Situationist International Anthology

The Situationist International Anthology is the most comprehensive and accurately translated collection of situationist writings in English.

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 détournement ("rerouting, hijacking"). 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 situationist theories and tactics have continued to inspire radical currents all over the world.

This volume presents a rich variety of articles, leaflets, graffiti, and internal documents, ranging from 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 all the translations have been fine-tuned and the bibliography has been updated to include comments on dozens of newer books by and about the situationists.

List of contents

Preface
PRE-S.I. TEXTS
Formulary for a New Urbanism (Chtcheglov, 1953)
Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography (Debord, 1955)
Proposals for Rationally Improving the City of Paris (Lettrist International, 1955)
A User’s Guide to Détournement (Debord & Wolman, 1956)
The Alba Platform (Lettrist International, 1956)
Notes on the Formation of an Imaginist Bauhaus (Jorn, 1957)
Report on the Construction of Situations (Debord, 1957)

FRENCH JOURNALS
#1 (1958)
The Sound and the Fury
Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation
Definitions
Theses on Cultural Revolution (Debord)
The Situationists and Automation (Jorn)
No Useless Leniency (Bernstein)*
Action in Belgium Against the International Assembly of Art Critics
#2 (1958)
Theory of the Dérive (Debord)
#3 (1959)
Détournement as Negation and Prelude
Situationist Theses on Traffic (Debord)
Another City for Another Life (Constant)
#4 (1960)
The Use of Free Time
Gangland and Philosophy (Kotányi)
#5 (1960)
The Adventure
The Fourth SI Conference in London*
#6 (1961)
Instructions for an Insurrection
Basic Program of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism (Kotányi & Vaneigem)
Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life (Debord)
#7 (1962)
Geopolitics of Hibernation
The Bad Days Will End
The Fifth SI Conference in Göteborg*
Basic Banalities (part 1) (Vaneigem)
#8 (1963)
Ideologies, Classes, and the Domination of Nature
The Avant-Garde of Presence*
The Counter-Situationist Campaign in Various Countries*
All the King’s Men
Basic Banalities (part 2) (Vaneigem)
Anti-Public Relations Notice
#9 (1964)
Now, the SI
Questionnaire
Response to a Questionnaire from the Center for Socio-Experimental Art
#10 (1966)
Address to Revolutionaries of Algeria and of All Countries
The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy [Watts riot]
The Class Struggles in Algeria
Contribution to a Councilist Program in Spain
Some Theoretical Topics That Need To Be Dealt With (Vaneigem)
Captive Words: Preface to a Situationist Dictionary (Khayati)
The Role of Godard
The Ideology of Dialogue
Interview with an Imbecile
The Algeria of Daniel Guérin, Libertarian
Domenach versus Alienation*
#11 (1967)
The Explosion Point of Ideology in China
Two Local Wars [Vietnam and Arab-Israel]
Our Goals and Methods in the Strasbourg Scandal
The Situationists and the New Forms of Action Against Politics and Art (Viénet)
Aiming for Practical Truth (Vaneigem)
Setting Straight Some Popular Misconceptions About Revolutions in the Underdeveloped Countries (Khayati)
Minimum Definition of Revolutionary Organizations
Three Postscripts to the Previous Issue
#12 (1969)
The Beginning of an Era [May 1968 revolt in France]
Reform and Counterreform in the Bureaucratic Bloc [Prague Spring]
How Not To Understand Situationist Books
Preliminaries on Councils and Councilist Organization (Riesel)
Notice to the Civilized Concerning Generalized Self-Management (Vaneigem)
The Conquest of Space in the Time of Power (Rothe)
The Latest Exclusions
The Elite and the Backward*
Cinema and Revolution
The Organization Question for the SI (Debord)

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS
Preliminaries Toward Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Program (Canjuers & Debord, 1960)
For a Revolutionary Judgment of Art (Debord, 1961)
Theses on the Paris Commune (Debord, Kotányi, Vaneigem, 1962)
The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics and Art (Debord, 1963)
On the Poverty of Student Life (1966)
In Short (1965 & 1969)

MAY 1968 DOCUMENTS
Communiqué
Watch Out for Manipulators! Watch Out for Bureaucrats!
Slogans To Be Spread Now by Every Means
Telegrams
Report on the Occupation of the Sorbonne
For the Power of the Workers Councils
Address to All Workers
Graffiti

INTERNAL TEXTS
Provisional Statutes of the SI (1969)
Provisional Theses for the Discussion of New Theoretico-Practical Orientations in the SI (Salvadori, 1970)*
Remarks on the SI Today (Debord, 1970)*
Declaration (Debord, Riesel, Viénet, 1970)
Untitled Text (Debord, 1971)*

APPENDIXES
Bibliography
The Blind Men and the Elephant (Selected Opinions on the Situationists)

Index

About the author

Ken Knabb has translated numerous works by Guy Debord and the Situationist International, including Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle (2014; reissued by PM Press in 2024) and Debord’s Complete Cinematic Works (2003; to be reissued by PM Press in 2025). Knabb’s own writings, published in Public Secrets: Collected Skirmishes of Ken Knabb (1997) and posted online at his “Bureau of Public Secrets” website, have been translated into more than fifteen languages. He is currently presenting a series of Zoom webinars on The Society of the Spectacle and the Situationist International Anthology.

Summary

The Situationist International Anthology is the most comprehensive and accurately translated collection of situationist writings in English.

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 détournement (“rerouting, hijacking”). 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 situationist theories and tactics have continued to inspire radical currents all over the world.

This volume presents a rich variety of articles, leaflets, graffiti, and internal documents, ranging from 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.

Product details

• Authors: Knabb Ken
• Assisted by: Ken Knabb (Editor and translation)
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.10.2024
• EAN: 9798887440576
• ISBN: 979-8-88744-057-6
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; PHILOSOPHY / Political, HISTORY / Social History, ART / Criticism & Theory, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Radicalism