Camouflage

Elsa Dorlin is a philosopher, specialised in the history of sexism and modern racism, she has worked, amongst others, on the genesis of the modern nation, the epistemologies of domination and people’s experiences of forms of resistance. In her latest work Se défendre, une philosophie de la violence, she relies on the strategies of defence that have been put in place by certain groups, by beginning a reflection with the body, the manhunts that it is subjected to and the disruptive practices it can put in place to protect itself from them. Concealment, covering oneself and camouflage are practices inherited, notably, from marronage – the process of extricating oneself from slavery – a previously unseen archive which Elsa Dorlin has begun unearthing. In the specific context of 3days4ideas, she wants to share some of her discoveries by demonstrating to what extent these forms of camouflage offer resources to think about and activate defence strategies specific to the lives that are hunted down increasingly violently today.