Philippe-Joseph Salazar
Philippe-Joseph Salazar, 2011
Born (1955-02-10) 10 February 1955 (age 68)
Casablanca
Alma materÉcole Normale Supérieure
InstitutionsUniversity of Cape Town, Collège international de philosophie
Main interests
rhetoric

Philippe-Joseph Salazar (French: [salazaʁ]), a French rhetorician and philosopher,[1] was born on 10 February 1955 in Casablanca, then part of French Morocco. Salazar attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand a prestigious secondary-school in Paris (founded 1563)[2] before studying philosophy, politics and literature at the École Normale Supérieure. Since 1999 Salazar[3] is a Distinguished Professor in Rhetoric in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.[4] Salazar's lifelong achievements made him the recipient of Africa's premier research award in 2008, the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award. In 2015 he received a prestigious French literary prize for political non-fiction, Prix Bristol des Lumières [fr], for his book on the rhetoric of jihadism: Paroles armées (2015), translated in four languages (in English, Words are Weapons. Inside ISIS's Rhetoric of Terror, Yale UP, 2017).

From voice to rhetoric

Salazar's advisor at Ecole Normale Supérieure was Louis Althusser. While at ENS he joined the Conférence Olivaint, an exclusive club dedicated to training future leaders in the Catholic and liberal tradition of public oratory, and completed a voluntary internship at the cultural affairs section of Paris City Hall when President Chirac was mayor.

Salazar would later pursue graduate studies in metaphysics (on metaphor and ontology) with Emmanuel Levinas, in semiotics (on voice) with Roland Barthes and in political theory with Maurice Duverger. Lacanian psychoanalyst and film theorist Anna Guédy of École Freudienne de Paris further influenced his academic career (lectures on film and voice in Paris), which led to[5] a collaboration to critical theory journal La Cause Freudienne[6] edited by Jacques Lacan and Jacques-Alain Miller. Early friendships with French avant-garde actor Serge Merlin and professor of declamation (in the tradition of Sarah Bernhardt) Pierre Spivakoff deepened his understanding of voice. He began contributing extensive articles on voice, opera and psycho-analysis, to leading journal Avant-Scène Opera[7] (from 1977 to 1984). On Maria Callas' death (1977) French far-left daily Libération (founded by Jean-Paul Sartre) asked Salazar to write her obituary.

At the prompting of both his philosophy advisor Louis Althusser and French sociologist Georges Balandier, Salazar travelled to apartheid South Africa in 1978 to undertake field-research on racial rhetoric, which led to a first doctoral dissertation in social and cultural anthropology at the Sorbonne University in Paris. The examination copy of his dissertation was blocked by the South African Security Police but sneaked out of the Apartheid state via diplomatic pouch (see preface to his bookAn African Athens[8] and eventually published as L'Intrigue Raciale: Essai de Critique Anthropologique.[9] He has since retained a strong interest in anthropology.

After returning to Paris, Salazar served for a while as Arts and Letters editor of controversial psycho-analytical magazine Spirales, edited by Armando Verdiglione [it]. He published lengthy interviews with William Styron, and painter Elizabeth Franzheim, and he resumed writing on opera in Avant-Scène Opera as well as Opera International,[10] and Lyrica (interviews of Nicolai Gedda, Mirella Freni). He wrote also in French conservative-liberal monthly Commentaire.[11] His first book Idéologies de l'opéra (1980) is considered a breakthrough in the field of sociology and anthropology of opera.[12] Salazar dedicated the book to his mentor, Germaine Lubin. In 1981, he published his opera Icare in Islamic poet and psychoanalyst Michel Orcel's literary journal L'Alphée and contributed to Philippe Sollers's famed avant-garde journal L'Infini at the prompting of novelist Dominique Rolin.[13] He has since retained an interest in opera as a social form of knowledge (2000, keynote speaker of cross-cultural event Carmen 2000, SoBe, Miami,[14] and co-founded Espacio Cultural Triangular with New York photographer Ruben Roncallo).[15]

This intersectional interest in anthropology, philosophy and political theory led him to engage with a newly re-emerging field, rhetoric.

In the 1980s Salazar's senior doctorate advisor and Balzan Prize laureate Marc Fumaroli had reshaped the field of rhetoric studies in regard of French literary and political culture (Fumaroli shows how High Church rhetoric and its institutions had been appropriated by a centralized monarchy and then a secularized Republic). Since the late 1980s Fumaroli's work, in Paris, in Italy and at the University of Chicago, has been decisive in the reshaping of cultural studies from a non, if not anti structuralism and deconstruction approach. Salazar's senior dissertation (or Doctorat d'Etat) concerned itself with oral culture in the French classical age and it remains to this day a reference work on the topic[16] as Le Culte de la Voix au 17e Siècle).[17] The book is dedicated to the memory of Roland Barthes and Georges Dumézil who had both encouraged him to make "voice" his very own scholarly project.[18] In 1993 Salazar convened at Centre culturel international de Cerisy-la-Salle, a prestigious locale for cutting edge research, a colloquium to salute Fumaroli's pioneering work in rhetoric. During this "classical" phase Salazar published or edited key documents of French cultural tradition, such as Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy's seminal De Arte Graphica( a key document of French Classicism in the fine arts), Bishop Jacques Amyot's royal lectures on oratory for King Henri III,[19] royal preceptor and theologian Pierre Daniel Huet's Memoirs, and skeptical philosopher François de La Mothe Le Vayer, the Sun-King's teacher.[20] Recognized as a prominent 17th century studies scholar, Salazar was appointed to a Chair at Centre d’Etudes de la Renaissance, at François Rabelais University, Tours, France in 1999. In 2000, Salazar relinquished the Tours Chair to devote his research to rhetoric as a "technology of power" in modern, public affairs. He took up an appointment as Distinguished Chair in Rhetoric and Humane Letters at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. At that time (1999) he was elected to a sought after 6-year Directorship in Rhetoric and Democracy at Jacques Derrida's Foundation, Collège international de philosophie, in Paris, extending the work done at the Centre for Rhetoric Studies, Cape Town, he founded while Dean of Arts in 1994.

Rhetoric as a philosophy of power

The Centre for Rhetoric Studies at the University of Cape Town was founded[21] with a view to study the importance of rhetoric for peaceful democracy (Mission Statement).[21] The projects based at the Centre in Cape Town mirrored Salazar's own research chair in Paris. Both focused on rhetoric as a foundation for public life, and in post-totalitarian democracy in particular. Influential magazine Sciences Humaines praised Salazar's book Hyperpolitique for resetting rhetoric at the centre of human sciences enquiry[22]

If Salazar's work is not unique in regard of a concern with rhetorical forms among contemporary French philosophers, its originality lies in its focus: rhetorical technologies of power in democracy, the question of reconciliation, and the practices of opinion-based, political "evil.".[23] His work parallels that of fellow philosopher François Jullien on Chinese "manipulation" and of philologist and Heideggerian philosopher Barbara Cassin on Sophistry in Ancient Greece. Historian of the public sphere Emmanuel Lemieux ( author of Le Pouvoir Intellectuel)[24] called him an "atypical philosopher".

Seminal works have marked Salazar's reshaping of rhetoric as the study of forms of power in contemporary democracies: Truth in Politics,[25] Amnistier l’Apartheid (in Barbara Cassin and Alain Badiou's series Ordre Philosophique), Vérité, Réconciliation, Réparation, a collaborative book with Paul Ricoeur and Jacques Derrida), credited for having introduced in French political thought the concept of ubuntu (Edwy Plenel, Le Monde, 12/30/2004).[26] Salazar's works also include edited volumes on Democratic Rhetoric and the Duty of Deliberation[27] and The Rhetorical Shape of International Conflicts.[28] In addition to his rhetorical analysis of declarations of war[29] and a study of Nobel Prize rhetoric in his edited volume on French rhetoric and philosophy today (Philosophy and Rhetoric).[30] His work on the rhetorical foundation of politics extends beyond Europe and Africa, with a publication on Les Slaves (2005)[31] and a book Mahomet (2006),[32] a study of rhetorical common places regarding the Prophet of Islam.[33] His publications led to a sustained conversation and broadcast on forgiveness and secularism with Arab poet and philosopher Abdelwahab Meddeb in 2006.[34] and broadcast Cultures D'Islam, 27 May 2006).[35]

With Hyperpolitique (2009) Salazar opened a new area of investigation : rhetoric studies as philosophy of power. Le Nouvel Economiste carried a laudatory critique of the book and of its relevance for leadership studies.[36] More recent publications, Paroles de Leaders, Décrypter le Discours des Puissants in August 2011 (François Bourin Editeur),[37] and L'Art de séduire l'électeur indécis[38] have placed him at the forefront of the field. Premier management quarterly L'Expansion Management Review placed Paroles de Leaders on its "Books To Read" list (September 2011). Salazar is currently engaging with covert forms of power, intelligence[39] and surveillance studies, with a lead essay in Italian philosophy journal Lo Sguardo,[40] an edited volume for Swiss transnational journal and think tank Cosmopolis,[41] following a collaborative volume on Surveillance/Rhetoric (with a lead contribution by Antonio Negri).[42]

Salazar's work has secured him a global influence in his field.[43] He has addressed the Observatoire de la Transition démocratique et Forum de la Citoyenneté, in Rabat, Morocco, ahead of the Moroccan Equite et Réconciliation National Commission (2004). He has held the Annual Seminar in Peace and Conflict Resolution at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Among his signature public lectures: the Annual Lecture in Law and Literature at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, New York; the 18th Kenneth Burke Annual Lecture at the Center for Democratic Deliberation at Penn State[44] in which he outlined his thinking on the rhetorical foundation of political philosophy and addressed a colloquium on the U.S. presidency and its rhetoric of virtue (France Culture Lecture);[45] the Buenos Aires Forum of Rhetoric (Conferencia de Apertura);[46] the Balkan Summer University for young philosophers on rhetorical technologies of domination in democratic societies;[47] in Brussels the ULB's annual public lecture on democracy and debate;[48] in 2011 at the University of Nanking and at Yangzhou University;[49] in 2017 at the Fondazione MAST, in Bologna, Italy;[50] and at the Berlin literature festival Haus für Poesie.[51] Salazar has extended the scope of rhetorical critique to Marxism in avant-garde journals Consecutio Temporum[52] and Transeuropéennes.[53]

As a public intellectual Salazar has appeared on France-Culture,[54] French C-Span: Public-Senat.[55] and notably TV5 Monde.[56] He has written for Le Figaro, L'Express, Le Point, Le Nouvel Observateur,[57]Atlantico.,[58] Causeur and Valeurs Actuelles. He appears regularly on the Rachel Marsden show,on Sputnik (news agency) radio in French. He contributes to the publications of the French Centre for Intelligence Studies[59] and a Defense and Security studies site.[60] In addition to his regular chronicles for online culture newsmagazine Les Influences as Le rhéteur cosmopolite and Comment raisonnent-ils?,[61] and blogs at Yale Books Unbound.

His award-winning book, Paroles armées, has received international praise.[62] It is a full-scale analysis of the Islamic State's propaganda and rhetorical strategies of influence (published in five languages). On the occasion of the Darmstadt premiere of Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek's play Wut ("Rage"), on the January 2015 Paris terror attack against Charlie Hebdo by militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) excerpts of Salazar's Die Sprache des Terrors were reprinted to introduce the play.[63] The French book received the coveted prix Bristol des Lumières (best nonfiction) a day before the November 2015 Paris Bataclan (theatre) massacre by Islamic State's militants.

His most recent book, in French (Suprémacistes, 2020), is a full scale study of key figures of the international white supremacy/white nationalism, what he calls the "white awakening" in his critical legal study essay on mass murderer Dylann Roof.[64]

Professional activities

He is Honorary Life President of the Association for Rhetoric and Communication in Southern Africa, Vice-President of the Chinese Global Society for Visual Communication, Founding and Honorary Member of the Sociedad Latinamericana de Retorica. He sits on the Editorial Board of Philosophy and Rhetoric and Javnost-The Public. He collaborates with French publisher Piranha as editorial adviser at large for foreign fiction (novels by Christopher Hope, Kazuki Sakuraba, Phil Redmond). From 2007 to 2014 he directed a series of publications on the power of rhetoric at Klincksieck [fr] (the oldest publishing house in the social sciences in France) ranging from Buddhist rhetoric (Rada Ivekovic) to Heidegger (Valerie Allen and Ares D. Axiotis), from visual eloquence (Hanno Hardt) at the time of the disintegration of Yugoslavia to Third Reich and DDR propaganda machines (Randall L. Bytwerk), from migrants' eloquence to political styles (Robert Hariman). Founder and current co-chairman of the Macmillan Club.[65] Aviator member of the Aéro-Club de France, and author of Air Law, A Comprehensive Sourcebook For Southern African Pilots and a regular contributor to SA Flyer-African Aviation; journalist-level member of the National Press Club (USA) of Washington, and of the Owl Club. In 2022, on the occasion of the Ben Beinart Lecture at Cape Town Law school, the international community of rhetoricians presented him with a Festschrift to celebrate his forty years scholarship in rhetoric studies, The Incomprehensible: The Critical Rhetoric of Philippe-Joseph Salazar[1].

Publications

Monographs and edited volumes

Journal editorship

Series Editor

As an Editorial Advisor At Large for Foreign Fiction, Piranha publishing house:

As Director, Klincksieck publishing house:

References

  1. ^ Confession of a Sometime Opium Eater, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Vol. 45, No. 3, 2012, pp. 335-342.
  2. ^ Administrator. "anglais".
  3. ^ fr:Philippe-Joseph Salazar
  4. ^ Compare: "Philippe-Joseph Salazar". University of Cape Town. 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017. Philippe-Joseph Salazar is a Distinguished Professor in Rhetoric, in the Faculty of Law.
  5. ^ "La voix tatouée," Psychologie médicale,18 (8),1986
  6. ^ "La rétention de la Voix", Lettre mensuelle de l'École Freudienne, 5, 1985, 8-9
  7. ^ "Opéra Paris – Avant Scène Opéra : Revue bimestrielle consacrée aux opéras".
  8. ^ Salazar, Philippe Joseph (1 January 2002). An African Athens: Rhetoric and the Shaping of Democracy in South Africa. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780805833416 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Salazar, Philippe Joseph (1 January 1989). L'intrigue raciale: Essai de critique anthropologique : l'Afrique du Sud. Méridiens Klincksieck. ISBN 2865632113.
  10. ^ Furman, Nelly (1 January 1991). Castarède, Marie-France; Poizat, Michel; Salazar, Philippe-Joseph (eds.). "Opera, or the Staging of the Voice". Cambridge Opera Journal. 3 (3): 303–306. doi:10.1017/S0954586700003542. JSTOR 823620.
  11. ^ "Opéra et Cinéma", Commentaire, 4(13), 1980
  12. ^ Monitor ZSA – Revija za zgodovinsko, socialno in druge anthropologije [Revue for Historical, Social and Other Anthropologies], Vlado Kotnik ed., Special Issue on Reflections on Opera / Reflexions sur l'opéra, 8 (1-2), 2006 ISSN 1854-0376
  13. ^ "Je le déclare nettement'. La Bruyère Orateur", L'Infini, 35, 1991.
  14. ^ Interview with Ralph Heyndels, Miamigo, 3, 2000, p. 23.
  15. ^ "Main : Ruben Roncallo".
  16. ^ Le Culte de la voix au XVIIe siècle. Formes esthétiques de la parole à l'âge de l'imprimé, Paris-Geneva, Champion-Slatkine, 1995, 408 p.
  17. ^ Reviewed in TLS by Peter France, "Hearing Human Harmonies", 10/1/1997.
  18. ^ Acknowledgments, Culte de la Voix, 1995.
  19. ^ (Ed. Projet d'éloquence royale de Jacques Amyot, new edition, with a prefatory essay "Le Monarque orateur," Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1992, 104 p.
  20. ^ (Ed.) François de La Mothe Le Vayer. De la patrie et des étrangers et autres traités sceptiques, Paris, Desjonquères, 2003, 336 p. (ISBN 2-84321-057-7).
  21. ^ a b "Rhetoric Africa 2012".
  22. ^ Lemieux, Emmanuel. "Un grand discours vaut mieux qu'une petite phrase".
  23. ^ "Rue Descartes » Perpetrator, ou de la citoyenneté criminelle". Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  24. ^ Lemieux, Emmanuel (2003). Pouvoir intellectuel: Les nouveaux réseaux. Denoël. ISBN 978-2207250501.
  25. ^ Salazar, P. J.; Osha, S. (2004). "Truth in politics : Rhetorical approaches to democratic deliberation in Africa and beyond".
  26. ^ "Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos". Archived from the original on 8 July 2012.
  27. ^ Culture, European Institute for Communication and. "Democratic Rhetoric and The Duty of Deliberation, Vol. 8 – 2001, No. 3".
  28. ^ Culture, European Institute for Communication and. "The Rhetorical Shape of International Conflicts, Vol. 12 – 2005, No. 4".
  29. ^ "Comment ne pas déclarer la guerre".
  30. ^ "Project MUSE – Philosophy and Rhetoric-Volume 42, Number 4, 2009".
  31. ^ Mickiewicz, Adam (6 April 2005). Les Slaves, Cours du Collège de France 1842. Klincksieck. ISBN 9782252035160.
  32. ^ Salazar, Philippe-Joseph (11 January 2006). Mahomet, Récits français de la vie du Prophète. Klincksieck. ISBN 9782252035405.
  33. ^ Salazar, Philippe-Joseph (11 January 2006). Mahomet, Récits français de la vie du Prophète (critiques). Klincksieck. ISBN 9782252035405.
  34. ^ Meddeb, Abdelwahab (14 September 2006). "Contre-prêches. Chroniques". SEUIL. Retrieved 31 December 2023 – via Amazon.
  35. ^ Radio France[dead link]
  36. ^ "Le goût de l'éloquence". lenouveleconomiste.fr. 23 March 2010.
  37. ^ "Paroles de leaders, Décrypter le discours des puissants". Archived from the original on 5 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  38. ^ "Le Monde.fr – Actualités et Infos en France et dans le monde". 18 August 2011 – via Le Monde.
  39. ^ Administrator. "CF2R – L'éthique du renseignement A propos du livre Au service de la démocratie parlementaire, de Lady Manningham-Buller, ancienne directrice du MI 5". Archived from the original on 26 February 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  40. ^ Soggettività sotto sorveglianza: retorica redux", Lo Sguardo
  41. ^ Cosmopolis February 2015 University of Cape Town[dead link]
  42. ^ "AYOR Vol 3/1". Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  43. ^ Rapport d'activité pour l'année 2004 justice.gouv.fr
  44. ^ "March 2010 – Salazar Delivers Burke Lecture — Center for Democratic Deliberation". Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  45. ^ "Le pragmatisme en question(s) : La question de la bureaucratie - le pragmatisme en question(s) : La question de la bureaucratie (1/4) - Culture Académie - France Culture". Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  46. ^ "rhetoricafrica Resources and Information" (PDF). ww16.rhetoricafrica.org.[dead link]
  47. ^ Salazar revistaretor.org[dead link]
  48. ^ "- YouTube". YouTube.
  49. ^ "Rhetoric Africa 2012".
  50. ^ "Philippe-Joseph Salazar - Parole armate: Comprendere e combattere la propaganda terrorista". 21 June 2017.
  51. ^ "Haus für Poesie :: Current Events".
  52. ^ "rhetoricafrica Resources and Information" (PDF). ww16.rhetoricafrica.org.[dead link]
  53. ^ "Transeuropeennes – Europe/Mondes". Archived from the original on 23 December 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  54. ^ "Suffit-il de se réconcilier pour avoir la paix ? - Idées - France Culture". www.franceculture.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  55. ^ "Primaire PS : Le club des six | Rémi Lefebvre, Stephen Bunard, Dominique Maingueneau, Philippe-Joseph Salazar | Public Sénat VOD". Archived from the original on 9 June 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  56. ^ TV5MONDE (23 September 2015). "Comprendre et combattre la propagande terroriste". Archived from the original on 15 December 2021 – via YouTube.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  57. ^ "Philippe-Joseph Salazar".
  58. ^ "Philippe-Joseph Salazar | Atlantico". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  59. ^ "CF2R – CENTRE FRANÇAIS DE RECHERCHE SUR LE RENSEIGNEMENT".
  60. ^ Author. Philippe-Joseph Salazar actudefense.com[dead link]
  61. ^ "Comment raisonnent-ils ? – les Influences".
  62. ^ Agnes Poirier, "Philippe-Joseph Salazar: the philosopher whose essay on Isis has shocked and enlightened", The Guardian, Elizabeth von Thadden, "Kampf der Symbole", Die Zeit , Danila Pizzagalli, "Il filosofo Salazar: 'Così possiamo combattere la propaganda del Califfato'", La Stampa, Victor Nunez Jaime, "Palabras como armas", Milenio, Thomas Bartlett, "Want to Beat ISIS? Try Poetry and Negotiation", Chronicle for Higher Education, Luciano Piscaglia, "Guerra Isis: Parole armate", TV2000
  63. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 December 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2017.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  64. ^ Salazar, Philippe-Joseph (2020). ""I, Dylann Roof"—White Voice V. The Force of Law". Javnost - the Public. 27 (4): 369–379. doi:10.1080/13183222.2021.1843861. S2CID 229181792.
  65. ^ Conservatives Abroad: https://www.conservativesabroad.org/south-africa

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