Summary
Dominique Pagani approaches social classes through Michel Clouscard: there is no consumer society, only classes that consume, and the "societal" agenda that came out of May 68 serves as a screen for class struggle, which neither Foucault's power nor Bourdieu's field can explain1. He links the question to Rousseau, a plebeian who brings the class relation into the erotic relation and contests the king's enjoyment. Rousseau also heralds the "telescoping of classes" that produces the middle classes, freed from manual labour without owning anything. He connects the classical separation of literary genres to the separation of orders, and he prefers to speak of a "class unconscious", because class separation reaches the psyche and the choice of a lover2. Against a mechanistic Marxism, he stresses that class is not defined by income alone3. In Proust, he finds class determination even in the beauty of the girls at Balbec and in Gilberte's gaze14.
- 1Radio Galère: Michel Clouscard (1)6 Jul 2012
- 2#5.1 bis Questions (Facebook Live)2 Nov 2018
- 3Work and the right to work20 May 2018
- 4From Plato to Proust6 Jul 2026
Introduction produced automatically from the 5 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.
The 5 videos
Readings on the spotFrom Plato to Proust
6 Jul 2026What does amorous desire seek through the body and the gaze: someone or something?
Cycle 5.1#5.1 bis Questions (Facebook Live)
2 Nov 2018What place does transmission hold in the pedagogical movement from the Renaissance to Rousseau, and what are the stakes of the dissolution of the separation of genres?
Cycle 5.1#5.1 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought
24 Oct 2018How does Rousseau open a sequence of revolutionary thought that leads to Lenin, and what dialectical thread runs through it?
Other videosWork and the right to work
20 May 2018What should be understood by work, and by the right to work, from La Bruyère to Marx, by way of Rousseau and Hegel?
On Michel ClouscardRadio Galère: Michel Clouscard (1)
6 Jul 2012What does Michel Clouscard's thought contribute to understanding the capitalism that emerged from May 68?