Dialectics of Two Refusals : Film, China, and the Transcultural Disruptions of May '68

The Dialectics of Two Refusals endeavors to use the multifarious optics of “China” to critically reinterpret and rehistoricize a wide set of Western cinematic representations of the 1968 disruptions beyond the traditional epistemological confines of cultural imperialism.

The barricade of May ’68 in France has been historically determined by a number of local and transnational parameters. Yet, it is arguable that its Chinese connections remain one of the most profound and enduring legacies within the French cultural and intellectual histories throughout the long twentieth century to the present day. By adopting a comparative and dialectical approach, The Dialectics of Two Refusals endeavors to use the multifarious optics of “China” to critically reinterpret and rehistoricize a wide set of Western cinematic representations of the 1968 disruptions in Europe, which include films by Godard, Antonioni, Ivens, Casabianca, Assayas and Viénet, beyond the traditional epistemological confines and predicaments of cultural imperialism. Contrary to the predominant neoliberal interpretations of the historical and intellectual nexus between May ’68 and the (post-)Maoist Cultural Revolution, this study will examine the unrealized revolutionary potentialities pertaining to both the global insurrections of 1968 as well as the heterogeneous trajectory of Western political cinema since the 1960s.