Abstract

Herbert Marcuse’s Idea of the “Great Refusal” Herbert Marcuse is almost invariably cited in the numerous books and articles dealing with May 1968. Without question, the philosophical and political positions which he defended resonate with the struggles and aspirations of a period both rebellious and utopian, in which anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, third-world and anti-capitalist struggles were mingled with new forms of social mobilisation, directed against whatever could hamper and compromise the possibility of living fully in the present. Marcuse notably addressed the question of alienation, affirming that, here and now, an other life is possible. While Marcuse, with the mixture of pessimism and optimism which animates him, does recognise that the path to emancipation remains a long one, he does not despair of the capacity of the “wretched of the earth” to refuse resignation and rebel against their fate