Spettri di Marilyn

The purpose of this paper is to explore the deep bond that intervenes between the figure of Marilyn Monroe and Guy Debord’s “society of the spectacle”, in which reality is annihilated and replaced by phantasmatic representations. I will first try to synthesize the current status of the image, to understand how deeply Marilyn penetrated the optical unconscious and the collective imaginary, relating her to the main debordian concepts. Secondly, I will propose some alternative images, different visions of Marilyn, in the attempt to restore her beauty crumbled by the spectacle.