‘Une image bien choisie qui fait bouillir les sangs’: Frédéric Lordon and the 2008 Financial Crisis

Abstract

This article discusses the thought of the contemporary French philosopher and economist Frédéric Lordon and analyses his responses to the 2008 global financial crisis. The key focus is on a play in alexandrine verse that Lordon wrote about the crisis, D'un retournement l'autre: comédie sérieuse sur la crise financière (2011). The article contextualizes the play and situates it within Lordon's wider intellectual project, which draws on Marx and Spinoza to provide a political theory of affects. I compare the ways Lordon explains the derivative finance at the heart of the subprime crisis in both his play and his economic writings. My discussion centres on the concepts of affect and image in Lordon's attempt to explain the crisis to the public, in whom Lordon wants to inspire the desire for political change. I conclude by asking critically how useful Lordon's theory and literary work are in a time of crisis.