From its foundation in 1957 to its self-dissolution in 1972, the Situationist International established itself as one of the most radical revolutionary organisations of the twentieth century.
This book brings together leading researchers on the SI to provide a comprehensive critical analysis of the group's key concepts and contexts, from its relationship to earlier artistic avant-gardes, romanticism, Hegelianism, the history of the workers' movement and May '68 to the concepts and practices of 'spectacle', 'constructed situations', 'everyday life' and 'detournement'. The volume also considers historically underexamined areas of the SI, including the situation of women in the group and its opposition to colonialism and racism.
With contributions from a broad range of thinkers including Anselm Jappe and Michael Loewy, this account takes a fresh look at the complex workings of a group that has come to define radical politics and culture in the post-war period.
Edited by:
Alastair Hemmens,
Gabriel Zacarias
Imprint: Pluto Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 215mm,
Width: 135mm,
Weight: 578g
ISBN: 9780745338903
ISBN 10: 0745338909
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 20 April 2020
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: The Situationist International in Critical Perspective - Alastair Hemmens and Gabriel Zacarias PART I: KEY CONTEXTS 1. Debord’s Reading of Marx, Lukács and Wittfogel: A Look at the Archives - Anselm Jappe 2. The Unsurpassable: Dada, Surrealism and the Situationist International - Krzysztof Fijalkowski 3. Lettrism - Fabrice Flahutez 4. The Situationists, Hegel and Hegelian Marxism in France - Tom Bunyard 5. The Situationist International and the Rediscovery of the Revolutionary Workers’ Movement - Anthony Hayes 6. The Shadow Cast by the Situationist International on May ’68 - Anna Trespeuch-Berthelot 7. The Situationists’ Anti-colonialism: An Internationalist Perspective - Sophie Dolto and Nedjib Sidi Moussa 8. Gender and Sexuality in the Situationist International - Ruth Baumeister 9. Revolutionary Romanticism in the Twentieth Century: Surrealists and Situationists - Michael Löwy PART II: KEY CONCEPTS 10. The Spectacle - Alastair Hemmens and Gabriel Zacarias 11. The Constructed Situation - Gabriel Zacarias 12. Unitary Urbanism: Three Psychogeographic Imaginaries - Craig Buckley 13. The Abolition of Alienated Labour - Alastair Hemmens 14. Détournement in Language and the Visual Arts - Gabriel Zacarias 15. The Situationists’ Revolution of Everyday Life - Michael E. Gardiner 16. Radical Subjectivity: Considered in its Psychological, Economic, Political, Sexual and, Notably, Philosophical Aspects - Alastair Hemmens 17. The ‘Realisation of Philosophy’ - Tom Bunyard 18. Recuperation - Patrick Marcolini 19. Internationalism - Bertrand Cochard Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index
Alastair Hemmens is Lecturer in French at Cardiff University School of Modern Languages, Wales. Gabriel Zacarias is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Campinas, Brazil.
Reviews for The Situationist International: A Critical Handbook
'Philosophy, critical theory, artistic practice, strategies and tactics of social contestation, transnational networks and internecine clashes all came together in the Situationist International. In this volume, new archival resources and a new generation of scholars point the way to a richer, more complete picture of the movement and its place in the 20th and 21st centuries' -- Kevin Repp, Curator of Modern European Books & Manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library 'It's hard to see how this book could be surpassed in rigor and scope. As its authors carefully unpack the complex manifold of situationism, readers begin to grasp again the political, aesthetic, philosophical, and cultural totality of consumer capitalism that the Situationists argued we can leave. This mid-twentieth-century critique and speculation remains an undeniable wonder' -- Simon Sadler, Professor of Design at the University of California, Davis and author of 'The Situationist City'
