French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Buffon, Vulgarity and Modernity
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
BERTRAND BUFFON
Vulgarité et modernité
Le Débat series, Gallimard
Publication date: 23-05-2019
240 p. — ISBN: 9782072851445
Vulgarity is omnipresent today. It manifests in manners, language, attire, and the arts; it is encountered among the masses as well as the elites, and all the way to the highest levels of government; it proliferates in advertising, the media, on the Internet, and across social networks. Moreover, it is shamelessly displayed, openly embraced, and often aggressive.
Yet despite its rise and its increasingly severe forms, and despite the nuisances it generates, vulgarity has never been the subject of a systematic examination. This book aims to fill this gap.
To fully grasp its meaning, this study examines the fierce criticisms that vulgarity has provoked over the past two centuries and the remedies unsuccessfully deployed against it. It seeks a new antidote by tracing back to the sources that enable, authorize, and even encourage its spread.
Vulgarity is the fruit of an immoderate modernity, and its proliferation reflects the excesses of postmodernity. Examining the foundational principles of contemporary Western society uncovers the deep drivers of this phenomenon and suggests a path forward to protect ourselves from it.
Beyond vulgarity itself, the challenge is to stand firm in the face of a radicalizing modernity that distorts its own emancipatory project and hinders the flourishing of our humanity.
The critique of modernity and its cultural fallout has a long lineage in French intellectual history, stretching from nineteenth-century anxieties about mass culture to late twentieth-century theories of postmodernity. In this tradition, the evolution of social norms is often analyzed alongside shifts in political and economic structures. By focusing on vulgarity, Bertrand Buffon connects everyday behaviors—from language to digital media—with broader philosophical questions about Western society's development. The work positions this aesthetic and moral shift not as an isolated trend, but as a direct consequence of a radicalized modern project that has lost its original emancipatory bearings.
Historically, debates surrounding taste, manners, and public decorum have often served as battlegrounds for deeper anxieties about class, democracy, and authority. Over the last two centuries, various cultural critics have attempted to define and combat vulgarity, though these efforts have frequently struggled to stem its growth. Buffon's study revisits these past criticisms and unsuccessful remedies to understand why the phenomenon continues to expand so aggressively today. Readers interested in cultural sociology, the history of manners, and contemporary social philosophy may find this analysis of modern behavior relevant to understanding current cultural shifts.