THE CENTURY Alain Badiou ‘Translated, with a commentary and notes, by Alberto Toscano polityFat pulled in French n 2005 by Eton da Seu a Le Site and (© Batons da Seu, 2005 “Ths Engl tranation © Polity Press, 2007 ‘This book i supported by the ech Ministry of Frcgn Affi at part ofthe Burges programme un by the Colerl Department ofthe Trench Embasy ia London (ww: enchbooknewsom) institut francais, COuvrage publi avec tad ds Ministre fangs chargé dela Culture Centre onal dire Published with the anastance of the French Ministry of Culture ~ [National Contre for the Book. Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Combet 2 URUK A Tg, Paty Poe Bg 50 Mas Set + Maen MARS. USA “ef All cghs reserved. cept forthe quotation of short passages for the Purpose of crits and evew a part ofthis pblicaon may be Feprordced stored in eseval sytem, or tanastted, any form or Dpamy meas clectzonie, mechanic, photocopying recording ‘thervi, without the pir prmision of the pba ISBN-10:0-7456-3031-4 ISBN-13 978-0745636913, ISBN-10:0-7456-3632-2 (pb) ISBN-13,978-07456-36320 (5b) “Typeset ia 1113 p Bring bby SNP Boxset Typeset Lid, Hong Kong Prot an bound in Malaysia by Alen Pres Malaysia For further information on Ply, sour website: wept cauk Contents ‘ranslaing the cnsury Dedication 10 n 2 3B Search for» method ‘The beast ‘The unreconcled A new world Yes, but when? ‘The passion forthe real and the montage of semblance ‘One divides into two Sex in rst ‘Anabass Seven variations Cruclies Avant gardes ‘The infrite ‘The joint disappearances of Man and God ‘European non’ and beyond: commentary by “Alberto Toscano Notes Remarks on the translation Select bibigraphy Index vi My 26 39 48 58 68 81 98 m1 131 48 165 19 202 27 224 26Translating the century These thirteen lesions on the twentieth century were orginally Intended to be accompanied by facing English translation, Rights tnd ownership intervened to foreclose that possibilty: In the spirit ofthat orginal projec, and by way of introduction, 1 would like nevertheless to include in this monolingual edition a reflection bor af the inital plan that I shared with Alain Badiou, Since the lectures to fellow aim to cleave as stringently as they can to the ‘century's own propositions, it might be pertinent to ask what the ‘century itself has to say about the question of language in general, and of bilingualism in particule ‘While in many respects the century's philosophy has beea marked, bar afew renegades an ‘extremist (Ihave in mind expe- ally that brillnt and sombre Neo-Parmenidean from Trieste, Carlo Michaelstadter and his 1910 book La persasione ¢ la ret toric), by something like an apotheosis (not a proto-theology) ‘of language an equation of philosophical with linguistic reflection {from the pedestian propositions favoured in Cambridge to the tullrian homilies of Todtnauberg), the century's wordsmiths have been far more sceptical, experimental, or even despairing about the powers of language, be ordinary or prophetic Tn concordance ‘with the everdncreasing and often austere attentions that the ars of the century lavished upon ‘media’, though perhaps with far more intimate and contorted repercs. sions, poet and novelists multiplied the ordeals undergone by lin- Buisic material just to consider the conventional armature of| ‘punctuation, so riliantly explored by Adorno, the century's lit frature enacted both its suppression (Becket’s How It Is comeswi ‘Translating the centwry to mind) and its seemingly erratic, ‘grammatical’ proliferation (eg, for example, the stores of Arno Schmid), However, this endemic manipulation or fainting of conven tions was always accompanied not just bya rellective purification of medium (the belaboured narrative of aesthetic modernism) but by a veritable hatred of language. From William Burroughs’ dis- Auistions on the ‘word viru and the prospects ofan ‘electronic revolution’, to the sundry experiments (seldom compelling) in concrete poctry, language was attacked for being the very sub stance of convention itself for ts complicity with man’s enslave- ‘ment to tity, for its participation in the more or less Surreptitious politcal control of human action and public, The twentieth century was also, after all, the century of prodigious, ramified investigation into the complicties between recording and contro, inscription and domination Part of Samuel Beckett's enduring force lies precisely in the unique and exacting way in which his work combines, on the one hhand,a formidable experimentation with syntactical and coc tionary devices and, on the other,» deep-seated, programmatic mistrust of the wetten word. Beckett channels these seemingly ssparate demands through the stateay of bilingual and sei ‘ransaton (moving in the inverse linguistic diecton, the obvious ‘comparison would be to Nabokow’sastoratic delight a the n> ritely layered fishioning and manipulation of linguistic words, ‘with ts labyrinthine complexity and adic atention to detall~ an esthetic demeanour mostly untrammelled by the tortures of the Beckettian voice) ‘One doesn't have to (though one certainly should) frequent The Unnamabe or the Terts for Nothing in order to get tase of Becket’s intimate hated of language (a hatred entirely propor- ‘onate to, and exacerbated by, his heterodox erudition). Already inhis notorious letter to Axel Kaun of 1937, Becket writes (orig inally written in German, [give this quotation in Martin Essins translation} tis ndeed becoming more and mote difcl, even senses for sme to write an oficial Engh And meee sod mere my own ‘Translating the cotury x language appears to me lke a vl that must be tor apr in oder to get atthe things (othe Nothingness) behind I. Gramma and ste To me they sem to have become as relevant as Victran bting st or the imperturbabily ofa true eatleman, A mask Tete hope the time sil ome, thank God tht in certain les ‘thas len come, when language most cently sed where being mos efficiently mined. Ar we cannot eliminate [an tuage al tence, we should at lest leave nothing undone thst ‘ight contrbute totaling into depute Tore one hole ter ‘other int ut what hk behind bet someting o nothing Tega to sep through; Tcanet imagines higher goa fora weiter today. Oris iterature lane to ensin behind in the old lazy ways ‘hat ave been so lng abandoned by music and panting? I there ‘Something parspinly bay inthe vik nature of the word tht {sot found in the clement ofthe eter art? fe there any reson ‘why that tebe materiality of the word surface should not be “apble of ein soled, ike for example the sond uric by enormous poses, of Beethoven seventh Symphony, ro thst ‘hough whole pages we can pereie nothing but» pth of sounds epended in gly heights Hating unfathomable sbyes of ‘one? Aa aster ie regueted Note the urgency with which Beckett rises the question ~ ‘which his entire work will endeavour to answer ~ ofthe capacity ‘of lterature to be as worthy ofits time asthe other ars (which ‘only intensifies the irony of depicting the task of literature in an anticipation of Lucio Fontana's punctured, ‘spatial canvases, or ‘ven Alberto Burns burt plastic openings). 1 almost af the burden ofterature were compounded by thi ‘vicious nature of the word, a if the purfcation ofits material requized even riskier operations than those of the other arts (because the writer is ensnared or possessed by his own medium, constitutively inca- pable of abandoning it). Hlence thecal fora creative, resourceful hatred, an ecient misuse! Beckett's much debated bilinguals is part and parcel of eis programme, which he brilliantly dubbed as that of ‘iterture of the unword’. A programme, It should be noted, which he ‘damantly distanced from that of Joyce. In Joyce's perversely ‘erudite’ corruption’ ofthe English language, the young Beckett (inx Translating the contery his single extended essay of eiticism’, Dante... Bruna Vico Joyce’ fom Disa) already discerned something that would end up serving a6 the counter to his own linguistic seatepes of ‘Teastening’ and "worsening a saturation and corporelization of language the transformation of the store of universal language ino an inexhaustible, quas-somatic reservoir of affective mater als, symbolic allusions, delectable opacities. 'Now, it telling that from his beginnings asa weiter = the ‘period where he brashly laid down some of the ethical and aes- thetic parameters that would later silentiy guide his punitive regimen of experimentation ~ Beckett already formulated the ‘question of writing, and of his relationship to Joyce, in terms of ‘what was to be done with the English language. Fst of all, he saluted Joyce's disdain for the erste humanist search after nie versal tongue, i terms of his kinship with Dante: They both saw hhow worn out and threadbare was the conventional language of cunning literary ariicers, both rejected an approximation to ‘universal language If English is not yet so definite polite neces: sity a8 Latin was in the Middle Ages, a least one is justified in Aeclaring that its position in relation to other European languages |s toa great extent that of mediaeval Latin tothe Italian dialects? For both there was no access to 1 universal language, but only 2 niversalizing gesture: the invention of language bearing a deter- ‘inate relation to the mukiplicity of spoken tongues and the capacity for thought and speech. Beckets pints Joyce inthe image of Dante, sying of the ater. He wrote vulgar that could have been spoken by an deal lian who ad assimilated what was best in all the dlalects of his country, but which infact was certaialy not spoken nor ever had been ‘The operation of linguistic universalization in Joyce is therefore not depicted in terms ofthe idealization ofa canoe, but rather of an allembracing impurifiction: ‘Me. Joyce has desophisteated language. And itis worth remarking that no language i so sophis ‘cated as English. Iis abstracted to death,’ But, crucially, Joyce's anti-abstracive opting for 2 fll, almost synaesthetic language, which ties t9 turn ‘the terble materiality of the word surface’ into a kind of pulsting flesh in which 'form i content, content 4s form’ a language that is ‘not about something [but} that ‘Translating the comury x something ite? is ultimately viewed by Beckett as an image of purgatory, a continuous, mult-drectional, infinitely variegated pace where ‘a flood of movement and vitality’ drives ‘the vicious circle of humanity... without culmination’ Tn such a domain there is no room forthe nibilatng desire of the hater of language, holes are ast punched in language; on the contrary, language is constantly filled, multiplied, nourished (loyce's somatic language remains the worthies val of Beckett's voices in the dark), Whence the crucial allusion tothe subject of| parzatory inthe closing kine of Reckew's 1928 esaAnd the p= tilly purgatoral agent? The partially purged” Arguably, was @ clssatsfaction with this paral purplag within a joyfully co rupted, garulous English that parly drew Beckett to the bilin- gual stratagem, the purification of his thought in the transit between Tanguoges, the attempt to stop the vicious and natural adherence of language to speaker. Bilingualism conceived not as ‘machine for hybridization, but asa way of fighting the intimate Compulsion of an irevocably conventional speech; (self )ransla- tion as a minutely calibrated filter for language, moving aginst the case and obviousness of expression ~ the project 1D de- saturate language is certainly one of Becket’ great contributions {toa century that was not averse, especially in its waning year, to ‘think of itself asa purgatory “Transcriptions as it were, of public speech, these lessons and their English rendering do not seek to imitate or reproduce the centiry, ‘or even to be that something ite rather, as befits a pedagoxy ‘of conviction that must of necessity abhor nostalgia, iti a matter ‘of conveying moments and inventions that were sinsltancously refractory to interpretation and addressed to everyone, over and above linguistic sffllaion. This universal address ‘does not however exempt us from reflecting, in light of the hurdles and spurs that colteal and linguistic particularities presented to the subjects ofthe century, on the effects of the planetary hegernony ofthe ‘new Latin’, whether ‘offical or otherwise. The problems that Beckett some seventy years ago discerned in Fanegans Wake = What isto be done with the English language? How can it be cxeatively manipulated, stripped or reconfigured? Can it bea ‘Translating the century universalized agains its status asthe ‘common currency of global transactions (but also without slipping into plattudinows and reactionary jeremiads against ‘Americanism’ ot ‘glbish’? ~ are sill with us tay. Philosophical soundings of the century's molten subjective core, these lessons wager that the century's wall compulsion ‘reat the intractable can be matched, n view of other future pas sions by the lucid transmission of moves and motivations that ly beyond the pale of consensual discourse and conversation; i other ‘word, cha philosophy can become @ non-autachthonous space here the dark desies of the century can be rendered teane- parent to thought, of to invert Becket, where they may finally be bsracted oie 1am grateful to Roberto Toscano Lorenzo Chiesa, Peter Hallward, Esther Leslie, Brano Bostecl Michael Dutton, Donald Fangs, John Malmstad, Justin Clemens, Michelle Spedel and Sebastian Budgen for thelr timely help with issues of expression, reference and transaton at various junctures during the preparation of this ‘manuscript, Special thanks to Ray Brsser for his thorough examn- ‘nation ofan earlier draft and his mamerows and vital suggestions, and to Nina Power for hee corzectons on the fnal version | am tleo gratefl to Alice Brett and the staff at Polity for their fine ‘work on this projec. Alberto Toscano ‘The easlatr and publishers would Uke to thank te allowing foe pe rms to produce copyright mate CGlliard, Pas for the exact on p. 208 from Poul Eluad owen Sulie in Howmaye, included in Onur complies 1913-1953 (Cale liar, 1908) scour Ine forthe extracts in chapter 8 from Anabasi (Section VIN) by Salen Pes ansatd and with prefce byT 8 lo (1970) Methuen Drama, A & © Black forthe extracts in chapter 10 fom The DDction by Berle Brecht, vaaated by leh Wilt in Called Plays: Three (Meteo, 1998), ‘Translating the century xi ‘Univenity of Neb Pres forthe extract in chapter 2 som Mad Love by Andet Breton, wansited by Ann Cavs (1988) Fst publahed Frech by Btios Gallimard (oxford Univerty Press forthe extract on 199 fran The Aros: A ‘Naw World Trg by Edward Kamau Brathwaite (Oxford Univers Press 1973); ad extracts fom the poems of Osip Mendelstan, fom Slecod Poems, translated by Clarence Brown and W. S. Merwin enguin, 1986) Peres Books forthe extract in chapter 8 from the Foon of Paul Calan, ‘tandated by Michael Hamburger Thnstion copyright © 1972, 1980, 18881904, 2002 by Michael Hamburger Repeated by per” rision of Pees Books ne. (New Yor). Princeton Univesity Pres forthe extract on p. 207 fren Pal Val, "The Graveyard by the Ser, transated by James R Lawler in The Co lead Works of Pal Vay ited by Jackson Mathews (Princeton Unie ‘erat Pres 1956-1975). Sioa & Schester for extracts ffom the poems of Oslp Manéelstam, ftom Sele Poms, rarslted by Clarence Brown and W. Merwin (Penguin, 1986) Every efforts been made to trace copyright holder but if any have ‘been iacvertently overlooked, the pubs wil be pleased to make ‘site srangement at the est opportuniDedication “The very idea for these texts could only have arisen thanks ‘0 Natacha Miche, who one day ~ agsnst the curent ofall the anathema launched et revlutions snd militants and flouting the obliteration ofthe latter by todays ‘democrats’ ~ pronounced the verdict "The twentieth century has taken place’ "The matic for these thirteen lessons derives fom a seminar ven atthe College International de Philosophie, daring the academic years 1998-8, 1999-2000 and 2000-1 T therefore thank the College, and in particular its president daring that period, Jean-Claude Milner, for having, hosted the public delivery of these considerations. T thank the seminar’ audience, whose cllective support alone could have made che undertaking meaningfl T thank Isabelle Vodoe, whose excellent note, catching my improvisations on the wing and later commiting them to type, served as the prime material fr this small book. Alain Badiou 21 October 1998 1 Search for a method What i contury? Ihave in mind Jean Genet’ preface to hi play ‘The Blacks Int, he asks roicaly:'What ia black man?" Adding at once ‘And ft of al, what colour is he?” Likewise, I want 9 ask: A century, how many years that? A hundred? This time, i's Bossuet's question that commands our attention: What are hnundged years thousand years, when # single instant cffaces them?” Must we then ask which i the instant of exception that ceffces the twentieth century? The fall oF the Berlin wall? The ‘mapping ofthe genome? The launch of the euro? Even supposing that we could manage to construct the century, to constivate it a8 an object for thought, would this be a philo- sophical object, exposed to that singular will whichis the will {0 speculacon? the century not fist and foremost ahistorical Let's be tempted by the mistress of the moment: History. Fistor, which is presumed to be the unshakeable support for any politics whatsoever Fr instance, I could plausibly make the fo Towing claims the century begins with the war of 1914-18 (a war that includes the eevolution of October 1917) and comes to 4 close withthe collapse of the USSR andthe end ofthe Cold Was This is the short century (seventy-five yess), a strongly unified century In a word, the Soviet century. We construct this century with the aid of historical and political parameters that are both thoroughly recognizable and entirely classical: war and revoltion Here, war and revolution are specifically connected tothe ‘world ‘This century is articulated, on the one hand, around vo word wars and, on the other, around the inception, deployment and2 Search fora method collapse ofthe so-called “communist enterprise, envisaged as 4 planetary enterprise. Ws true that others, equally obsessed with History (or with what chs call ‘memory’ count the entry in an entirely difer- ent fashion, I an easly follow thee lead This time the centsry Js the sit of apocalyptic events ~ evens so ghastly the only cat- gory capable of reckoning with the century's unity i that of (ime: the crimes of Stalinist communism and the crimes of Nazism. At the heart of the century lies the Crime which pre vides the paragon for ll the others the destruction ofthe E pean Jews This century isan accursed century. The principal parameters for thinking it are the extermination camps, the 238 ‘chambers masracres tortures and organized sate crime. Number intervenes a5 an intrinsic qualification. The reason is that once the category ofeimeis linked to the sate, it designates mass murder “The balance sheet ofthe century immediately raises the question of counting the dead” Why this will to count? Because, in this instance ethical judgement can only locate its real in the devae~ tating excess ofthe crime in the counting ~ by the milions ~ of the victims. The counts that point at which the industrial dimen- sion of death interscets with the necessity of judgement. The ‘out i the zeal which is presupposed by the moral imperative. ‘The union of this real with sate crime has a name: this century fs the totalitarian century Note thatthe totalitarian century i even shorter than the ‘com smunist century. It begins in 1917 with Lenin (some would hhapply have it begin in 1793, with Robespierte,* but then it ‘would prow far too long), reaches ts apex in 1937 with Stain and 1942-8 with Hitler, and to all intents and purposes comes to an cad with Mao Tsetun’s death in 1976. I lasts about sixty years provided one ignores exotic survivors lke Fidel Castro or certain ‘marginal end diabolical resurgences, such as Ilamie ‘extremism [Nevertheless itis possible for one coldly steadding this short ‘entry inal it lethal fare or seeking to tur tito the object. ‘of memory contrite commemoration, to think our epoch is- torically interme of ts result. When all's sid and done, the twen- tieth century would be the century ofthe triumph of capitalism and the global market. Having intered the pathologies of an Search fora method 3 unbridled will, the happy correlation of Market without restrictions and a Democracy without shores would finaly have established that the meaning of the century ies in pacfstion, or in the wisdom of mediocrity. The century would thereby express the victory of the economy, i all senses of the term: the “ictory of Capital, economizing on the unreasonable passions of| ‘thought: This isthe iberal centry. This century ~ in which par= liamentarianism and its support pave the way to the triumph of | minuscule ideas is the shortest of them all Beginning, tthe car- lies, after the seventies (the final years of revolutionary fervour), ie lass only thirty years. A happy century, they sy. A’ rump, century, How can we meditate philosophically on all his? What can we say in accordance with the concep, about the sterlacing of the totalitarian century, the Soviet century and the liberal entry? Teno use at thi point picking some Kind of ebjecive o histor- ‘cal unity (the communist epi radical el, wiumphant democ. ‘ney. Fou plilosoper the question snot wht tok place in he century, but what war thought int What di the men of this century think, over nd above merely developing the thought of er predecstn? In other words what are the entry ot {nhertedthovghts? Whit was thought in the century tha was previously thought ~or even smhinksle? ‘My method will consist in extrctng rom among the century's productions some documents or traces indieative of how the Ecntury thought fel To be more preci, how the centiry {thought ts own thought, how i tented the thiking single arity ofthe relation it entettned with the historicity ofits own though To aif ths isue of metho, allow me to rie what sows days ipa provocative or even forbidden, question: What ws the ‘hough of the Nanis? What di the Nass think? There sy of always leading everything back to what the Nazi did (Chey Sndertook the extenmnation of the European Jes in gas cham: irs that completely preclads any acces to what they thous, cr imagined they were thisking m doing what they did. Bu ‘sing to think tough what the Navi themsclves thought alo4 Search fora method prevents us from thinking through whit they did, and cone: {uenly forbid the formation of any real polis that woukl rob the tur of ther acne Along ss Nei hinking not {elf thought through i wil continue to dwell among, Unthougt and thoforeindestrctble "When sme sy casually that what the Nazis did (he eter: mination) ofthe order ofthe enna, oof the ink {hl they Fret someting cra tat the Nazis both shout fnd‘wented what they did with he reste cre, the gest determination. “Tomainsin that Nazis int form of thought, o moe gene erally that barbara doesnot think to abet proces of Su ‘epttous solution, Iris one of the guises taken y today’ Incalecta hegemony, encapaatd in the slogan there ino feat het the Hench cll ls pore unig, Ths relly thing he ori smth on eri, igus wig Foti thinks, barbara doesn, ergo no pl Esti etrtrous The sl sino the logan ode he others evden Barbary ofthe captalat parliamentarians Athich pees oer our cuvent ate In ode to exeape this obi {atone mast sini in and hy the centr testimony, tht Nacional is both splits ana thought Some ll rt: You refute to sce that Nazim — and ssalnsm by pony is abo al figure of Evi’ On the conta, Tinaitia that by idettying them afr of thous (or pol {ia) ts who nly accor! myelé the means to fade them, nd you wh by hypovsrng jadgement end up protecting tee “Sj fact the mor equition that ident the Nei (r Stalin i) anthakable with Bil amounts to nothing more thn feble theology, We have inherited Tong history, afterall hat ofthe theolopeal equation of Evil and noncbelng If ffx, Ea = {Ft ejye a potve ontop tats =i tows that Gol i i cre, ond therefore responsible fori To sbzalve God, Evi tmust be denied say being whatsoever Those wh afi that ‘avs isnot form of thought, or tht it not polit nike thelr democracy’) ply dese the absolution af aking, or of police That is they wish to conceal the deep an secret bond Search for method 5 ‘between the politcal real of Nazim and what they proclaim to be the innocence of dem ‘One ofthe century's truths is that the democracies allied in war against Hitler were more of less unconcerned withthe extermi- nation. Strategically speaking, they were at war with German ‘expansionison, not at all wit the Nazi rege Tactaly speaking (atthe timing ofthe offensive, the choice of bombing targets the commando operations and so on), none oftheir decision aimed spreing fc ting he erermineton Thi wr he case even thov an early dat, they were perfectly aware of wiat was taking place Today we can say the same thing as we witness our democracies ~ utterly humanitarian when it comes to bombing Seria or iraq displaying an almost total ack of concern for the extermination of mills of Africans by AIDS «disease that can and i effectively brought under control in Europe and America, But for reasons of property and economics reasons ste- ring fom commercial law and the peioaty of investments ~ for Imperial reasons, reasons that ae ently thinkable and indeed are thought ~ medication will not be provided For dying Aticans Only for white democrats. In both eases, the century's real problem isto be located in the linkage between democracies’ and that which ater the fac, they designate as their Other ~ the barbarism of which they are wholly ianoceat. What needs to be undone is precisely this discursive procedute of absolution. Only thus wile beable to constr sme rats about heater nd, “The logc of these truths presupposes that we determine their subject, in other words, that we identify the actual operstion at ‘workin the denial ofthis or tht fragment ofthe real That is what Twill attempt to do with regard to the century My idea is that we stick as closely as possible tothe subjectv~ ites ofthe century. Not ast to any subjectivity, but precisely to the kind of subjecaviy that relates to the century itself The goal ‘is to try and sce ifthe phrase ‘twentieth century’ bears a certain pertinence for thinking, in 2 manner that goes beyond mere ‘empirical calculation. Thus, we will adopt a method of maximal Intsiosty. Our aim isnot to judge the ceatury ab an objective datum, but rather to sk how it has come tobe subjectivated. We6 Search fora method wish to grasp the century onthe bass of is immanent prescrip ons to grasp ‘the century’ asa category of the century ite (ur privileged documents wall be the texts (or paintings, or sequences.) which evoke the meaning thatthe century held forts own actors; documents which, while the century was sill tender way, or had only just begun, made ‘century’ into one of their eywords Ta this way, we might manage to replace the passing of judge= ments with the resolution of some problems. The current moral inflation means that, on all sides, the century is being judged land condemned. My aim is not to rehabilitate the century, but “only to think and thus to show how iis thinkable. What should primal arouse our interest not the century's ‘worth’ before a ‘cour of fuman rights whose intellectual mediocrity bears com parison with the juridical and polieal mediocrity ofthe Interns ‘ional Criminal Tabuaal set up by the Americans. Instead, let ws attempt to isolate and work through afew enigmas “To conclude this lesson I will address one of these enigmas whose significance is hard to underestimate. ‘The twentieth century Kicks off in an exceptional fashion. Let us take the two great decades between 1800 and 1914 a the ‘century’ prologue. In every eld of thought these yeas represent {period of exceptional invention, marked by a polymorphous cre- tivity that can only be compared to the Florentine Renaissance fr the century of Pericles It a prodigious period of excite tment and rupture, Consider just a few ofits milestones In 1898, Mallarmé dies, shorly after having published the manifesto of rmadem writing, Un coup de dé jamais... In 1905, Einstein invents special telativty (unless he was anticipated by Poincaré), together with the quantum theory of light. In 1900, Freud pub- lishes The Interpretation of Dreams, providing the psychoanalytic revolution with its first systematic masterpiece. Stil in Vienna, in 1908, Schoenberg establishes the possibility of an atonal musi In 1902, Lenin testes moder polis, a creation set down in What is be Done? This period aso sees the publication ofthe vase novels of James and Conrad, the weting of the bulk of Prousts In Soar of Last Tims, and. the maturation of Joyce's Ulysses. Mathematical logic, inaugurated by Frege, with the con= tribution, among others, of Russel, Hilbert and the young Search for a method 7 ‘Wartgenstein, together with is sister discipline, the philosophy of language, takes hald both on the continent and in the United Kingdom. Now witness around 1912, how Picasso and Braque undermine the logic of painting. Hussel, with soktary obstna tlucidates phenomenological description. In parallel, geniuses Such a6 Poincaré and Hilbert - heirs to Rieman, Dedelind and Cantor — give a new foundation tothe very syle of mathematics Just before the war of 1914, in Portugal, Fernando Pessoa sts some Herculean tasks for poetry. Cinema itelf, having, been invented only recently, finds ite first geniuses in Melts, Grifith and. Chaplin, The list of wonders populating this brief period ‘ould go on and on, But ths period is immediately followed by something rese- bling « long tragedy, whose tone is stblihed by the war of 1914-18: the tragedy of the unfeeling manipulation of human material There is certainly a sprt ofthe thirties Ae we shall ee, itis far from being sterile. But it eas violent and monolithic as the sprit the bepining ofthe century was unbridled end inven tive The sense ofthis succession confronts us with an enigma ‘Or perhaps a problem. Lets ask ourselves thi The tersbe thi ties, fortesor even fifties ~ with their world wars, colonial war, ‘opaque political constructions, vast massacre, gigantic and pre ‘avious undertakings, victories whesecorts are so astronomical one Js tempted to call them defeats ~ is ll thi in relation (or noa- relation) withthe luminous, creative, and civilized inception that the first years ofthe century seam to represent? Between these toro periods, there is the war of 1914, So what ie the meaning of ‘this war? Of what is tthe res, ofthe symbol? There s no hope of resolving this problem unless we keep in mind that the blessed period before the war iz azo that of the fapogce of colonial conguest, of Europe's stranglehold over the entirety of the earth o very neal. And therefore that elsewhere, far away but also very close to everyone's cnscienc, in the mi of every family servitude and massacre are alteady present Well before the war of 1914, there is Afics, delivered over to what Some rare witnesses snd artists wil call an upright conquering Savagery* I myself gaze with dread upon that Larousse dictionary of 1932, passed on to me by my parents wherein, under the heading - viewed as universally unproblematic ~ of the hierarchy8 Search fora method ‘of races, the skull ofthe black man is postioned between that of the gor, on the one hand, andthe European, onthe athe. “After two or three centuries of the deporttion of human meat forthe purpose af slavery, conquest managed to turn Alfie into the horrific obverse of European, capitalist, democratic splendour. ‘And thie continues to our very day In the dark Fury of the thie ties inthe indifference to deat, there s something that certainly ‘originates in the Great War and the trenches but also something that comes as a srt of infernal return ~ from the colonies from ‘the way that the differences within humanity were envisiged ddven there. [Let us grant that our century isthe one ~as Malaux put it~ in which politics turned into tragedy. What was i at the begin: ring ofthe century, during the golden inauguration of the bile poaue that prepared this vision of thing? Basically, rom certain Point onwards, the century was haunted by the idea of changing fan, of creating a new man. It's trae tht this idea circulates between the varius fatcisms and commaniss, chat thei statues sre more or les the same: on the one hand, the proletarian stand {ng atthe threshold of an emancipated world, on the other, the exemplary Anjan, Siegfried bringing down the dragons of deca- dence. Creating new humanity aways comes down to demand- ing thatthe old one be destroyed, A violent, uneconciled debate rages about the nature ofthis old humanity. But each and every time, the project sso radial that in the course of its realization the singulaty of human lives is aot taken into account. There is rothing there but a material. ile ike the way in which, for practitioners of medem ar, sounds and forms torn from their tonal or fgurtive harmony, were nothing but materials whose destination needed to be entirely recat. Or like the way formal signs, divested of any objective idealization, projected mathe- matics towards an automated completion. In this sense, the projet ofthe new man sa project of rupture and foundation that, ‘sustains — within the domain of history and the sate ~ the same subjective tonality asthe scent, artistic and sexual ruptures of the beginning of the century, Hence itis possible to argue that the centry has been faithful to its prologue. Feraciowsly fait Search for @ method 9 What is intriguing ib Ut today thee categorie dead sei toa ened an eh hl Sreation ofa new ma. On he contr, what we hear Rom ll Sits che demand forthe conservation ef old pany and of al endangered species tbo (our snient wheat ined) when ts precisely today withthe advent of genetc engineer ing tht preperation sre unde ay for al tapering of ‘nan, forthe modicaton ofthe specs What males he i ference that genetics ¥ profoundly spolialT tink Icould spe yo ea ha da eet ough, bu, a bes, technique Thani precy passion, represents nothing les than the forsaking of any novely that could be ascribed to man. And this as I aleady sid, is hap pening at the very moment when 2 total transformation of hhumansty ~ realized through blind manipulations and financial transtctions~ isin the offing. “Truth be told, it i not the Weological dimension of the theme of the new man that is operant in the twentieth cen- tury. What impassions subjects and mints i the historicity of the new man, For we find ourcives in the real moment of com- rmencement. The nineteenth century announced, dreamed, and promised; the twentieth century declared it would make man, ere and now ‘This is what I propose to all the passion for the real.” I'm con= vince it provides the key to understanding the century There is 2 conviction, laden with pathos, that we are being summoned to the real ofa beginning. "The real, a all key players of the century recognize i the source of both horror and enthusiasm, simsltaneousy lethal and ‘retive. What s certain is that it s~ as Nietrsche splendidly put {Beyond Good and Evil-Any conviction about the rel advent fof e new man is characterized by a steadfast indifference to its cost this indiference legitimate the most violent means. If what {sat stake ithe new man the man ofthe past may very well turn ‘out to be nothing but disposable material Tor todays well-tempered morals, which is nothing but the endorsement of arepic crimes ~ backing virtuous wars or deco= ous profits ~ the short century, the century of revolutionary politics assembled under the equivocal arse of communism’, was barbarous because its pasion forthe real placed it beyond good and evi For example, n stark opposition between politic and ‘morality But from the inside, the century was lived 8s cpic and heroic. Reading the liad, we are forced to acknowledge that it consists of an uninterrupted succession of massacres But in ts movement 54 poem this s not presented as barbarous, but instead as epic and heroic The century has been a subjective Iliad ~ even if barbarity hae often beea acknowledged and condemned, wally by the other camp. Whence a certain indifference with regard 19 the objective signs of cruelty It isthe same indifference that we inhabit when reading the liad, because the force of the action ‘overrides ini intensity any moral squesmishness Some famous literary examples testify to. this subjective relation vs-i-vs the most barbaross episodes of the century, relation which is aestheticized by epic fling As regards the war ‘of 1914, we can refer to the way TE. Lawrence, in The Seon Pillars of Wisdom (1922), describes the horrific scenes, not just ‘the opposing camp (the Turks massaring all the villagers), but ‘also in is oven, when the cry of no quarter’ rises to his own lips, ‘and no prisoness will be taken, all the wounded wil be finished ‘off Nothing in these acts i justified ~on the contrary ~ but they Ihelong to the epic How of the Arab war. On the side of revol tions, we can cite Malraux's Man's Hope (1937), in particular those passes when, discussing the Spanish wat, Malraux re- ‘counts and comments spon the practice of torture and summary ‘executions, not only in Franco's camp but also among the Repu lican forces. Once again, everythings carried aay bythe popu34 The wreconeiled epic greatness of the resistance. Using his own categories, Malraux treats the dijunctive synthesis in terms ofits most opaque aspect the figure of History as destiny the atrocities themselves cannot provide the situation with amoral meanings because, aia the atu Nietzsche borrowed from the Stoic, we've moved beyond all considerations of this kind. The idea i that in intense st tions everyone must meet their fate and face up tot just as one rust face upto the beat-century in Mandelstam’s poem. Fo, as “Malraux sys, Spain, led white bythe war, becomes conscious of itself in such a way that every actor the drama partakes in this consciousness. Atrocities ate ony a feature of this revelation, to the extent that what reveals History as destiny is almost inva ably the experience of wat. ‘This brings me to what, after the pasion forthe real, is without doubt the principal characterization of the century: the century of war This does not simply mean that the century i fll up 0 the present day - of brutal was, but that it has unfolded undor the paradigm of war. “The fundamental concepts through which the century has come to think tslf or its own creative energy’ have all been sub- ‘ordinate to the semantics of war Note that we are not dealing ‘with war in Hegel's sense. the Napoleonic wae For Hegel, war {ea constitutive moment in the selEconsciousness of « people War creates consciousnes, national consciousness in particular ‘Twentieth-century warfare is not of thie type; the twentieth century's ides of war i that of the decisive wat of the last war For the whole word, the war of I9T4-18 isthe bad war, the Iheinous war that must never again take place ~ whence the expression “the last of the as’. It absolutely imperative that 1914-18 be the last war ofthis bad type. The question has become ‘that of putting an end tothe world that brought forth the heinous war The ony thing that can put an end to war is wa, but i wil hhave tobe another type of war. The reason fr this is that between 1918 and 1939 peace isthe sime thing as war. No one believes, sn this peace, Another war is necessary, a war that will rly be the last ‘Mao Tsetung is a typical bearer ofthis conviction. He led a war for more than twenty yeas, fom 1925 to 1949. He renewed The unreccled 3s cently the thinking of the relationship between war and politics In a text from 1936, Steele Problems of Revolutionary ‘War iv China, he develops the notion that in order to obtain perpetual peace a new war must be invented. Ordinary war the kind of war that pits the curent holders of power against fone another, must be countered by a neve war, organized by pro= Tetaians and farmers, a war that Mao preciely calls ‘revli tionary war’ Prior to Mao, and even in Lena's thought, war and revolution were contrary terms, making a complex dialectical situation. At Sylvain Lazar has exhaustively shown, itis with reference tothe {question of war that Lenin separates politial subjectivity from Istrical consciousness, eemarking, i the spring of 1917, that war is-a clear given, while polities remains obscure” The Maoist theme of revolutionary war establishes an enscly different dis- tinction juxtaposing two different kinds of war, which are linked ‘organically to two different politics. On this basis itis up to (the palitcally just) war to put an end to (politically unjut) wars Con- Sider the following text fiom 1936, taken from Stratgi Probloms of Revolutionary War in China: ‘War, this monster that makes nen kl one anther, wl aly be climinsted by the development of human society, and this val Insppen na fire that not remote, But ino to suppress war there i: ony one path To oppose Wat to wa to opps revel tionary war to counterrevolutiongry war... Once bum Society wil atin the suppression of chines an the suppression the State, dere willbe no more wars ~ nether evolutionary nr ‘ountenrevolutionary, nether fst nor aj Thi wl be the er ‘of perptea peace for humanisy By sadyng the lows of real onary wat, estat from the aspzation to suppress ll wars; bet llr the difrence between us communis und the representatives ofall the expanatve cases ‘And again two years later, in Problems of War and Strategy: Wie are forthe abolition of wars we do not want war But war can nly be abolished by war In order that there Beno more sles we ‘ust ake up rile36 ‘The wnrconiled ‘This theme of 2 total and fnal war to end all was underlies all those moments, which punctuste the century, in which the ‘definitive’ setlement ofa given problem is an object of convic- tion, The dark form, the atrocious and extremist form taken by this conviction is doubles t he found in the ‘final solution’ of the supposed “Tewish problem’, decided by the Nazis at the ‘Wannsee conference. This mutderous extremism cannot be ‘entirely separated from the ies = widely held in all domains of thought and action ~ that problems allow for an ‘absolute’ solution. (One of the century’s obsessions was that of obtaining some- thing definitive, One ean observe this obsession at work even in the most abstract regions of scence. lust think of the mathemat- jeal endeavour that goes by the name of Bourbak, which seks to build a mathematical monument that wil be integrally foemal- ‘aed, complete and definitive. In art, itis thought that by putting sn end to the relativity of imitations and representations absolute fr wil be attained, the art that shows itself integrally a5 art an fr that ~ taking sown proces sits object ~ is the exposition fof what is artic in art; the articulation, within art, of the end of art itself. In shor: the last work of art, im the form of art tun- worked. Tn every instance we can see that this longing forthe definitive is realized as the beyond of a destruction. The new man is the destruction of the old man. Perpetual peace is achieved through the destruction ofthe old wars by total war. By means ‘of an integral formalization, the monument of ‘completed science destroys the old scientific intuitions. Modem art brings the relative univere of representation to ruin. A fundamental couple is at work here, that of destruction and the definitive Once agein, this i 2 non-dlectcal couple, a disjunctive synthesis That is because destruction does not produce the definitive, which means that we are faced with two very distinct tasks: to destroy the old, and to create the new. War lel i 2 non-dalectial juxtaposition of appalling destruction, fom the one hand, and the benity of victorious heroism, on the other i | | ‘The woweconcied 7 Uismaely che problem of the cetuy isto cen the onde conjunction ofthe tome ofthe ed and that of Begining Ending ad ‘png’ re wo ter tay wthin the cen, emai urease ‘The toda forthe on tecinlaton is war ttl and dein fre war which plays three man fetes: a) puts on cn othe pony ofthe bad way the wees or ensntive vat whove models the war of 19118, We mst prot lan Beach voces ele comment cay ave factor with sory. (0) Kewl ley the andar for one histo and planet sy orice Unle the war of 14, ths wai ot pe operation of the Se; iti a subjective etaiment. Ths war ea sects ease tha pnestes new ope of bo twa that oa te re ‘on of ts combatant Io the cdr war bears « subjective pantign. Te contr bas orm ‘ambaive conception of Science, meaning that the toy oa in exch of ts real fragments — mst be represented a confi Whatever tse prt or pantry, erry lsat cans conto th, wa Th the teenth century, the shared lo of the wood i acer the One nor the Malipe itb the ‘Te Its nt the ne, been’ there no birnoty, ao. hepemoay of the Spl no oie power of God eno the Nelle, bcase itiotsquerton of btning + lance of powers os harmony ticles sth andthe word preyed the modal iy of the Two exclude the poly of both unanimous ‘musi and cometary elitr, One singly mst rae “The whole world thins that he ety wll dee that el sae sre This the yt the entry subject A the entry shows, mn pes contre Capac to invent he ‘wo. War ithe Two esate vil, opposed to my comb Any equ, Hela ths rape hn er bommoroent But he wo antec farbous» nowt de juncion, without synths We need to invest how th38 ‘The uncon paradigm is prosent in aesthetics, inthe relation ofthe sexes, in technical aggressiveness "The century's beast, invoked by Mandelstam, i nothing other ‘than the omnipresence of sition. The passion of the century is ‘he ral but the real is antagonsm. That is why the pasion ofthe century ~ whether # be @ question of empires, revolutions, the tts the sciences or private lfe~ is nothing other than war ‘What isthe century”, the century asks itself And i replies: "The final steugse’ 13 January 1999 4 A new world. Yes, but when? ‘To summarize: the century’s subjectivity, prey to the passion for the real and placed under the paradigm of definitive war stages 2 non-daleccal confrontation between destruction and founda ton, for the sake of which it thinks both totality and the sight- st of its fragments inthe image of antagonism, and posits that the cipher of the ral is the Two. ‘Today we wil filter this phrase, so to speak, through a text by Brecht, 9 that it may take its fll force and colour. ‘Whether we think of him ss a writer, playwright, Marxist alectician, fellow traveller of the Party or ladies’ man, Brecht is an emblemasc figure of the twentieth century. There are a ‘number of reasons for this, fou of which Ill foreground here Brecht is German, a theatre director, a communist and a contem- porary of Nazism, (2) Brecht sa German who begins writing inthe immediate post- ‘war period n that astonishing Weimar Germany which i all the ‘more creative in thats endures the German trauma, the traame ‘which, als, wil reveal self to go far deeper than mere defeat Brecht is one ofthe artists who best capture Germany's identity isi He will settle his score with the Germany that has just ‘emerged ffom the war of "14 ina kind of frenzied trance, Infact, Brecht is one of those Germans despertely sriving to produce ¢thinkiag of Germany that would be entirely purged of| romanticism and wholly withdsswn from the grip of Wognerian mythology (which has less todo with Wagers genius than with0 Anew world. Yes but when? its appopriton by pete bourse resetmone:the harkropt Shopkeeper in mp staainghinal for Seghed In Kaver helmet) The qual with romantica, sete pushed tthe treemes of ao-luait seal, one of the century’ conte mou inthis conten, Brecht ete tars towards France. One che decisive fre or the young Brecht Rumba. In Balad Inthe ge of Cher ome Bde ines hy Rim ety incor prorated oto the text. This beens, according fo Brecht, the Tfortune of the Geman Her in having to wre withthe aly of a lnguage perenlyfrned towards the ate rae oF th bie bret eal eightenth-cemary Fen, lane funge atone fs and sence ~ Diderot French or exemple Ents pin, son many other Brest isa clover dnc of Niewote than of Mare Nicsche to wanted tomar Pench Tews upon the Garman tongue mich in he ay that e mi ‘Siovusy claimed top for Bic pint Wagner Al hs exer ‘Suna workol Genneny spon heal again heel iva to he con's der (2) Brecht’ fate i ed above all to the theatre, Throughout his Tie he was a witer and practitioner of the theatre, proposing and experimenting fundamental reforms in dramatury), both ia his ‘writing and in what concern ating and mise en sone. Now, itcan ‘be argued (and this isan important symptom) thatthe twentieth century is the century of the theatre a art. It isthe twentieth entry that invented the notion of the mise om soine, It tense Formed the thinking of sepresentation into an art in its own right. Copeay, Stanisavell, Meyerhold, Craig, Appi, Jouvet and Brecht = and then Vilar, Vite, Wilson and many others ~ turned what ‘was merely the placement of representation into an independent fart, These men brought to the fore a type of artist whose art ‘belongs neither to tha of the writer nor to tht of the performer, ‘but who ereates instead, in bath thought and space, a mediation between the twa. The theste director i something like a thinker of representation a such, who caries outa very complex inves- tigation into the relationships between text, acting, space and publi A new world. Yes, but when? 4 ‘Why docs this invention ofthe thestricl mise en soine take place in our century? Brecht, one of the theatre's great artsy, ds- playing a eave preoccupation with both text and acting, war alo committed to-a reflection upon the contemporariness of the theatre. For instance, he interrogated himself about the theati- calty of polities, about the role of representation, of staging, the construction of poiteal consciousness What are the manifest figures of polities? Debate on this point is very lively inthe period between the two wars especially apropor of fascism. Walter Benjamin's emphatic theses are well knoven: The (Fascist) ace- ‘thetcization of polities must be opposed by the (revolutionary) politicization of rt. Brecht goes even further, doubling theoret- cal reflection with effective experimentation, with an artistic lnvention. But he shares the conviction that a singular bond exists between theatrics and politics ‘What is this theatcs Linked 10? Probably to the new role accorded to the masses within historical action following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Consider Tots's formula acord ‘ng to which what characterizes our epoch isthe ruption of the masses onto the stage of Histon’ The image of the stage is very Steking. The categories of revotion, proletariat and fascism all refer to figures of massive ieruption, to potent collective repre ‘entations to scenes that have been rendered immoral whether ‘we're talking about the taking of the Winter Palace or the March fon Rome. The same question is repeatedly brandished- What Js the relationship between the fate of the individual and the Iiswical eruption of the masses? But the question can also be rephrased as follows: Who i the actor of which play, and on ‘what sage? Brecht asks himself how the relationship between personal fate (the characte) and impersonal historical development (the ‘massive iruption) can be represented, depicted and theatrically eployed. Tes heze that the twentieth cenry returns to the ques tion af the chorus and the protagonist, shoving tht its theatre is ‘more Greek than Romantic The iaventiveness and progres in the ‘mis en scine ate spurred on by this Greck inspiration. In the twen~ tieth century, theatre is more than just putting on plays For better2 A now world. Yes, but when? ‘or wore its stakes seem to have changed: i is now a question of collective historical elucidation Lacking s conviction ofthis calibre, the mise on sone may find itself doomed in the present day, as the old ways make their return tothe stage: «good text, some good actors ~ thats enough! Please stop boring us with politcal consciousness or the Grecks "Regardless ofthe play ~ whether it be ancient or modem for Brecht it must always be interrogated about the relationship between character ad hstrial destiny How can one represent the development of subject while at the same time elucidating the play of forces that constitutes it, but which is also the space of ie volition and its choices? Brecht is certain thatthe theatre ‘must change, that t munt be something besides the self-celebr tion ofsspectating bourgeoisie “Today too there isa widespread belief that the theatre must changeit must become the celebration of moral and democratic ‘consensus, sort of morose chorus chanting the world’s enhappi fess and its humanitarian remedy, No hero, no conflict oF tes, ‘no thought ~ nothing but unanimous bodily emotion. ‘Brecht and his contemporaries pondered the nature of acting and character, They reflected on how the character ~ who does ‘ot preexist theatrical circumstances is constructed in the play, ‘whith is above alla play of forces We are neither inthe realm of paychology nor in that of the hermeneutics of meaning, neither famid language games nor within the Parousia of the body. The theatre it» device forthe construction of truths. (5) Brecht adhered to the communist movement, even though, Hike many men of the theatre (Ihave in mind the singular com ‘unisn of Antoine Viter or Berard Sobel), he always found ways of making this commitment litle tangential or diagonal. These people ofthe theatre were frends ofthe Party in a manner that ‘war simultaneously very sincere and not very sincere a all. The theatre is a good place wherein to practise these acrobatics What Jsboth certain and sincere s that Brecht makes Marxism or com> ‘munism into a condition for the question of the being of art "What is didactic ar, an art at the service of popula hii, 2 proletarian art, et? Brecht is surely « pivotal figure in these A new world, Yes, but when? a8 debates. But he is also a great artist, whose works are still performed everywhere today, when debates about the dalectic ‘between thestre and polities have withered away. Without doubt, Brecht isthe most wniveral and most indsptable among those arte who explicitly lnked ther existence and creativity to so called communist politic, 4 Brosh encountered the problem of Nazism in Germany He was struck with fll foe bythe question ofthe posit of ‘Nin, the polity of ts succeed this question in numerous esays and plays, sich as Art Us, from whence «comes the famous (and dubious) formula: "The bitch that bore Im is in ea gun Tsay dubious Because eas the Nex sin flr asa stuctrl consequence of state fafa and of uy jects not the most promising wy of gennely thinking through this singularity Even vy withthe meanest is poe and facing ie deel Brecht alumately ued wo produce a ened theatrical didactic that could acess He's to power By way of cone Sequence, he lived through the Second World Wa as an ole ‘Azsin, this sone of those points where Brecht adheres stonaly tothe century = this centry for which the figure of the exe ‘See a evealed byt novel and especially by We works of Eich Mara Remarque’" Theres an enrely specie subjecuty of eal. This is particularly tue ofthe exle to the United State, where numerous German intellectuals banished by Nazim resided. Thse artists, writer musians and sient made up & ‘small word, which was extemely active but also divided and nce, As far as Brecht 8 concerned, we should note that ‘Ameria had log been source of smsement, scinatig hin with its shy moderity, its pragmatism and is techological vial. Among other things Brecht was also good Earopean ‘wine of the Usted States Final, we should reall hat he wat {man who in the German Democratic Republic experienced Social reais a its most voluntarti and inflexible There he brctme an offi figure of sort but not withost sft, tortuous prehension and thus from any subordination to the power of the ‘orm. From this point of view the attestation ofan ‘ontology’ ofthe sexual (the sexual such as iti, with ts ‘rgans and fanetions’) Serves indeed to support an emancipation of judgement Lite by ltl, whether it wants to or not, psychoanalysis will accompany the witheriag away of the explicit norms which had hitherto organized the knowledge of sextality By thinking the face-to-face ‘with sexuality as the un-knovn of every form of thought, pycho- analysis acorded it a status, we might even say nobility, which none ofthe ancient norms could countenance. ‘Oa this point, Feud is aware of his own originality, of his courage, and he assumes the face-toface between thought and sexuality a5 a genuine break 2) 1 do not hesitate to discuss it with a young woman, The {question of femininity -of the autonomy of feminine sexality and its effects ~ is one of the principal upheavals tat psychoanalysis simultaneously provokes accompanies and ends upfllowing rom 4 certain distance In the case of Dor, however, its more a ques tion of listening to (o following tthe eter what young git has tosay about sex than of discussing’ it with her That sbecase this ascent prychoanalysisis above all the decision tolisten to what the Inysteric says without immediately turning into rome sort of| saree the ind tht sites betyeea mere anes nd witch jrnings. Freud seeks to abide in the harowing labyrinth ofthis Inysteric speech, even venturing nt the arcana of founding x ality and thereby creating a new cegion of thought. That women ‘ed not he sheltered fom this form of thought ~ quite the cow tary ~is attested toby the sheer numberof female psychoanalyst, from the dawn of the discipline onwards. Thus begine the long history, within the century ofthe metamorphosis of sexuality This ‘mectamorphosis is mainly brought about by the explicit integrationn Sex in ots Sex in erie B of thought’s feminine dimension, and, some time later, of what is properly creative in the expression ofits homosexual component. ‘Of couse, psychoanalysis was not elone in bringing this about. But itis enough to read th case of Dora tose how, in 1905, Freud was bby no means lagging behind, (8) The formula with which Freud declares his claim to have a ‘ore modest role than that ofthe gynaecologist introduces us to the defensive strategy, The gynaecologist is the one srho stains the theme of a purely objective relation to the avatars of sex [Not for nating ithe State today pushing for his disappearance Sheltered by the abjecivity ofthe gynaecologist’ elation to sex, millions of women have found ways of secretly defending certain bodily zones of their subjecivtion. Ths is what the modem ceconamy cannot abide, according to its incontrovertible rationale If its objective, its measure is cost, and the specialization is too cosy. Go ee your general practitioner IF is subjective it docsn’t exit, end, more to the poiat, should not cost anything. Do without it Or consider it a luxury. Take the plane and have your consultation in Los Angeles, This isthe law of our world which decrees tha what i objec: tive must align its costs with the market, whilst what is subjec- ‘ive must not exist as anything other than an unattainable luxury ‘Be that as may, when Freud lays claims to the role of gynac- cologist, he strongly de-subjectvates the entanglement that binds his thought tothe sexualized speech ofthe young hysteric ‘Anyway, wht exact does he mean by ‘more modes’ rights? That Dora shouldn't strip? Freud knows perfectly well that to consider sexuality from the side of its efficacy in the constitution of a subject involves « (temporary) nudity that medical undressing ‘could never match, "At the dawn ofthese transformations, we can indeed witnes Freud hesitating about which version of them he intends to make public Should he adopt the model of mesial objectivity, which has always registered oth body and sex? Or is ita question of “subversive subjecivation, bearing on the sexual narvative and is effects, fom which nothing ~ not femininity as itis ordinarly tundesstood, not the unnameable pleasure, and especially not the petive individualism, was fraternity “Through his poetc fiction, Saint John Perse stages the idea that the axiom of faterity is ony valid fora real adventure, for a his- toric exploit that creates its subject precisely asa fraternal subject, as subject chat emerges fom the plralization ofthe T' and the ‘Sngularzation of the ‘Wwe. That i Why Anabasi recounts a con- ‘qucring cavalcade on the high plateaus of legend Buty all of @ sudden, the notion of fraternity becomes more ‘complex. What is the protocol whereby the we’ isdeimited? The cavalcade through this imaginary Mongolia mest obviously cut through adversity ie mast invent is enems."The T’ only expands {nto awe’ atthe approach of war and that is why the journey is not enough. The praise ofthe “Traveller inthe yellow wind’ only ‘becomes meaningful inthe formula that closes the text ‘A great principle of vielence dictated our fashions’ Violence is the Ihorizon required by wandering, For wandering to be the equivar lent of the "great seleucd histories’ one must come % the ‘whistling of slings’. Os, better stil: the principle of knowledge and litigation (the carth given over to explanations is worthless lnless i is accompanied by the prise of hostility (in avhom hatreds sang now and then lke tomtits'). By the same token, the ‘roads of the world’ and the Tand of grass without memory’ — indices of the most total freedom ~ are accompanied by a sor of grandiose despotism (‘authority overall the signs of the earth’) Moreover the fact that atrocity is one of the resources of the journey, an obligatory episode of the anabasi is emphasized in Several of the poem's images ~ for example: ‘And the linen cexpored to dry scatters! like a priest tom to pieces Fraternity as equivalence ofthe and the ‘we’ the inherent violence of the journey; the reciprocity between wandering and ‘command: these ae the dominant motifs of» century spared by snabasis92 Anabasis (2) All hiss accompanied by an interrogation regarding finality, by a doubt about meaning in short, by « kind of riilsn that ‘tcves to remain serene What i explicit is that chee ea vacant consciousness at work in these adventures: "To the scale of our hearts was such vacance completed!” The destination of the ansba- sis is nothing but a sort of negative fiction, The questi for a place where the signs of space and time have been abolished, a great Tand of grass without memory’, onthe one hand, ‘the unconfined ‘unreckoned year, on the other ts this nihilism that brings Perse's solemn poetry into dislogue with the century's awarenes of itself as a pure and violent move- ‘ent, movement whose outcome i uncertain. The subject rep- resents itself as a kind of wandering, and represents this wandering 2s valid in and of itself That nomadic wandering, as Perse says should be the principle atthe heart af man, even in its absence isan apt geographic and wayfaring metaphor for an epoch proud of being thot secur. ‘We must understand why, a the hear of the century, repeated lsoppointments did not in any way sndermine the comma dering power of movement. This i particularly hard to under stand today, when everyone is signing up to a costly insurance policy against any potential diseppointment, even the kind that results from a few drops of rain durin the summer vacation, That is beeaus the century’s militants, whether in politi science, the ats or any other pasion, think that man is realized not ae a fule filment, a5 an eutcome, but as absent to himself, torn away from what he i and that its this tearing away which i the basis of every adventurous greatness I Perse belongs to the century iis because he gives poetic form to the lnk between the obligation of greatness and the ‘vacance’ of wandering. ‘The twentieth century i nota programmatic century ike the nineteenth. [tis not a century’ of promise, Within ft, one accepts Inadvance that a promise may not be kept, hata programme may ‘not be actualized in any way, Because movement alone is the source of greatness Saint-John Perse identifies the noble figures of| ‘what consigns the heart of man to the victorious denial of What is Perse esuiblihes the poetic value ofthe abrence to sl, independently of any destination. I is @ matter of conquering Anabasis 93 tunbinding, the end of bonds, the absence to self of the tunbound. tsi this direction that the century was more deeply Marxist ‘than it imagined, faithful to a Marx related to Nietsche, the Marx ‘who announces in the Manifesto the end ofthe old customs, that Js the end of the ald tes of allegiance and stability. Capital’ for- rmidable force les in its dissolution ofthe most sacred contacts fd the most immemorial liances ‘in the icy water of egotistical Calculation’. Capital declares the end ofa cilization founded on the bond. And itis tr that the twentieth century sought ~ beyond the purely negative force of Capital ~ an order without bond an unbound collective power, so as to restore humanity to fis veritable creative power Whence its watchwords, which are also those of Perse: violence absence, wandering. “Through learned privative expressions the poet captured this nile but creative wish fora purely wayfring order, a frater- nity without destination, a pure movement. Hence the ‘remite Deas (betes sans alles, or ‘the prevarications of the sky against the earth’ The only companions of the man of greatness fare ‘these high waterspoute on the march’ All this dese it re- capitulated in the admirable oxymoron: ‘nomad laws ) Lastly, we encounter in Perse an assertion that seems expe cially obscure today: thet ofthe superiority of nomad grestness ‘over happiness. Tis is pushed so fr as to cast doubt on the very value of happiness. The expression ‘the gelded words of happi- snes (recs that» gelder i a specialist in the castration of orses) scems to indicate that for the man of anabasis, even where la- ‘guage is concerned, the obsesion with happiness constitutes & ‘mutation This is why the poet demands that we ‘ase our whip! gunst the words of happiness. For us, red hedonists ofthis end ‘of the century, which al greatness seems to shun this is indeed & provocative stance, “The active violent, or even terrorist nil of the century which makes itself heard even in the high poetry of our ambar- Sado, s far closer to Kant than the contemporary dyad of sati- faction and chanty. For it holds tht the desire for happiness 1S what prohibits greatness. And, in a word, that in order to34 Anabasis Arabs 95 undertake the nomad adventure woven ‘with dawns and heavenly fires to shed some clarity on ‘the darknes ofthe spirit, one must Fear to be content with a ‘swaying of gras’ and meditate upon absence, Perhaps then, in the evening, one vail consent to be sz by the legal Itsicaton proud by the sed of the Forty years on, where do we stand regarding anabasis? What docs Paul Celan have to say tous inthe wake of Nazism and the war? To the question (Who speaks”, the poem answers ‘No one ‘There is jst Voice sn anonymous voice the poem tunes ito, Almost contemporaneoualy, Becket, in Company, begins with 'A voice comes to one in the dark’. Pere made the and the ‘we! ‘equivalent, but in Celan's poem as in Becket’ prose there is no longer ether an‘T or we. There i just a voice trying to trace 2 way. In the bre alms sent lines of the poem, se distant as possible fom Perse's ample verse, this voice, which isthe tace of 1 vay, will murmur what the anabess ~ the ‘Upward and Back, tn altogether exact ransltion ofthe verb averpewety— ist doce ‘9 right at the beginning of the poem, with theee Fagle and almort improbable connections ‘narrow siga, “impassiblestrue’, "tothe heart-bright fate ‘What is thus murmured i the possibilty of a pat, the path of 4 sensible clearing (hear-height'). For Saint-John Pere, the path is the open in space; a he says at che beginning of Anabact is ‘given over to our horses this sedles earth. There tno problem ‘ofthe path, Instead, Celan asks himself Is there a path? His reply willbe that yes, there undoubtedly is 2 path — narrow between walls"~ but that, ue as this may be, and, indeed, to the degree that iis tru, sis impassable ‘We are on the other side of the century, The only thing that «pic niilism, in ts Nazi figure, has been able to create fa slavgh- {erhouse. From nove on itis impossible to dwell naturally in the epic element asf nothing had happened. Buti there iso inme= late epi interpretation, what is snabasis? How can we practise the ‘Upward and Back” (On this point, Celan brings the maritime dimension into play: the Greeks “The seal The sea!” The anabasis begin with & mar= time call. In some ports there are beacons that emit sound when the tide gocs out. The sound of these beacons, these ight belliounde, the sad sounde of the ‘sorrow-buoye’, together ‘compose a littoral moment of signal, a call. For andbass this Is the moment of peril and beauty "The meaning of this image is that anabass requires the other, the voice of the other Assuming the call ~ its enigma ~ Celan breaks withthe theme of an empty and self-sufficient wandering Something must be encountered. The maritime images function a indices of alert. We could say that the theme of alkenty replaces the theme of fratemity, Where fraternal violence was ‘once the supreme value, we now have the minimal diflerence of| the breath of the other, the call of the buoy, the “dum-, dun, tun’ which evokes one of Mozart's motets (unde suspirat co), as iF to prove that the nigh imperceptible poverty of the call can carry the highest signification. Everything is constructed so a8 to acrve, in and through these ‘released, redeemed” sounds of cll to this ‘our’ that is n0 longer the we’ of the epic How are we to make alterty ours? ‘That is Celan’s question’ difference makes iteelf heard, andthe problem sto make it ours Its only t the extent that we succeed in doing this that an anabass will have taken place. There ss neither internalization nor appropriation. There is no substantial- ination ofthe "we" into an There isa pure cal, an almost mmper- ceptible difference that must be made our own, simply because wwe have encountered it The difclty ~ present, is tre, in every anabasis ~is that nothing precexists this attempt, that nothing has prepared the round fori. We are nether a home nor have we embarked on 5 path that hs already been explored. We are in what constitutes fn admirable nomination ofthe anabass as well a ofthe entire ‘century: far ut / nto the unnavigated And iis precisely here, atthe point of unknowing and bewilderment, cht the ‘Upward 1nd Bale must be undertake; iis here that we stake our claim ‘of one day being able to tun towards the heart-brght ature’ Tt fs here that che anabasis is invented. ‘What i thereby created in the movement of anabasis is not a wesubject, t18 the tent-/ word growing free: / Together” A96 Anabasi cord is a sheltering word. One can hold fast ia the shelter ‘together, but there is no faternal fusion: Celan's wes pot ant Through the becoming-ours of an almost imperceptible cal, the anabasis is the advent as togetherness of a "we! that isnot ant “Thus the century is witnesto «profound mutation ofthe ques- tion of the ‘we! There was the "we" of frsterity the "we" that in the Critique of Dialectical Rewson (published let us note, atthe time that Celan was writing Anabas) Sartre characterized terrorfateriy. This ‘we! that has the Tas its teal and for which there is no other alterity than that of the adversary. The ‘word is given over to this errant and victorious ‘we. Adorned by Sumptsods shetori, this figure is at workin Suint-lo Ferse’s nomad adventurer This "wer is valid as such; it doesnot need to receive its destination from elsewhere. In Celan, the we" Is not subject tothe idea of the, because the difference i included within i, asthe almost imperceptible eal. The ‘we’ enjoys an aleatory dependence on an anabass that reacends ~ outside of any pre-existing path ~ towards thi together that sil harbours ater From the end of the seventies onwards, the century has bequeathed to us the following question: What isa "we that i not subject tothe ideal of an‘T, a ‘we’ that does not pretend to be a subject? The problem isnot to conclude from this that every living colletve is over, thatthe ‘we has purely and simply dis: appeared. We refs to join the agents ofthe Restoration in saying ‘hat all cher sae individuals in competition for happiness, and ‘hat all active fraternity i suspect. ‘Cela, for his par helds onto the notion of togetherness “Together let us not, was the mai, strange logan of the demon stration of December 1995 in France. There rally was no athe, ‘or at eat none that constituted an invention, that had the power to give a mame to the anabasi ofthe demonstrators And it was rot a word used in vain, In quiet litle towns ike Roanne, on Sever occasions more than half the population joined in the demonstrations simply to say: ‘All together, all together, yeah" (Tous ensemble, ous ensemble owas). That because today, every- Anabace 7 thing that isnot already mired in comruption ese the question of where awe! could originate that would not be prey to the deal ‘of the fusional, quas-mitary that dominated the century's adventure; "we that would freely convey its own immanent die parity without thereby dissolving sselE What docs Wwe’ mean in times of peace rather than war? How are we to move from the Featemal ‘we’ ofthe epic to the disparate we’ of togetherness of the set, without ever giving up on the demand that there be a ‘we? I too exist within this question,12 January 2000 9 Seven variations Today, we endute the dominance of an artificial individualism. fn 1995, in France, millions of demonstrators rallied behind one slogan: Together” ~ Celan's own tent-word; propaganda responds ‘with the ‘evidence’ ofthe individual in the competitive search for success and happiness Even in the literary world, the joint pro- duction of biographies and autobiographies saturates the market Nothing is considered to be worthy of interest except what the Chinese, who adoce lists, would have called ‘the thee relations the relation to money, the relation to economic and social succes, and the relation to sex, The rest is nothing but archal abstrac- tion, and most likely totalitarian What i ‘modern’ the generl- ination of the aforementioned three relations into fully edged go-ideals Behold then not what is, but what ~ with a sore of wie btu = thy are ig pose poe a what ‘We should atleast beware that, far fom pertaining, sit laims, to. nature of things and subjects democratiealy inserted in the ‘media, this propaganda represents an acto forcing brought about ‘through the extraodinarlly brutal inversion of everything tht the century desired and invented, Whatever it often viclently oppce- ing variants may have been, the curent of thought that effectively stamped its seal on the epoch now coming to 8 close maintained that every authentic subjectivation is collective, and that every vigorous intellectuality implies the construction ofa ‘we. That is because it deemed that a subject necessarily measured by its historicity. In other words, the subject is what resonates, in its composition, with the power ofan event This sone of the forms Seven variations 99 taken by what I've called the pasion for the real: the certainty ‘that, suing from an event, che subjective will can realize inthe ‘world, unheard-of possibilities; that very far from being a power: Tess fetion, the wil intimately touches on the real. ‘What is being inflicted on ws today, on the contrary isthe con- iti thatthe wil, dominated by a suffocating realty principle ‘whose dstilate isthe economy, should behave with extraordinary ircumspecton les it expose the world to grave disasters There Js ‘nature of things’ end violence must not be done to it. Basi- cally the spontaneous philosophy of our ‘moderizing’ propa~ ganda is Arstotcian: Let the naire of things manifest its proper tends. We must aot de, but let be: laser frre, Just imagine the fap between such stance and the conscience of all those who sang, beneath red Banners, ‘the earth shall se on new foundations If you think the word can and must change absolutely; that theres neither a nature of things tobe respected nor pre-formed subjects to be maintained, you thereby admit thatthe individual may be sacrifcable. Meaning that the individual isnot indepen- dently endowed with any intrinsic ature that would deserve our steving to perpetuate i Tes by taking my cue from ths theme of the non-naturlncss ‘of the human subject ~ more of the inexistence of "man" and Ihence the vacuity of the notion of human rights’ ~ that today 1 would like to propose some variations First variation: philosophical In varying guises, philosophers between the thirties and sitios ‘worked with the ies thatthe veal ofan individual, his constitu tion as a subject, is entirely modifiable. Obviously, this amounted 10 a kind of philosophical accompaniment forthe theme of the new man, For example, one of Sartre's ist texts ~The Trancon dence ofthe Ego ~ develops the intuition of an. open constitutive Consciousness whase concrete manifestation a Me’ or aE tnd therefore es an identifiable individual, are nothing but tansi- tory extririties The immanent being of consciousness cannot be100 ‘Seven variations _gsped throush the transcendence or identifiable objectivity of| the Me, Later, Serve would draw the rigorous ontological conse- ‘quences ofthis intuition by posting that the being of conscious- feat is nothingness, which ie to say absokute freedom, thus Fendering any iden ofa subjective ‘ature impossible In psycho= snalysis and especially init recasting by Lacan, the Ego* isan imaginary instance and the subject as such can no longer be ether a ature o a being because it is ex-centic with respect to its own ‘determination (this is what ‘unconscious’ means). Lacan names this point of eccentricity the Other, meaning that every subjects something like an Alteration of tellAs Rimbaud had anticipated: “Tis an other. Once agai, iis impossible to think the individual asan objective nature ‘To the extent thatthe century has brought innovations to the theory of the subject, it has conceived the subject at a remove from Itself, as an interior transcendence. In my own doctrine, the subject i dependent on an event and only comes to be const- tuted as a capacity for wath. Since is ‘material’ sa truth proce- lure, o generic procedure, the subject cannot be naturalized in any vay. Adopting Sartre's terminology, we will say that the subject has no essence (this is the meaning of the notorious formula ‘Existence precedes essence’). Adopting Lacan's, we wil say thats subject is ony idened atthe point of lack, as void or lackof-being Tr the subject s constituted as ack-of-being, the question of ts real remains open, since this reali nether an essence nor a nature Tes then possible to maintsn that a subject i not, but rather comes t0 be, under certain determinate conditions, ia the place ‘where, as Lacan would say it lacking. Nietzsche's imperative “Become who you ae’ ~ finds here a worthy echo. fone must become a subject itis because one i not yet a subject "Who you are’ asa subject is nothing but the decision to become this subject. "You can observe here the emergence of link between the thesis that @ subject i of the order not of what is but of what happen ~ of the order ofthe event ~ and the idea thatthe indi- vidal can be saerificed to historical cause that exceeds him Since the being of the subject i the lack-of beng, i is only by slisolving self into a project tht exceeds him that an individual Seven variations 101 ‘can hope to attain some subjective real Thenceforth, the we! con- structed in and by this projec s the only thing that ie truly real subjectively real forthe individual who supports i. The indi- ‘dual, truth be tod, is nothing, The subject i the new man, ‘emerging atthe point of sellack, The individual is thus in ts ‘very essence, the nothing that must be disolved into we-subject. “The afrmative ceverse of this sacsifical evidence of the ini vidual is thatthe Wwe’ conseructed by a truth ~ whose staker well as support isthe new man ~ i immortal. It is immortal by virtue ofthe fact that i exists not at perishable nature but as fan eternal occurrence; an occurrence as etemal at Mallarmé's dice-throw. ‘Second vari ion: ideological How did the century reorganize the three great signfirs of the French Revolution: liberty, equity, fraternity? Today’ dominant thesis, under the imposed name of ‘democracy, i that the only thing that counts siberty. A iberty, moreover, so affected by the contempt in which the other twa terms are held (equality is ‘stopian and anti-natoral, Fraternity leads tothe despotiam of the ‘e!) that It becomes purely juridical or regulative: the Tiber far al to do the same things, under the same rales. ‘This idea of liberty (or freedom) was constantly reviled daring the short twentieth century, the one that goes from 1917 to 1980. It bore the name of ‘formal freedom, and was opposed to ‘eal ficedom’ ~ note the pertinence ofthe adjective, Formal freedom” means freedom thats neither articulated toa global egalitarian project nor practised subjectively as fete ‘Throughout the century, equality isthe statogic goal: poiti= cally, ander the name of communism; scientifically under the name of the axiomatic artistically, under the imperative of the fusion of art and life; sexually a6 ‘mad love. Freedom, a5 the unlimited power of the negatives presupposed, but not thema- tized. As fr fraternity, isthe rel itself pure and simple, the sole subjective guarantee of the novelty of expersences, since equality remains programmatic and liberty instrumental102 Seven variations Seven variations 103, 1 init: faterity is the eal manifestation of the new word, and hence of the new man. What is experienced here ~ in the Pry; in action, inthe subversive artic group, che egalitarian couple ~ the real violence of fraternity. And whats the content of fraterity, a not the acceptance that the infinite we’ prevals ‘over the fnitude ofthe individual? Ths is what is named by the ‘word ‘comrade’, now largely fallen into desuetude. My commode Js one who, like myself s only a subject by belonging o a process cof truth that authorizes him to say we" “This is why [argue that inthis whole matter itt aot in the slightest a question of utopia or ilusion. The set-up forthe emer- gence ofthe subject i quite simply complete In Lacanian terms, ‘Squality i the Imaginary (since it cannot come about a a objec tive figure eventhough tis the ultimate reason for everything), Freedom isthe Symbolic (since is the presupposed instrument, the fecund negative), and fraternity 5 the Real (chat which is sometimes encountered, in the here and now). Third variation: critical ‘The rik that i involved in always articulating the constitution of | the subject onto a collective and thus universalizable transcen dence i that of transferring to th collective those ‘natural’ or at Teast objective, properties that liberals prename to be the prerog- ative ofthe human indivi Ths deviation has not been in short “supply throughout the century. Fasciams invaraly replaced the subjective universality of wuth procedures (political invention, rustic creation, and So on), which they detested, with the desig: ration of great referential collectives: the nation, the race, the ‘West. We can give the name'Stalinism’to the substittion of such entities (Working Cass Party Socialist Camp...) declared onthe bass ofthe Soviet state's power, for those eal poitial processes of which Lenin was the preeminent thier, and which Mao ia tur sought to identify ‘Let us note in pasing, to mark our discord withthe crass equae tion of Navsm and so-aled communism (nee, the Stans, ate) under the name of *oalitaranism, that these two political stances remain entirely opposed, even in what concerns the genesis of their entities of reference. Fr itis prectly again the political processes of emancipation linked tothe word ‘proletar- fan’ ~ processes they corectly perceive to be unbound, non- sssignable, cosmopolitan and antistatist ~ that facies’ quite texplicily advocate submision to national and/or rail referen- tial cotati, as well ab to their putative representatives The substantilizatons of the Stalinist state, on the contrary, ate rei Cations of real political proceses;relfcatons that stem from the impossibility for Leninism to integrate the seizure ofthe state nto its mental apparatus, Wheres the state has sways been the alpha and omega of the fascist vision of politics ~ as a tte propped up by the supposed existence of great closed collectives ~ in the history of Leninism, and later of Maci, it has never been any thing but the obstacle thatthe brutal fnitude of the operstions of power opposes tothe infinite mobility of politics ‘The absolute opposition of these two politics within the century can be given a more philosophical cast, Fascisms seek to ‘oppose the infinite of emancipation with the bioedy barrier of 2 predicable fnitude, the denumerable properties af a supposed substance (the Aryan, the Jew, the German. ). The ‘commu- nisms" instead experience the antinomy ~ pointed out by Marx ‘with his customary gens ~ between the fintude of the tate and the infinite immanent to every truth, inchuding and above all political trth. The mythical referential enttes accompany the Victory of the fascisms, and inevitably signal the defeat of the ‘And yet it's true that, whether they are idealized and turned from the outset into the subjective support ofa politics of con= ‘quest, or whether they are considered only as pompous names for political stagnation, the ceatury does indeed witness the produe- ton of imaginary macroscopic entities and hyperblic nares “These large-scale entities are not the ‘we-subject’dacussed above, ‘They do not originate in an occurence or an event; they af inert collectives Their devotees see them as necessary conditions of any ‘subjecivation, san abjecive material thatthe wesubjec either ‘fleets or enacts in practice I propase to name such entities the passive body of subjectivation.104 Seven variations Even in the midst of the challenge posed by state contrl, why should one not ret content with the real we’ the we" thst tnvelops the 'I'in the effective becoming of an invention of ‘hought? Why has the determination of active singularity s0 often been obliged to represent itself a the consciousness or experience of objective entities of mythical hypostases” Why endow action ‘witha passive body? We will hve occasion to observe that this Farmidable objectvation intervenes in the problem of the naming of processes, in the theory of names We may ask ourselves ‘whether when thelr allegiance is 'ommunist’, the great macro- ‘opi traits are notin fact summoned as tames (proletarian politics, bourgeols art, che socialist camp, the imperialist camp, State of the workers and peasants...) whose only value rests in texpediently universalzinga process atthe very moment wien it lapses into sterility or is frozen into its state form. The name is what allows singularity to assert its worth beyond itself The ‘century's handling of names i also a prisoner of the Two, ofthe ‘ot-dalectcal synthesis On the one Rand, tis important to love active singularities alone (this is fraternity); on the other, these fingulariies must be histricized, even in those moments when invention slacking, those moment when, asthe French revol= ‘onary SaintJust pti, "the revolution i frozen’ The niversl- fay ofthese moments must be made evident through names ome by detectable objectvities Tn the end, the problem isthe fllowing: Why does the century require large-scale (objective) collectives in order to give names? ‘Why do politcal proceses of emancipation always take the name of supposedly abjective soil entities such a the proletariat, the people or the nation? T believe itcan be showin that we are dealing here with the tribute the century pad to science, and therefore with the residues of ninetcenth-century scien that endure in the midst of twentieth-century voluntarism. Objectivity is indeed crucial scientifc norm. The legitimacy of adequate names forthe we~ Subject was sought within the more ols certain selences, such ‘ss ‘historieal materially Even Nazism is a racial mythology that present itself as scientific To secure its goals of eubmision and ‘extermination, i thought i could rely on the racalit enthro- Seven variations 108 pological jargon that accompanied Burope's imperial expansion ver ince the eightecath century. Tht this jorgon was a tasue of ‘ontrved and criminal ction is plain a day The science’ of races fs purely imaginary. Note that there aso existed an imaginary Marxist science, even if it did not itself determine the revolt onary subjectivities of the century. This Marxism without areal correlate pretended to constitute purely and simply a scientically Tegiimate fraternity, and thereln lay is strength Fourth variation: temporal "The century put forward its own vision of historical time. It had 4 very ample genealogical vision af political confrontations, ‘thereby following Marx wien he wrote thatthe eatie history of mankind was that of class struggle. Academic historians, for their pert, worked on long durations, holding the scale of « human Hie to be a tefing quantity when compared to the fx of significations2” Plainly, there was nothing humanist” about this history. Tis very striking to sce that today we are practically bereft of any thinking of time, For just about everyone the day after omor= sow is abstract and the day before yesterday incomprehensible ‘We have entered a period of a-temporaity and instantanety; his shows the extent t0 which, far rom being a shared individual experience time is a construction, and even, we might argu, 4 politcal construction. For example let us biely reconsider the “five-year plans that structured the industrial development of the Stalinist USSR. If the plan could he celebrated even in works of ar, suchas Eisenstein’ film The General Line, iis because, over and above is (doubtful) economic significance, planing desig: rstes the resolve to submit growth tothe polis will of men ‘The five years ofthe five-year plan are much more than a emer ical unt they are a temporal material in which the collective wall inscribesiself day after day. This is indeed an allegory, in and by time of the power ofthe ‘we. In various ways, the entire century save itself as a constructivist century, a vision which implies the staging ofa voluntary construction of time106 Sion variations Seven variations wo? ‘There once existed the immemorial time ofthe peasantry an immobile or eylc time, a time of toil and sacrifice, Barly com pensated by the pattem of festivities. Today we endure the ‘areage of enay and total ret_On the one hand, propaganda declares that everything changes by the minuto, that we have no time, that we must modernize at top speed, that wee gong to “miss the boat’ (the bost of the Internet and the new economy, the boat of mobile phones for everyone, the boat of countless stockholders the boat of stock-options the boat of pension Funds, could go on...). On the other hand, all this hubbub cannot conceal a kind of passive immobility or indifference, the perp ‘ation of the state quo, The is « type of time upon which the wil, whether collective or individual, has mo grip: an inaccessible amalgam of agitation and sterility, the paradox of « stagnant Feverishness Even if asso often happens in the instant of invention, it was clumsily and dogmatically mishandled, the century's powerful idea of time must continue to inspire usa the very least against the ‘modernizing’ temporality that annuls any. subjectivation ‘whatsoever The idea i tht if we weish to attain the rel of ime ‘we must construct and that, when alli sid and done, this con struction depends entirely on the care with which we strive to become the agents of truth procedures. Let us then praise the sentry fr having bore the epic propos oF an integral on- Fifth variation: formal ‘What were the century's dominant forms of collective matrial- ity? Let me suggest tht this century was the century of the ‘demonstration. What i a ‘demo’? Iti the name of a collective body that uses the public space (the street, the square) to display its power. The demonstration i the collective subject, the we subject, endowed with « body. A demonstration is a visible f ternity The gathering of bodies into a single moving material form 's intended to say: we’ are here, and ‘they’ (the powerful, the others those who do not enter into the composition of the we) should be afraid and take our existence into consideration. “Throughout the century, the demonstration can only be under stood against the subjective horizon of conviction that ‘We could ange everything’. Ilegtimates, in the domain of the vile the line from the Intemational "We have been nought, we shall be all! The demonstration outins the totality aspired to by col- Tection of ‘nought of isolated individuals: ‘The century was the century of demonstrations, and these demonstrations were enduringly haunted by the insurrectional figure of politics, Inaurrection isthe final celebration of the body thatthe ‘we’ endows itaelf with; ts the last action of fraternity. Yes the century's conception of celebration, governed as it was by the paradigm of demonstration and inssrrecton, always required this celebration to brataly interrupt the ordinary state of afar “Today celebration - harmless and consensal ~ is what typically

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