A Programme of Absolute Disorder
Decolonizing the Museum
Will be published approx. on 20. October 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-7453-5261-9 (ISBN)
Description
'A complete overhaul of the Western museum tradition' - Publishers Weekly
In A Programme of Absolute Disorder, Françoise Vergès strips away the veneer of the universal Western museum to reveal its origins as the foundation of liberal ideology.
By exploring the history of the Louvre, and following the radical tradition of Frantz Fanon, she argues that the modern institution cannot just be fixed with a more diverse board or by finding new ways to display the art.
Instead, she demands a 'post-museum': a space that rejects the financialization of art, acknowledges the bloody history of its collections, and prioritizes the labor and dignity of those who clean, guard, and inhabit its halls.
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Additional editions
Book
07/2024
Pluto Press
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Persons
Françoise Vergès is a political scientist, activist, historian, film writer, and public educator. She is the author of A Decolonial Feminism, A Feminist History of Violence, and A Programme of Absolute Disorder. She is also a senior research fellow at the Sarah Parker Remond Center for the Study of Racism and Racialization, University College London. She lives in Paris. Paul Gilroy is a renowned sociologist, historian, and cultural theorist recognized for his pioneering work on race, Black diaspora, and postcolonial culture. He is the author of The Black Atlantic, amongst other classics. Melissa Thackway is an independent researcher and translator. She lectures in African Cinema at Sciences-Po and INALCO in Paris. Her recent translations include A Feminist Theory of Violence by Françoise Vergès, Contemporary African Cinema by Olivier Barlet, Tropical Dream Palaces: Cinema-Going in Colonial West Africa by Odile Goerg, and African Diasporic Cinema: Aesthetics of Reconstruction by Daniela Ricci.