and the Political …44 A Muted Anti-parliamentarianism …46 Chapter 2 Lignes and the 1960s: Intellectual Friendship, Cultural Politics and Literature …49 Antelme: Humanity, Solidarity, Friendship …49 La Rue Saint-Benoît …51 Le refus anonyme …53 Plural Speech …57 Theory as Material Force …62 Transgression from Tel Quel to Lignes …65 Le communisme de pensée …70 5 Lignes, the First Series: 1987-1999 Chapter 3 Impure Atheists, Opaque Intellectuals …76 Impure Enlightenment …77 Aggressive Irréligion? …83 Interlude – An Alternative Cultural Politics …86 Immorality …88 Impur/Impropre …93 Le capital, la transparence et les affaires …97 Chapter 4 Immigration and angélisme …105 Pierre-André Taguieff and Neo-racism …105 National-Republicanism …108 Étienne Balibar – Race, nation, classe …110 Négationnisme and Censorship …113 The Heritage of Anti-fascism …115 Turning on the Electoral Left …120 Lignes and the New Social Movements …123 Responsabilisation or Intellectual Suicide? …130 Lignes, the Second Series: 2000-2014 Chapter 5 Rebuilding Camps, Reconstructing Agency …134 Securitisation …134 David Rousset – The Universalisation of the Concentrationary …137 Exceptional Legality: Rebuilding Camps …141 Jacques Rancière and the sans-papiers …146 Alain Badiou – Political Subjects and Political Organisations …153 6 Chapter 6 Spectacular Domination: Art and Neoliberalism in Crisis …162 Pasolini and the Exhaustion of the Artistic Critique …162 Structural Alienation: Guy Debord, marxiste …167 Contemporary Art in Crisis – Mass Culture and the Institutions …171 Political and Ethical Art in Context …177 Theorising the Financial Crisis …181 The Social Creation of Political Culture …185 Conclusion Revues, French Theory and Identity Politics into the Twenty-First Century …190 Postcolonial Theory – (Cultural) Politics …192 Identités indécises …195 The Badiou Controversy: Universal vs Strategic Essentialism …197 Essentialism with a Vengeance: Parity and PACS …202 Bibliography …207 7 Introduction Lignes: An Intellectual Revue after the Death of both Intellectuals and Revues “Paris is today the capital of European intellectual reaction” (Anderson 1983: 32): such was Perry Anderson’s verdict in 1983, as Mitterrand’s Parti socialiste (PS) consecrated its shift to neo-liberal economics, Max Gallo lamented the silence of the intellectuals, and Tel Quel became L’Infini, signalling the end of “The Time of Theory” (ffrench 1995). The 1980s were subsequently “les années d’hiver” (Guattari 1986) which furnished the “tombeau de l’intellectuel” (Lyotard 1984). Now deceased, intellectuals became objects of academic study, Jean-François Sirinelli forming his Groupe de recherche sur l’histoire des intellectuels in 1985. Removed from their “pedestal and placed beneath the historian’s magnifying glass” intellectuals were “an historical object best viewed with retrospective vision” (Brewer 1997: 18). Symptomatically revues, the intellectuals’ favourite publishing organ, also seemed threatened, organisations such as Ent’revues (1986) and L’Institut mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (1988) being created to preserve their archives and provide financial support. Eulogies for the death of both remained frequent refrains heading into the 1990s. Subsequently, a familiar narrative became established: just as ‘French Theory’ became prevalent in the Anglophone academy, structuralism was subjected to a concerted backlash in France (Cusset 2003); furthermore, chastened by Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, penitent intellectuals abandoned progressive politics for a sober stance as responsible participants in liberal governance. Tony Judt’s “essay on intellectual irresponsibility” is a characteristic account (1992: 11), and is far from inaccurate: however, the ubiquity of this narrative also frequently occludes what happened next. Whilst seminal studies of Tel Quel, Les Temps modernes, and Cahiers pour l’analyse have highlighted the role of revues as crucibles of thought and praxis,1 few accounts venture beyond the 1980s. This is understandable as the main cluster of such studies appeared in the mid-1990s: yet since then, thinkers such as Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière and Jean-Luc Nancy have been extensively discussed,2 but rarely considered within the wider milieus that revues continue to provide. This is the principal scholarly omission that this thesis seeks to address. Lignes therefore becomes an ideal object of study. This trimestral revue has appeared since 1987, covering art, literature, philosophy and politics. Despite the hostile intellectual 1 See the bibliography for monographs