Quinze ans après: La Philosophie des images aujourd’hui. Essai de biographie intellectuelle
Fifteen Years After: The Philosophy of the Images Today

Summary/Abstract: Fifteen years ago Jean-Jacques Wunenburger published Philosophie des images, a book which ignored all the influential thinkers of the time, from Barthes and Foucault to Gombrich, Francastel and Louis Marin. He bypassed them because he rejected their theoretical foundation, i.e. Marx, Freud and Saussure. Instead he built on the insights of Merleau-Ponty and on a Jungian foundation, as developed by Mircea Eliade and systematized by Gilbert Durand. Jung’s oeuvre became the main source of inspiration for Wunenburger’s theory on myths and archetypes. Nevertheless, in this paper I underline the importance of Ernst Cassirer in building the modern concept of cultural discourse. I also bring into discussion the “alternative” views of Hans Belting and William J. Thomas Mitchell who focus their research on the material and social dimension of visual images, and of Georges Didi-Huberman who insists on a free, unsystematic approach to art.

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