Jacques Rancière

Philosopher

• Born: June 10, 1940
• Place of Birth: Algiers, Algeria

• Education: École Normale Supérieure

• Significance: Jacques Rancière is a French philosopher known for his theories surrounding equality, education, art, and politics. He was a pupil of Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and contributed to the renowned philosophical work Lire le Capital (Reading Capital, 1965). Rancière later broke away from Althusser's structuralist theories and focused his work on the need for the dissolution of class boundaries. He also took an interest in the intersection of art and politics in his later years.

Background

Jacques Rancière was born June 10, 1940, in Algiers, Algeria. He attended the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, where he studied philosophy. He was a student of the renowned French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, who greatly influenced the young Rancière's early philosophical outlook. Rancière, Althusser, and several others collectively wrote and published Lire le Capital (Reading Capital) in 1965. The book examined German philosopher Karl Marx's Capital: Critique of Political Economy from a scientific perspective. Rancière was also a member of France's Union of Communist Students, whose École Normale Supérieure chapter was referred to as the Cercle d'Ulm (Circle of Ulm). The Cercle d'Ulm produced two journals, Cahiers Marxistes-Léninistes and Cahiers pour l'Analyse, which Rancière regularly contributed to throughout the 1960s.

The 1960s were a tumultuous time for France. The latter half of the decade was fraught with civil unrest, and in May of 1968, one of France's largest uprisings erupted across the country. Beginning with a massive student protest against social inequity, capitalism, and corruption, demonstrations later spread to factories and soon millions of people were involved in a general strike. These and other world events, such as the war in Vietnam, gradually shifted Rancière's Marxist viewpoint.

Rancière began teaching at the University of Paris VIII in 1968, and he was later named chair of aesthetics and politics. By the early 1970s, he had broken away from Althusser's school of thought in favor of a French philosophy's growing trends toward continental philosophy. In 1974, Rancière published Althusser's Lesson, a critique of Althusser's views on Marxism and his condemnation of the 1968 protests. Althusser did not support the protests because they were not led by the French Communist Party. He also rejected the movement's Maoist philosophy, which believed in national unity and scorned an intellectual hierarchy. By contrast, Rancière argued in favor of overcoming class and intellectual boundaries in service of a greater, more equal society. His belief that all humans are born equal permeated his work over the next several decades.

Life's Work

Throughout his career as an educator, Rancière published a number of books rooted in his core belief in human equality. His work was heavily influenced by what he observed during France's struggle for social equality in the late twentieth century, and readers were advised to consider this when analyzing Rancière's work from theoretical and political standpoints. Alongside publishing Althusser's Lesson in 1974, Rancière also cofounded the journal Révoltes Logiques, which he contributed many writings to between 1975 and 1986. Rancière's first book translated into English was 1981's La Nuit des Prolétaires: Archives du Rêve Ouvrie (The Nights of Labor: The Workers' Dream in Nineteenth-Century France), a historical examination of France's revolution of 1830 and the motivations for worker uprisings. Rancière argues that workers were not simply protesting working conditions and unfair treatment, but the powers they believed had predetermined them to life as laborers.

In 1986, Rancière was named director of programs at the Collège International de Philosophie. The following year, Rancière published Le Maître Ignorant: Cinq Leçons sur l'Émancipation Intellectuelle (The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation). The text examined the role of educators in encouraging societal change and helping students develop an independent intellect. Rancière focused much of his work during this period on historiography, specifically on how the methods of historical documentation fail to give voice to dissenting viewpoints. These views are evident in his 1992 book Les Noms de l'Histoire: Essai de Poétique du Savoir (The Names of History: On the Poetics of Knowledge), which analyzes the structured study of history and explores how freeing historiography from traditional constraints will allow greater development of transformative events. Through the end of the 1990s, Rancière also published On the Shores of Politics and Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy, both of which argued for the reconciliation of philosophy to politics. These publications brought Rancière's theories to the attention of a wider audience.

Rancière retired from his professorship at the University of Paris VIII in 2000, but he remained on as professor emeritus. He later accepted a position as professor of philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Rancière now had more time to focus on his writing, and he published a stream of books on varying subjects over the next decade. Some of his more prominent publications translated to English during this period include The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible, The Aesthetic Unconscious, and The Emancipated Spectator.

The Politics of Aesthetics and The Emancipated Spectator, first published in France in 2000 and 2008, respectively, were particularly responsible for bringing further attention to Rancière's work. Both works focused on a philosophical analysis of art and its relation to society. The Politics of Aesthetics examines the connection between art and politics. The Emancipated Spectator analyzes the methods through which art and film can inspire political action in its spectators. In 2017, Rancière published a collection of essays titled Modern Times: Essays on Temporality in Art and Politics. In the early 2020s, he continued to voice opinions on social issues and politics, especially in France, through interviews and short-form written commentaries such as editorials.

Impact

Ranciere is considered one of the foremost French philosophers of the post-Marxist era and regularly lectures on his theories around the world. His works have been cited by numerous scholars and politicians. His later work on aesthetic theory also influenced a number of visual artists.

Bibliography

Aeschimann, Éric. "Representation against Democracy: Jacques Rancière on the French Presidential Elections." Verso, 20 Mar. 2017, www.versobooks.com/blogs/3142-representation-against-democracy-jacques-ranciere-on-the-french-presidential-elections. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

Deranty, Jean-Philippe. Jacques Rancière: Key Concepts. Routledge, 2010.

Durden, Mark, editor.Fifty Key Writers on Photography. Routledge, 2013.

Holmboe, Rye Dag. "Interview with Jacques Rancière." The White Review, no. 10, 2014, www.thewhitereview.org/interviews/interview-with-jacques-ranciere/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

"Jacques Rancière." European Graduate School, egs.edu/biography/jacques-ranciere/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

"Jacques Rancière: ‘The issue is to manage to maintain dissensus’." Verso, 10 Aug. 2021, www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/5132-jacques-ranciere-the-issue-is-to-manage-to-maintain-dissensus?srsltid=AfmBOopFy9f226BSWwqFwsZM47kX9Ev‗EDe1Wrb8gmaqDeFQfm60DvCX. Accessed 5 Oct. 2024.

May, Todd. The Political Thought of Jacques Rancière: Creating Equality. Pennsylvania State UP, 2008.

Rancière, Jacques. Althusser's Lesson, translated by Emiliano Battista, Continuum International, 2011.

Rockhill, Gabriel, and Philip Watts, editors.Jacques Rancière: History, Politics, Aesthetics. Duke UP, 2009.