The Memory of May '68: The Ironic Interruption and Democratic Commitment of the Atelier Populaire

摘要

The space of Atelier Populaire produced a vivid iconography during the 1968 revolutionary movement in Paris. Some of these images demonstrate a tactic of ironic interruption, while others are dialectical images that evoke political memories of resistance, and the movement's democratic commitment as well. This paper traces the tactic of irony, along with the memory of resistance to the Algerian war during the early 1960s, arguing that both the social space of the Atelier itself and the political memories evoked in its posters shaped the revolutionary movement. Although the movement was unsuccessful in transforming the state, it did transform social space, opening up a terrain for the new social movements of the 1970s. Furthermore, the international memory of May '68 continues to influence contemporary revolutionary movements, including Occupy and the Arab Spring.