Guy Debord, the Situationist International, and the Revolutionary Spirit

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Debord is popularly known for his classic book The Society of the Spectacle (1967), but his masterwork is the Situationist International (SI), which he fashioned into an international revolutionary avant-garde group that orchestrated student protests at the University of Strasbourg in 1966, contributed to student unrest at the University of Nanterre in 1967–1968, and played an important role in the occupations movement that brought French society to a standstill in May of 1968. The book begins with a brief history of the Lettrist International that explores the group’s conceptualization and practice of the critical anti-art practice of détournement, as well as the subversive spatial practices of the dérive, psychogeography, and unitary urbanism. These practices, which became central to the Situationist International, anticipated many contemporary cultural practices, including culture jamming, critical media literacy, and critical public pedagogy. This book follows up the edited book Détournement as Pedagogical Praxis (Sense Publishers, 2014), and together they offer readers, particularly those in the field of Education, an introduction to the history, concepts, and critical practices of a group whose revolutionary spirit permeates contemporary culture, as can be seen in the political actions of Pussy Riot in Russia, the “yellow vest” protesters in France, the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and the striking teachers and student protesters on campuses throughout the U.S. James Trier, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has published articles and book chapters about representations of education in popular culture, and his first book is an edited volume titled Détournement as Pedagogical Praxis (Sense Publishers, 2014), winner of the 2015 American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Book Award. 1. Introduction Guy Debord’s Masterwork Debord as the SI’s Main Archivist Debord’s Practice of Exclusion in Shaping the SI Including All Seventy SI Members in this Book Rationale for Summarizing the Contents of Internationale Situationniste Chapter Overviews A Review of the Scholarship about the SI Art History and the SI Film Studies and the SI Psychogeography and the Dérive Détournement The Spectacle The SI in (Though Mostly Absent from) Education Notes 2. Guy Debord, the Lettrists, and the Lettrist International, 1951–1957 Debord’s Background Guy Debord Meets Isidore Isou and the Lettrists Debord Moves to Paris, Joins the Lettrists Mension and Papai Ivan Chtcheglov Michele Bernstein Treatise on Slime and Eternity Gil Wolman’s Film L’Anticoncept Howls in Favor of Sade Debord Splits from the Lettrists The Formation of the Lettrist International: Phase 1 (1952–1953) Ivan Chtcheglov’s “Formulary for a New Urbanism” Psychogeography and the Dérive “Theory of the Dérive” The End of the LI’s First Phase The Lettrist International, Phase 2 (1953–1957) Alexander Trocchi The LI Becomes More Politically Attuned The LI Becomes More Exclusive Chtcheglov’s Exclusion from the LI The LI Takes on a New Enemy: Urbanism Debord and Asger Jorn Meet Détournement A New Cartography: The Naked City Jorn & Debord’s Fin de Copenhague Now, the SI Notes 3. The SI’s First Phase, Part One, 1957–1958 “One Step Back” Debord’s Exclusion of Gil Wolman The Founding of the Situationist International Debord’s Report on the Construction of Situations Dada and Surrealism The Spectacle Recuperation Democracy at Work in Cosio Debord’s Book Mémoires The “Sabotage in Cosio” The SI’s Second Conference, January 1958, Paris Hans Platschek and the Founding of the German Section of the SI The “Battle of Brussels” Gallizio’s Turin Exhibition of Industrial Painting The Guglielmi Affair, 1958 Internationale Situationniste, Issue One, June 1958 The Algerian War (1954–1962) Provocative Images of Young Women Debord’s Role in the SI’s First Year Notes 4. The SI’s First Phase, Part Two, 1958–1960 Debord Persuades Constant to Become More Involved in the SI Jorn Recruits the Spur Group Debord’s Tape-Recorded Lecture at the Surrealist Event Internationale Situationniste, Issue Two, December 1958 Spur Impresses Debord by Perpetrating a Scandal New Members and Another Exclusion The SI’s Third Conference, April 1959, Munich Debord Publishes Mémoires and Meets Jorn’s Brother, Jorgen Nash Debord Orchestrates a Convergence of Interventions in May 1959 Constant’s New Babylon Jorn’s Modification Paintings Gallizio’s Cavern of Anti-Matter Exhibit Debord Criticizes Constant’s Forum Special Issue Debord Confides in Constant and Becomes More Critical of Gallizio Debord’s On the Passage of a Few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time Internationale Situationniste, Issue Three, December 1959 Debord and Henri Lefebvre Meet in Early 1960 The World as Labyrinth Debord Excludes Har Oudejans and Anton Alberts Debord Plans More Shake-Ups within the SI, and Gallizio Is Excluded Debord Recruits Attila Kotanyi Constant Resigns Notes 5. The SI’s First Phase, Part Three, 1960–1962 The “Left Wing” and the “Right Wing” of the SI Debord Recruits Attila Kotanyi Jorn Recruits More Painters Issue Four of Internationale Situationniste, June 1960 SI Member Andre Frankin’s Avant-Garde Play Debord’s Collaboration with Daniel Blanchard of Socialism or Barbarism Michele Bernstein’s Novelistic Détournement All the King’s Horses The SI’s Fourth Conference, September 1960, London Declaration of the 121 Internationale Situationniste, Issue Five, December 1960 Nash & the Spur Artists Perpetrate a Scandal and Make a Movie Raoul Vaneigem Raoul Vaneigem Meets Debord and Bernstein Vaneigem and Kotanyi Debord’s Third Film Critique of Separation Wyckaert Is Excluded, Spur Breaks with van de Loo Asger Jorn Resigns from the SI Debord Resigns from Socialism or Barbarism (SB) Debord’s Tape Recorded Lecture Spur Artists Seek Refuge from Legal Troubles at Nash’s Drakabygget Farm Internationale Situationniste, Issue Six, August 1961 The SI’s Fifth Conference, August 1961, Gothenburg The Hamburg Theses Bernstein Publishes The Night, Her Second Novelistic Détournement Spur Artists Are Subjected to Legal Charges Spur #7 The Exclusion of Spur & the Resignation of the Scandinavian Members The End of the SI’s First Phase Notes 6. The SI’s Second Phase, Part One, 1962–1966 Internationale Situationniste, Issue Seven, April 1962 The Second Situationist International The SI’s Sixth Conference, November 1962, Antwerp Internationale Situationniste, Issue Eight, January 1963 Debord and the SI Split from Henri Lefebvre Debord Meets Alice Becker-Ho Rene Vienet Debord Meets with Zengakuren Members Destruction rsg-6, June 1963 Attila Kotanyi & Peter Laugesen Are Excluded Abraham Moles (aka “Lil’ Head”) Internationale Situationniste, Issue Nine, August 1964 Chtcheglov’s “Letters from Afar” Bernstein’s Article for the Times Literary Supplement Trocchi’s Exclusion Mustapha Khayati Contacts Debord JV Martin’s Arrest & His House Is Blown Up The SI’s First Attack on Abraham Moles (March 1965) Khayati and Debord’s “Address to Revolutionaries in Algeria and All Countries” Debord’s Article on the Watts Uprising Debord Broadens the SI’s Reach into the United Kingdom and the United States Internationale Situationniste, Issue Ten, March 1966 The SI’s Seventh Conference, July 1966, Paris The Formation of the English Section of the SI Now, the SI Notes 7. The SI’s Second Phase, Part Two, 1966–1967 Student Protests before the Strasbourg Scandal The Beginning of the Strasbourg Scandal On the Poverty of Student Life The Return of the Durutti Column Protests at the University of Strasbourg, Fall 1966 The Garnautins The SI Becomes Infamous An American Section of the SI Begins to Take Shape46 Bruce Elwell, Robert Chasse, and Tony Verlaan The English Section, David Wise, and Ben Morea Internationale Situationniste, Issue Eleven, October 1967 Bernstein Resigns in Late 1967 The Society of the Spectacle and The Revolution of Everyday Life Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle Vaneigem’s The Revolution of Everyday Life Vaneigem Travels to New York City The Exclusion of the SI’s English Section The SI Moves on from Strasbourg to Nanterre Notes 8. The SI’s Second Phase, Part Three, 1967–1968 Nanterre University, 1967–1968 The SI’s Initial Presence at Nanterre University Daniel Cohn-Bendit Becomes the Recognized Leader of the Radical Students Riesel and the Enragés Contact Debord Nanterre University, January to Early May, 1968 Students Arrested at the Sorbonne (May 2–6) The Enragés and Other Radicals Occupy the Sorbonne (May 6) More Violent Clashes (May 7 to 9) The First “Night of the Barricades” (May 10) The Sorbonne Occupied Again (May 14) Worker Occupations of Factories (May 14–17) The Council for the Maintenance of Occupations, aka the CMDO (May 17 to Mid-June) More Wildcat Strikes and Ten Million People Stop Working (May 18–29) De Gaulle’s May 30 Speech, Which Ends May ’68 The SI and Enragés Leave Paris Rene Vienet’s Book about May ’68 Naïve Dreamers Notes 9. The SI’s Third Phase, 1968–1972 Fame and New Members in the French Section after May ’68 The Formation of the American Section The Formation of the SI’s Italian Section The Return of Charles Fourier: The French Section’s Last Public Action The Italian and American Sections Publish Their Own Journals Debord Begins to Have Doubts about the SI’s French Section Debord Steps down as Editor of Internationale Situationniste Internationale Situationniste, Issue Twelve, September 1969 The SI’s Eighth (and Final) Conference, September 1969, Venice Exclusion of Alain Chevalier and Debord’s Hard Line about Participation After Venice, Vaneigem Felt that the SI was a “Dead Movement” “Is the Reichstag Burning?” The Orientation Debate Becomes the Means for Weakening the SI The Resignation of Patrick Cheval The Exclusions of Chasse and Elwell, Decided in Wolsfeld and Trier Tensions Mount in the Italian Section, Leading to More Exclusions Beaulieu’s Resignation Debord’s “Remarks on the SI Today” Salvadori’s Exclusion Verlaan and Horelick Respond to Debord Debord, Vienet, and Riesel Form a Tendency Aimed at Vaneigem Vaneigem’s Letter of Resignation (November 14, 1970) Horelick and Verlaan Are Excluded, Ending the American Section Debord’s Response to Vaneigem’s Resignation Sebastiani’s “Resignation” The Last Departures The Last Months of the Situationist International Debord’s Masterwork: The Situationist International Notes 10. On the Passage of Guy Debord’s Life after the Situationist International, 1972–1994 Asger Jorn’s Death Michele Bernstein and Ralph Rumney Get Married The Film The Society of the Spectacle Champot Ingirum imus nocte et consumimur igni Arles The Assassination of Gerard Lebovici Considerations on the Assassination of Gerard Lebovici Editions Gerard Lebovici and Debord’s The Game of War Board Game Debord’s Comments on The Society of the Spectacle The ICA’s Traveling Museum Exhibition about the SI Leaving Editions Gerard Lebovici Debord’s Last Years Guy Debord: His Art and His Times Notes Appendix 1: Membership of the Situationist International Notes Appendix 2: The Return of the Durutti Column Introduction Notes Appendix 3: Delirium: Ivan Chtcheglov’s Last Dérive Appendix 4: Chronology of the Lettrist International and the Situationist International 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 Bibliography Index