Situationist International anthology / [edited and translated by Ken Knabb ; translation collaboration, Nadine Block and Joël Cornuault].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Knabb, Ken.

Internationale situationniste.

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Internationale situationniste.

Radicalism--Europe.

Radicalism.

Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Europe.

Avant-garde (Aesthetics).

Civilization.

Europe.

Physical Description:

x, 532 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Revised and expanded edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, Calif. : Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006.

Summary:

In 1957 a few European avant-garde groups came together to form the Situationist International. Picking up where the dadaists and surrealists had left off, the situationists challenged people's passive conditioning with carefully calculated scandals and the playful tactic of detournement. Seeking a more extreme social revolution than was dreamed of by most leftists, they developed an incisive critique of the global spectacle-commodity system and of its "Communist" pseudo-opposition, and their new methods of agitation helped trigger the May 1968 revolt in France. Since then-although the SI itself was dissolved in 1972-situationist theories and tactics have continued to inspire radical currents all over the world.

The Situationist International Anthology, generally recognized as the most comprehensive and accurately translated collection of situationist writings in English, presents a rich variety of articles, leaflets, graffiti and internal documents, ranging from early experiments in "psychogeography" to lucid analyses of the Watts riot, the Vietnam War, the Prague Spring, the Chinese Cultural Revolution and other crises and upheavals of the sixties. For this new edition the translations have all been fine-tuned and over 100 pages of new material have been added.

Contents:

Pre-S.I. Texts

Formulary for a New Urbanism (Chtcheglov, 1953) 1

Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography (Debord, 1955) 8

Proposals for Rationally Improving the City of Paris (Lettrist International, 1955) 12

A User's Guide to Detournement (Debord & Wolman, 1956) 14

The Alba Platform (Lettrist International, 1956) 21

Notes on the Formation of an Imaginist Bauhaus (Jorn, 1957) 23

Report on the Construction of Situations (Debord, 1957) 25

French Journals

#1 (1958)

The Sound and the Fury 47

Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation 49

Theses on Cultural Revolution (Debord) 53

The Situationists and Automation (Jorn) 55

No Useless Leniency (Bernstein) 58

Action in Belgium Against the International Assembly of Art Critics 59

#2 (1958)

Theory of the Derive (Debord) 62

#3 (1959)

Detournement as Negation and Prelude 67

Situationist Theses on Traffic (Debord) 69

Another City for Another Life (Constant) 71

#4 (1960)

The Use of Free Time 74

Gangland and Philosophy (Kotanyi) 76

#5 (1960)

The Adventure 79

The Fourth SI Conference in London 81

#6 (1961)

Instructions for an Insurrection 84

Basic Program of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism (Kotanyi & Vaneigem) 86

Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life (Debord) 90

#7 (1962)

Geopolitics of Hibernation 100

The Bad Days Will End 107

The Fifth SI Conference in Goteborg 114

Basic Banalities (Part 1) (Vaneigem) 117

#8 (1963)

Ideologies, Classes, and the Domination of Nature 131

The Avant-Garde of Presence 142

The Counter-Situationist Campaign in Various Countries 145

All the King's Men 149

Basic Banalities (Part 2) (Vaneigem) 154

Anti-Public Relations Notice 173

#9 (1964)

Now, the SI 174

Questionnaire 178

Response to a Questionnaire from the Center for Socio-Experimental Art 183

#10 (1966)

Address to Revolutionaries of Algeria and of All Countries 189

The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy 194

The Class Struggles in Algeria 203

Contribution to a Councilist Program in Spain 213

Some Theoretical Topics That Need To Be Dealt With (Vaneigem) 220

Captive Words: Preface to a Situationist Dictionary (Khayati) 222

The Role of Godard 228

The Ideology of Dialogue 230

Interview with an Imbecile 233

The Algeria of Daniel Guerin, Libertarian 235

Domenach versus Alienation 237

#11 (1967)

The Explosion Point of Ideology in China 240

Two Local Wars 251

Our Goals and Methods in the Strasbourg Scandal 263

The Situationists and the New Forms of Action Against Politics and Art (Vienet) 273

Aiming for Practical Truth (Vaneigem) 277

Setting Straight Some Popular Misconceptions About Revolutions in the Underdeveloped Countries (Khayati) 281

Minimum Definition of Revolutionary Organizations 285

Three Postscripts to the Previous Issue 286

#12 (1969)

The Beginning of an Era 288

Reform and Counterreform in the Bureaucratic Bloc 326

How Not To Understand Situationist Books 336

Preliminaries on Councils and Councilist Organization (Riesel) 348

Notice to the Civilized Concerning Generalized Self-Management (Vaneigem) 363

The Conquest of Space in the Time of Power (Rothe) 371

The Latest Exclusions 374

The Elite and the Backward 377

Cinema and Revolution 378

The Organization Question for the SI (Debord) 380

Miscellaneous Publications

Preliminaries Toward Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Program (Canjuers & Debord, 1960) 387

For a Revolutionary Judgment of Art (Debord, 1961) 393

Theses on the Paris Commune (Debord, Kotanyi, Vaneigem, 1962) 398

The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics and Art (Debord, 1963) 402

On the Poverty of Student Life (1966) 408

In Short (1965 & 1969) 430

May 1968 Documents

Communique 435

Watch Out for Manipulators! Watch Out for Bureaucrats! 435

Slogans To Be Spread Now by Every Means 436

Telegrams 437

Report on the Occupation of the Sorbonne 438

For the Power of the Workers Councils 442

Address to All Workers 443

Graffiti 445

Internal Texts

Provisional Statutes of the SI (1969) 461

Provisional Theses for the Discussion of New Theoretico-Practical Orientations in the SI (Salvadori, 1970) 464

Remarks on the SI Today (Debord, 1970) 468

Declaration (Debord, Riesel, Vienet, 1970) 474

Untitled Text (Debord, 1971) 476

The Blind Men and the Elephant 500

Index to Debord's the Society of the Spectacle 511

Index to Vaneigem's the Revolution of Everyday Life 512.

Notes:

"The major portion of the anthology is drawn from the French journal Internationale Situationniste"--Page ix.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9780939682041

0939682044

OCLC:

896068150