Fresh Théorie III: Manifestations Explores May 68 Legacy

The book 'Fresh Théorie III, Manifestations' (Éditions Léo Scheer) gathers 25 authors who revisit the spirit of May 1968. Edited with a prologue by Mark Alizart, the volume positions itself against both reactionary liberalism and postmodernist retreats, which are seen as betrayals of the May legacy. Alizart invokes Jean-François Lyotard's 1985 exhibition 'Les Immatériaux' at Beaubourg, framing 'manifestation' as an event of thought itself—a 'exposition de pensée' in Bruno Latour's terms. The text channels a Deleuzian joy, where philosophy serves to 'harm stupidity.' Dork Zabunyan contributes an epilogue on Maurice Blanchot, whose anonymous tracts captured the communal non-power of May. Zabunyan argues that Deleuze's 'Cinema II: The Time-Image' may be the first non-disenchanted book addressing the 'children of May 68,' mediated by English Romanticism (Blake, Coleridge). François Cusset's 'nightmare of the 1980s' is countered by a Nietzschean 'great noon' of unpredicted future. The book calls for a re-politicization of aesthetics, problems 'to be taken up from the beginning.' Jérôme Cornette reviewed the work.