Myth and revolt

Breaking with "normal time"?

Abstract

The normative quality of temporality has been widely acknowledged by scholars. In capitalist modernity, revolution can, in a sense, be understood as a revolt against time itself. As Walter Benjamin writes in Theses on the Concept of History (1940), revolutionaries make the “continuum of history explode.” Nearly thirty years later, in the aftermath of May 1968, the Italian author Furio Jesi revisits the issue. In Spartakus: The Symbology of Revolt, he distinguishes between revolution and revolt based on their differing experiences of time. While revolution remains embedded in historical time, revolt is defined as its “suspension.” Analyzing the Spartacist revolt of 1919 “from within,” Jesi interprets it as an “epiphany of myth” that disrupts “normal time,” the time of normality. But does revolt truly transcend the norms of bourgeois society? Does its suspension of time create a new form of normativity, or is it merely a temporary rupture that ultimately reinforces capitalist time? How can the singular experience of myth in revolt avoid the risk of its own mythicization? Jesi’s analysis in Spartakus, recently translated into multiple languages, offers crucial insights into the ambivalent nature of revolt, beyond its celebration or condemnation.