Radicalism in French Culture
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1969a
A01=Niilo Kauppi
academic sociology
Author_Niilo Kauppi
Bernard Pingaud
Bourdieu's Theory
Bourdieu’s Theory
Category=CB
Category=JBCC
Category=JBCC1
Category=JHB
Category=JHBA
Chine
collaborative
Collaborative Circles
communist
Derrida 1987a
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eq_dictionaries-language-reference
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
field
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French Intellectual Field
French Intellectual Scene
French Literary Field
Gerard
Guy Scarpetta
intellectual
intellectual networks
Jean Louis Houdebine
kristeva
Kristeva 1969a
Kristeva Semanalysis
Kristeva's Theory
Kristeva’s Theory
La Nouvelle Critique
Marcelin Pleynet
Mythical Space
Nouveau Roman
party
political rebellion theory
Post-war
poststructuralist thinkers
quel
semanalysis
semiotic analysis
sociology of intellectual innovation
Speculative Radicalism
structuralism
tel
Tel Quel
Tel Quel Group
Timeless
Totemic Emblem
Product details
- ISBN 9781138257764
- Weight: 300g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 17 Oct 2016
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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An invisible pattern draws together most studies dealing with French cultural radicalism in the 1960s with intellectual creation reduced to individual creation and the role of semiotic and social factors that influence intellectual innovation minimized. Sociological approaches often see a more or less external link between social location and intellectual production but, because of their structural approach, they are incapable of taking into account unique historical circumstances, the crucial role of personal impulses, and more importantly the semiotic logic of ideas as conditions of innovative thinking. This ground-breaking book will further an internal sociological analysis of ideas and styles of thought. It will show that the defining but largely neglected feature of what has become "French theory" was a collective mind and style of thought, an explosive but fragile mixture of scientific and political radicalism that rather quickly watered down to academic orthodoxy. For some time, radical intellectuals succeeded in producing ideas that were perfectly in tune with the demands of the consumers, mostly the young university audience. Ideas were used as part of radical posture that was set in opposition to the establishment and "those in power". Ideas could not be too empirical or verifiable, and they had to shock. It is not surprising that a slew of new sciences and concepts were invented to indicate this radical posture. The central argument of this study is that ideas become "power-ideas" only if they succeed in uniting individual and collective psychic investment in powerful social networks with significant institutional and political backing. These conditions were met in the French context for a certain specific period of time. From roughly the mid-1960s to the beginning of the 1970s, radical intellectuals such as Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva developed a host of new ideas, concepts and theories, a number of which have subsequently been labelled as French theory.
Niilo Kauppi, Director of Research, CNRS/University of Strasbourg, France
