La resistenza come stile di vita “non-fascista”. Foucault, la rivoluzione e l’Iran

Abstract

In the following text, I would like to put into question resistance as a philosophical and political possibility, based on some of Michel Foucault’s writings. I will focus, in particular, on the reportage written for Il Corriere della Sera during two trips to Iran in September and November 1978. In these articles, critically framing the historical and philosophical concept of revolution, Foucault describes the spreading revolts against the Shah’s regime as a form of resistance opening of the possibility of a transformation in history. He uses a fascinating and, at the same time, ambiguous concept: that of “political spirituality”. I will briefly analyse this notion, to finally show that some elements of Foucauldian analysis of the Iranian revolts are still important for reactivating a thought of resistance and questioning its role in building a “non-fascist way of life”.