I want to talk about “Qu’est-ce que le contemporain ?

” by Giorgio Agamben published in 2008

in France. The original title is Che cos’è il contemporaneo. This text is a reprise of a course of
Philosophy given in 2005/2006 at the University in Venice translated by Maxime Rovere.

Giorgio Agamben was born in 1942 in Rome, he is an Italian philosopher. He is a specialist of

the work of Walter Benjamin, Heidegger, Carl Schmitt and Aby Warburg. In 2006, Giorgio
Agamben was awarded the Charles Veillon European Essay Priz. In 2012, he received the
Laurea honoris causa in theology from the University of Fribourg. Finally in 2018, he received
the Nonino Prize.

Giorgio Agamben begins his book with a problematic: "De qui et de quoi sommes-nous les
contemporains ?”. In this book, the author attempts to give an answer. This text allows the
reader to really understand this word. It’s not a simple definition. The author explains and
develops his answer point by point with illustrations but current examples (like fashion). This
book allows us to have a founded reflection on our society.

In this book, I found two interesting parts. The first is in the first chapter : “La contemporanéité
est donc une singulière relation avec son propre temps, auquel on adhère tout en prenant ses
distances”. Here Giorgio Agamben gives us a first part of the definition of the contemporary.
In this first aspect, the contemporary is detached from our time but it doesn’t mean that he lives
elsewhere.

The second part is in the second chapter. It talks about the second aspect of the definition :
“Je voudrais maintenant proposer une seconde définition de la contemporanéité : le
contemporain est celui qui fixe le regard sur son temps pour en percevoir non les lumières,
mais l'obscurité”. Indeed, the human goes to the light and follows it without seeing what
happens around him. On the contrary, the contemporary observes the world and its darkest
corners. He doesn’t follow the movement, on the contrary he wants to explore every corner.

To conclude, Giorgio Agamben gives us an answer but he doesn’t force the reader to admit
that its answer is the truth. Like the definition, his book is contemporary and the author takes
a step back and observes the contemporaries and also himself.