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French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s
Princeton University Press
August 2010
On Sale: July 21, 2010
400 pages
ISBN: 0691129983
EAN: 9780691129983
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Michel Foucault, Jean-Paul Sartre, Julia Kristeva, Phillipe
Sollers, and Jean-Luc Godard. During the 1960s, a who's who
of French thinkers, writers, and artists, spurred by China's
Cultural Revolution, were seized with a fascination for
Maoism. Combining a merciless exposé of left-wing political
folly and cross-cultural misunderstanding with a spirited
defense of the 1960s, The Wind from the East tells the
colorful story of this legendary period in France. Richard
Wolin shows how French students and intellectuals, inspired
by their perceptions of the Cultural Revolution, and
motivated by utopian hopes, incited grassroots social
movements and reinvigorated French civic and cultural life. Wolin's riveting narrative reveals that Maoism's allure
among France's best and brightest actually had little to do
with a real understanding of Chinese politics. Instead, it
paradoxically served as a vehicle for an emancipatory
transformation of French society. French student leftists
took up the trope of "cultural revolution," applying it to
their criticisms of everyday life. Wolin examines how Maoism
captured the imaginations of France's leading cultural
figures, influencing Sartre's "perfect Maoist moment";
Foucault's conception of power; Sollers's chic, leftist
intellectual journal Tel Quel; as well as Kristeva's book on
Chinese women--which included a vigorous defense of
foot-binding. Recounting the cultural and political odyssey of French
students and intellectuals in the 1960s, The Wind from the
East illustrates how the Maoist phenomenon unexpectedly
sparked a democratic political sea change in France.
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