The joyful power of activist memory: The radiant image of the Commune in the Invisible Committee’s writings

Abstract

This article seeks to understand the emotional dynamics surrounding the image of the Paris Commune in connection with its mobilization through contemporary movements of struggle sharing, as their common point, a rejection of neo-liberal capitalism. More precisely, this will involve examining how the affect of joy – understood in Spinoza’s terms as a passion which contributes to increasing the power of action – plays a determining role in the Commune’s discursive deployment in the Invisible Committee’s writings.