Although fifteen years separate Guy Debord, born in 1931, from Roland Barthes, born in 1915, their works offer a striking convergence despite distinct trajectories. In 1967, Debord published The Society of the Showradical critique of capitalism where capital becomes spectacle, while Barthes, with his Mythologies of 1957, already seems to be moving away from Marxist tones. Neither gives in to public expectations or illusions, whether of the literate bourgeoisie or the working class. If Barthes believed longer than Debord in the critical autonomy of art, their concepts of “myth” and “spectacle” respond to each other as major challenges for thinking and resisting a modernity dominated by superficiality.
To talk about it
Vincent Kaufmann, Professor Emeritus of Literature and Media History at the University of St. Gall (Switzerland). He is the author of
Éric Marty is a writer and academic. He is the author:
Sound references
- Archive of a wrestling match commented by Roger Couderc (10/10/1958) followed by Barthes, Mythologies (1957), “The world where we wrestle”, read by René Clermont, 11/20/1964
