May ’68 at 50, Yugoslavia at 75

May '68 at 50, Yugoslavia at 75 will rethink our assumptions about May ’68 across such divides as the West and the rest, politics and culture, culture and counterculture, and art and critique. As such, the conference will create an opportunity to pose such fundamental questions as, Why was May ’68 necessary at all in the country that led the Non-Aligned Movement and experimented with self-management as an alternative to both capitalism and state socialism? Estranged in this way, the fact that May ’68 did take place even in Yugoslavia can begin to have consequences for what we think about May ’68 globally.

Programme:

Thursday, 11 October

14:45 Introduction

Jernej HABJAN, co-organiser of the colloquium

15:00–15:45

Suman GUPTA:

The University as Contested Site and the Poverty of Student Life

15:45–16:30

Vladimir GVOZDEN:

Protests of 1968: The Politics of Memory or the Memory of Politics?

16:30–17:00 Discussion and coffee break

17:00–17:45

Ivana PERICA:

Aesthetic ‘Traditions and Perspectives’ and the Politics of Yugoslav 1968

17:45–18:30

Rastko MOČNIK:

Mao after 1968

18:30–19:00 Discussion

Friday, 12 October

10:00–10:45

Marko JUVAN:

Co-presence or Interaction? Theory, Literature and Politics of the Long ’68 and the Issue of Centre/Periphery

10:45–11:30

Andraž JEŽ:

Traces of Cold-War Propaganda in Recent Interpretations of 1968

11:30–12:00 Discussion and coffee break

12:00–12:45

Rok BENČIN:

Distant Immediacies: Badiou and Rancière on the Consequences of May ’68

12:45–13:30

Antonia BIRNBAUM:

Decentring or Recentring Proletarian Politics? A Paradox of French Maoism

13:30–14:00 Discussion

(Photo: Svetozar Busić; archived by: National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia)