The text of this notebook is an excerpt from Furio Jesi’s book Spartakus. Simbologia della rivolta (Spartacus: Symbol of the Revolt) of 1968–69. Jesi was preoccupied with the interdependence of myth and politics. His thinking was based in part on the questioning of the thesis of mythologist Karl Kerényi (1897–1973). The revolt of the Spartakusbund (Spartacus League), which started on December 29, 1918, with a national congress in Berlin, for Jesi constitutes the starting point for a reflection about the specific temporality of “revolt” in contrast to that of “revolution” or “party.” In the moment of revolt, historical time is suspended and makes room for a symbolic space-time, in which an entire collective can find refuge. Thereafter, however, “normal time” returns, which serves the ruling political system. The “being out of time” of revolt, as Andrea Cavaletti calls it in his foreword, constitutes a paradoxical collective experience, which inspired Jesi to an ingenious political theory.

Andrea Cavaletti (*1967) teaches Aesthetics and Contemporary Literature at Università Iuav di Venezia.

Furio Jesi was born in Turin in 1941 and died in Genoa in 1980. He taught German Literature at the University of Palermo.

Furio Jesi
The Suspension of Historical Time

Introduction by Andrea Cavalletti, texts by Furio Jesi

Of the serie:
dOCUMENTA (13): 100 Notizen - 100 Gedanken No. 069

Deutsch/Englisch

2012. 36 pp., 1 ill.

15.00 x 21.20 cm
softcover

available

ISBN 978-3-7757-2918-5