Book contents
- Student Revolt in 1968
- New Studies in European History
- Student Revolt in 1968
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: History, Myth and Memory of 1968
- Part I Education and Culture
- Part II The Politics of Revolt
- Chapter 5 ‘The Space of Autonomy Must Be Created’
- Chapter 6 ‘We Represent Nothing’
- Chapter 7 ‘We Began to Talk’
- Part III Crisis of the University
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 7 - ‘We Began to Talk’
The Seizure of Speech
from Part II - The Politics of Revolt
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2019
- Student Revolt in 1968
- New Studies in European History
- Student Revolt in 1968
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: History, Myth and Memory of 1968
- Part I Education and Culture
- Part II The Politics of Revolt
- Chapter 5 ‘The Space of Autonomy Must Be Created’
- Chapter 6 ‘We Represent Nothing’
- Chapter 7 ‘We Began to Talk’
- Part III Crisis of the University
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 7 examines the prominence of speech in the student revolts of the 1960s. The experience of speaking was extremely important to the students, a marker of a subjective transformation. However, speech was not always emancipatory. Practices of speech followed three modes: desacralisation, the demand for debate and provocation. Protest speech was characterised by vulgarity, jargon, informalisation and opacity. The deployment of speech occurred in unequal and gendered forms. Student assemblies were simultaneously democratic forums and arenas of intimidation and exclusion. The model of rational public debate with which the student movements often began failed and gave way to a model of provocation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Student Revolt in 1968France, Italy and West Germany, pp. 155 - 174Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019