Tempo do evento, poética da história: maio de 1968 segundo Michel de Certeau e Cornelius Castoriadis

Abstract

This article analyzes and establishes comparisons between Michel de Certeau’s and Cornelius Castoriadis’ interpretations of the demonstrations of May 1968. The writings produced by both authors at that time are privileged; however, relations with later texts are also made. In the analysis of the distinct materials, the relevance of what happened in 1968 for the formulation of some key ideas of both authors is suggested, above all in relation to the meaning given to the event as the emergence of the new, the unexpected, the unthinkable. This valorization of the radical novelty of what happened in May 1968 is related to ontological assumptions about the temporality of history as lived experience, but also impacting on the epistemological foundations of history as a form of writing. Their analyses, therefore, allow the exploration of important theoretical, political and even poetic implications of the meaning given to the event in historiography.