Paris 1968, French Theory and the Intellectual World War With Gabriel Rockhill

Gabriel Rockhill is the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop / Atelier de Théorie Critique, Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, and the author or editor of nine books, as well as numerous articles and essays.

Many listeners have asked us to read and possibly have a discussion about Rockhill’s recent work in particular which has included critical articles on Foucault, Žižek, the Frankfurt School and what Rockhill describes as “The Global Theory Industry” within his work.

In this conversation we largely examine his most recent piece on the promotion of a certain sect of French intellectuals in the wake of the 1968 uprisings and strikes in Paris. Rockhill discusses the relationship or lack thereof that he sees between those thinkers who have been promoted as “68 Thinkers” and the actual activities of the period, the political decisions being made on the ground, and most urgently for Rockhill’s concerns the incredibly vibrant worker movement of the period and the possibility of taking power and building a socialist project in France.

We hope folks enjoy this discussion which also examines the relationship between those who organize for socialism, grassroots uprisings, and the process through which publishers, state actors, and the media recuperate and commodify upheaval and then freely associate it with thinkers that are compatible with the maintenance of the status quo which is being protested. Alongside this cultural project there is of course also the violent repression of the state both overtly and clandestinely. Along those lines Rockhill also discusses Operation Gladio.

We will include links to some of the projects that Rockhill mentions in the episode in the show notes, including the summer program at the Critical Theory Workshop.

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Links:

The Myth of 1968 Thought and the French Intelligentsia: Historical Commodity Fetishism and Ideological Rollback

Critical Theory Workshop / Atelier de Théorie Critique

Some of Rockhill's other work on the Global Theory Industry specifically on Foucault, Žižek, the Frankfurt School.

Thomas Sankara translations on Liberation School

Iskra Books (mentioned in the episode)