Capture of Speech and Other Political Writings

by Michel de Certeau, Luce Giard

In this foundational exploration of political expression and participation, de Certeau examines who has the right to speak, how this right is acquired, and what happens when this right is denied or inhibited. He emphasizes that all too often free speech is upheld in the abstract while social institutions work in such a way to deny access to effective communication.

Genres: Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Michel de Certeau, historian, cultural theorist, psychoanalyst, and theologian was one of the most multifaceted French intellectuals and scholars of the late 20th century. His concept of everyday life practices was of signal importance for the development of cultural studies in the Anglo-Saxon world. His use of space as a key category in the history and analysis of cultural practices has also influenced the later “spatial turn” in history and art history. Finally, his works on early modern mysticism constitute ground-breaking research in religious studies and theology. Interestingly enough, these studies on mysticism were less influential in the Anglo-Saxon world than they were in France or Germany, whence the distinction between the “American” (of the cultural studies) and the “European” Certeau (the historian of mysticism). In spite of the diversity of his oeuvre, Certeau saw his scholarly work as one, integrated, intellectual enterprise. Asked about his scholarly profession, this French Jesuit used to answer that he understood himself in the first place as a historian of spirituality. Understanding the meaning of Christian mysticism in an era in which it started to lose its self-evidence required a broader focus, embracing the most divergent and complex cultural developments up to his own time. The gradual broadening of his interest field also required new methodological directions, which he found in Lacanian psychoanalysis and in semiotics, resulting in his own topographical way of thinking. He became a public intellectual in 1968, after the publication of his La prise de la parole, a book in which he applied his insights on the role of the mystics in the 16th and 17th centuries to the protesting students in the streets of Paris. From that moment onward he started to develop his theory of everyday life practices, resulting in a number of different books, of which L’invention du Quotidien 1980 was the most elaborate.

Reviews

[Calvin Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most personally transformative books I have ever read. Like most French theorists, Michel de Certeau is an extraordinarily difficult author to read. Unlike most French theorists, de Certeau is actually rewarding to read—yes, what he is saying is complicated, but it is also SO GOOD, especially for thinkers working within and/or against authoritarian systems. This is easily my favorite book of his oeuvre I have encountered, and the essay at its center, “Violent Mystics and Nonviolent Strategies,” is the greatest roadmap for confronting and dismantling authoritarian systems I have ever seen committed to print. This is an obscure book, but quite literally every idea “The Practice of Everyday Life” would elaborate upon is discussed here also in truncated form, and slightly easier to digest. de Certeau is easily my favorite thinker, and this is my favorite book of his. I will always be eternally grateful I encountered the insightful hope-giving, life-affirming work of this wonderful man. The titular essay, of course, still stands almost as beautiful in translation as in the original French, and I still get chills every time I read it. This is indispensable literature for those who seek to understand social theory or the ways individuals “poach life” within authoritarian systems of any kind.