Rgis Debray

Jules Rgis Debray (French: [db]; born September 2,

1940) is a French philosopher, journalist, former government ocial and academic.[1] He is known for his theorization of mediology a critical theory of the longterm transmission of cultural meaning in human society and for ghting with Marxist revolutionary Che
Guevara (in Bolivia in 1967) and advancing Salvador Allende's Marxist rgime (in Chile in the early 1970s).[2]

1
1.1

icy that sought to increase Frances freedom of action

in the world, decrease dependence on the United States,
and promote closeness with the former colonies. He was
also involved in the development of the governments ofcial ceremonies and recognition of the bicentennial of
the French Revolution. He resigned in 1988. Until the
mid-1990s he held a number of ocial posts in France,
including a Honorary Counselorship at Frances supreme
administrative court, Conseil d'tat.
In 1996 he published a memoir of his life, translated into
English as Rgis Debray, Praised Be Our Lords (Verso,
2007).

Life
1960 to 1973

1.3 2003 onwards

Born in Paris, Regis Debray studied at the cole Normale

Suprieure under Louis Althusser, and appeared as himself in the groundbreaking cinema verit lm Chronique
d'un t by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin in 1960. He
became "agrg de philosophie" in 1965.

Debray was a member of the 2003 Stasi Commission,

named after Bernard Stasi, which examined the origins
of the 2003 French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools. Debray supported the 2003
law. This was in defense of French lacit (separation of
church and state) which aims to maintain citizens equality through the prohibition of religious proselytism within
the school system. Debray, however, appears to have
encouraged a more subtle treatment of religious issues
within school history teaching in France.

In the late 1960s he was a professor of philosophy at

the University of Havana in Cuba, and became an associate of Che Guevara in Bolivia. He wrote the book
Revolution in the Revolution?, which analysed the tactical and strategic doctrines then prevailing among militant socialist movements in Latin America, and acted as
a handbook for guerrilla warfare that supplemented Guevaras own manual on the subject. It was published by
Maspero in Paris in 1967 and in the same year in New
York (Monthly Review Press and Grove Press), Montevideo (Sandino), Milan (Feltrinelli) and Munich (Trikont).
Guevara was captured in Bolivia early in October, 1967;
on April 20, 1967, Debray had been arrested in the small
town of Muyupampa, also in Bolivia. Convicted of having been part of Guevaras guerrilla group Debray on
November 17 was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was
released in 1970 after an international campaign for his
release which included Jean-Paul Sartre, Andr Malraux,
General Charles de Gaulle and Pope Paul VI. He sought
refuge in Chile, where he wrote The Chilean Revolution
(1972) after interviews with Salvador Allende. Debray
returned to France in 1973 following the coup by Augusto
Pinochet in Chile.

Debray is preoccupied with the situation of Christian

minorities in the Near East (and with the status of the
Holy Places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and elsewhere), a
traditional interest of the French state, and has established an observatory to monitor the situation. His recent work deals thoroughly with the religious paradigm
as a social nexus able to support collective orientation on
a wide, centuries-long scale. This led him to propose the
project of an Institut Europen en Sciences des Religions,
a French institute founded in 2005 aimed at monitoring
sociological religious dynamics and informing the public
on religion through conferences and publications.

2 Work: mediology

Debray is the founder and chief exponent of the discipline

of mdiologie or "mediology", which attempts to scien1.2 1981 to 1995
tically study transmission of cultural meaning in society, whether through language or images. Mediology is
Following the election of President Franois Mitterrand, characterized by its multi-disciplinary approach. It is exin 1981, he became an ocial adviser to the Prsident pounded best in the English-language book Transmitting
on Foreign Aairs. In this capacity he developed a pol- Culture (Columbia University Press, 2004). In Vie et mort
1

4 BIBLIOGRAPHY

de l'image (Life and Death of Image, 1995), an attempted

history of gaze, where he distinguished three regimes of
the images (icon, idol and vision), he explicitly prevented
misunderstandings by dierentiating mediology from a
simple sociology of mass media. He also criticized the
basic assumptions of history of art which present art as
an atemporal and universal phenomenon. According to
Debray, art is a product of the Renaissance with the invention of the artist as producer of images, in contrast
with previous acheiropoieta icons or other types of socalled art, where these works of art did not full an
artistic function but rather a religious one.

Current political views

In a February 2007 op-ed in Le Monde, Rgis Debray criticized the tendency of the whole French political class
to move toward the right-wing of politics. He also deplored the inuence of the videosphere on modern politics, which he claimed has a tendency to individualize
everything, forgetting both past and future (although he
praised the loss of the 1960s messianism), outside of any
common national project. He criticized the new generation in politics as being competent but without character,
and lacking ideas: So they [think they] recruit philosophy with Andr Glucksmann or Bernard-Henri Lvy and
literature with Christine Angot or Jean d'Ormesson". He
called for a vote to the left of the left, in order to attempt to block a modern anti-politics which has turned
into political marketing.[3]

Trilogie Le temps d'apprendre vivre I: Les

Masques, une ducation amoureuse [littrature]
(1992)
Vie et mort de l'image (1995)
Contre Venise [littrature](1995)
L'il naf (1994)
A demain de Gaulle (1996)
La gurilla du Che (1996)
L'tat sducteur (1997)
La Rpublique explique ma lle (1998)
L'abus monumental (1999)
Shanga, dernires nouvelles [littrature] (1999)
Trilogie Le temps d'apprendre vivre II: Lous
soient nos seigneurs, une ducation politique [littrature] (2000)
Trilogie Le temps d'apprendre vivre III: Par
amour de l'art, une ducation intellectuelle [littrature] (2000)
Dieu, un itinraire (2001, Prix Combourg 2003)

Le Feu sacr : Fonction du religieux (2003)

Books

Rvolution dans la rvolution?

(1967)

Contretemps : Eloge des idaux perdus (1992)

L'Enseignement du fait religieux dans l'cole laque

(2002)

Bibliography

4.1

Christophe Colomb, le visiteur de l'aube, suivi des

Traits de Tordesillas [littrature] (1991)

et autres essais

La Frontire, suivi de Un jeune homme la page

[littrature] (1967)

LAncien testament travers 100 chefs-duvre de

la peinture (2003)
Le Nouveau testament travers 100 chefs-duvre
de la peinture (2003)

Nous les Tupamaros, suivi d'apprendre d'eux (1971)

l'ombre des lumires : Dbat entre un philosophe

et un scientique (2003) (Entretien avec Jean Bricmont).

L'Indsirable [littrature](1975)

Ce que nous voile le voile (2004)

Les rendez-vous manqus (pour Pierre Goldman)

[littrature] (1975)

Le plan vermeil [littrature](2004)

Journal d'un petit bourgeois entre deux feux et quatre murs [littrature] (1976)

Le sicle et la rgle [littrature](2004)

La neige brle prix Femina [littrature] (1977)

Le pouvoir intellectuel en France (1979)

Empire 2.0 [littrature] (2004)

Le sicle et la rgle. Une correspondance avec le

frre Gilles-Dominique o. p.

Critique de la raison politique (1981)

Julien le Fidle ou Le banquet des dmons [thtre]

(2005)

Comte ma comte [littrature] (1986)

Sur le pont d'Avignon, Flammarion, 2005.

3
Les communions humaines (2005)
Supplique aux nouveaux progressistes du XXIe sicle, Gallimard, (2006).
Aveuglantes Lumires, Journal en clair-obscur, Gallimard, (2006).
Un candide en Terre sainte, Gallimard, (2008)
In English:
Revolution In The Revolution (Grove, 2000).
God: An Itinerary (Verso, 2004).
Transmitting Culture (Columbia University Press,
2004).
Against Venice (Pushkin Press, 2002).

7 External links
Ches Guerrilla War, 1973
Institut Europen en Sciences des Religions
Regis Debray - Revolution in the Revolution?
[Link] Article subjects website
(Franais)
Symposium Thtre, religion, politique: Les liaisons dangereuses, Centre dtudes et de recherches
internationales de l'Universit de Montral, April
the 12, 2007
Debray Growls At A World In Chaos The Times of
India, December 19, 2009
Communication and Transmission: Rgis Debray
Daily Times, January 18, 2010
Videos

4.2

Articles

This Was an Intellectual. TELOS 44 (Summer

1980). New York: Telos Press

4.3

Reports

Rapport au Ministre des aaires trangres M. Dominique de Villepin du Comit indpendant de

rexion et de propositions sur les relations FrancoHatiennes - Janvier 2004

References

[1] Debray Growls At A World In Chaos The Times of India,

December 19, 2009
[2] Horne, Alistair (1972, revised 1990), Small Earthquake in
Chile, London: Papermac, pp 347 and 351 [1990 edition].
[3] La Coupe de l'Elyse 2007, par Rgis Debray, Le Monde,
27 February 2007 (French)

Further reading
T. J. Clark and Donald Nicholson-Smith (Winter
1997). Why Art Can't Kill the Situationist International. October. Retrieved 2008-04-12. Also
published at pp. 467488 of book Tom McDonough
(2004) (Editor) Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents. The MIT Press
(April 1, 2004) 514 pages ISBN 0-262-63300-0
ISBN 978-0-262-63300-0

loge du spectacle, 04/12/2007, Center for international research University of Montral

Quelle thique pour les relations Nord-Sud ? Politique humanitaire politique trangre, convergences
et divergences 04/14/2007,Center for international
research University of Montral
Dramaturgies
engages,
un
tabou
?
04/13/2007,Center for international research
University of Montral

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Rgis Debray Source: [Link] Contributors: Ericd, Angela, Kaihsu,

Nunh-huh, Sesel, Fys, Neutrality, D6, Rich Farmbrough, Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters, MeltBanana, Lycurgus, Thewayforward, Max rspct,
Saga City, Cbustapeck, Stefanomione, Dynamax, Descendall, Kbdank71, Rjwilmsi, Joe Decker, The wub, FlaBot, Pruneau, Ground Zero,
AVM, Gaius Cornelius, Milo99, Zwobot, Syrthiss, Varano, KhunMKham, Greece666, WikiSceptic, Kintetsubualo, Hmains, Dahn, Tomtom9041, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, John, Tazmaniacs, Shyamsunder, Agathoclea, Relig, Seqsea, Inigo75, CmdrObot, Cydebot, Bthomson,
[Link], Joyradost, Thijs!bot, TGGP, Clive sweeting, Austin Fisher, R'n'B, TreasuryTag, TXiKiBoT, Charlesdrakew, Sintaku, SieBot,
Denisarona, SummerWithMorons, Wedineinheck, Mild Bill Hiccup, PixelBot, Redthoreau, MystBot, Radh, Addbot, Kippereld, Gogogrl,
Fyrael, Lightbot, Enbowles, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Sherlock4000, AnomieBOT, LilHelpa, Xqbot, GrouchoBot, Omnipaedista, Shoshanna
Dreyfuss, FrescoBot, Michitaro, Gingerup, Chez alexito, The Madras, ZroBot, Susanhistorian, EricClarion, Hans Frrum, AngBent,
Herefordwholegrain, Ostera65, BattyBot, AK456, VIAFbot, Melonkelon, Evano1van, Param Mudgal and Anonymous: 47

8.2

Images

File:Ambox_important.svg Source: [Link] License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, based o of Image:Ambox [Link] Original artist: Dsmurat (talk contribs)
File:Regis_Debray.jpg Source: [Link] License: Public domain Contributors: Fotografa extrada de la revista Primera Plana. Ao VIII numero 408, de noviembre de 1970 ,Buenos Aires, Argentina. Original
artist: Unknown

8.3

Content license

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