The banalisation of the word

Much has been said about the worldwide crisis affecting western societies and its serious consequences. The prevailing discourse, however, tends to focus exclusively on the economic failure when the crisis has had an impact on all aspects of the present. The anthropologist Lluís Duch, who has devoted a considerable part of his career to reflecting upon the word, sustains that our ability to bespeak reality has also been weakened. He believes that these critical times have their correlate in a banalisation of the word that endangers every aspect of our public, private and intimate lives.

This lecture has been organised by the CCCB in collaboration with Fragmenta Editorial on the occasion of the launch of the book Emparaular el món. El pensament antropològic de Lluís Duch (Bespeak the World: The Anthropological Thought of Lluís Duch – Fragmenta, 2011).