Michèle Bernstein’s Followers (22)

Michèle Bernstein

Born

April 28, 1932

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Michèle Bernstein (born 28 April 1932) is a French novelist and critic, most usually remembered as a member of the Situationist International from its foundation in 1957 until 1967, and as the wife of its most prominent member, Guy Debord.

Early years
Bernstein was born in Paris, of Russian Jewish descent. In 1952, bored by her studies at the nearby Sorbonne, she began to frequent Chez Moineau, a bar at 22 rue du Four. There she encountered a circle of artists, writers, vagabonds and petty criminals who were beginning to establish themselves as the Letterist International. With one of these, Patrick Straram, she toured Le Havre in August, 1952, in order to see the places upon which Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea had been modelled.On 17 August, 195 Michèle Bernstein (born 28 April 1932) is a French novelist and critic, most usually remembered as a member of the Situationist International from its foundation in 1957 until 1967, and as the wife of its most prominent member, Guy Debord.

Early years
Bernstein was born in Paris, of Russian Jewish descent. In 1952, bored by her studies at the nearby Sorbonne, she began to frequent Chez Moineau, a bar at 22 rue du Four. There she encountered a circle of artists, writers, vagabonds and petty criminals who were beginning to establish themselves as the Letterist International. With one of these, Patrick Straram, she toured Le Havre in August, 1952, in order to see the places upon which Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea had been modelled.On 17 August, 1954, she married another member of the group, Guy Debord, and from then on she took a more active role in contributing to its publications (primarily its bulletin, Potlatch). Bernstein recalls that Debord had earlier tried to pick her up in a café in front of the Sorbonne, but that she had shaken her cigarette and said something disparaging. However, they first became friends, and then lovers: 'I did love him, and I am sorry he is not here with us now'.
[edit]From the Lettrist to the Situationist movement
Aside from simply getting drunk at Moineau's and other nearby bars—which was far from a minor part of their activity—the Letterist International were primarily concerned with transcending traditional artistic activities to produce 'situations' for themselves; to drifting aimlessly around urban environments in order to assess their psychogeography; and to diverting pre-existing texts and other materials to new ends. By 1957, however, most of the members of the Letterist International had either quit or been forcibly excluded, and the remnants opted to fuse with two other groups to form the Situationist International. Bernstein and Debord visited Cosio di Arroscia in July 1957: the Situationist International officially came into being there on July 28. The other two groups involved were the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus and the London Psychogeographical Committee. The former was an off-shoot of the earlier CoBrA group of artists; the latter was not really a 'group' at all, but merely a name given to a single British artist, Ralph Rumney.
Thereafter, Bernstein contributed a number of articles to the situationists' journal, Internationale situationniste, either alone or in collaboration with the other members. She also had two novels published through Buchet/Chastel (the same publishing house as would later first publish Debord's major theoretical text, The Society of the Spectacle, in 1967). In All The King's Horses (Tous les chevaux du roi, 1960; republished Paris: Allia, 2004) and Night (La Nuit, 1961), Bernstein fictionalised her life with Debord in the 1950s, particularly acknowledging the liberality (including sexual freedom) that existed within their marriage. She also contributed an article on the situationists to the Times Literary Supplement (2 September, 1964). According to the French philosopher and occasional associate of the Situationist International, Henri Lefebvre, she additionally helped to support the situationists financially, by contributing horses' horoscopes to racing magazines.
During the first ten years of its existence, the situationists continued the work of the Letterist International, and extended them in new directions. Feeling that they had already adequately transcended art, the group began to take on much more of a socio-political character, as they sought to realise their philosophy. Their greatest moment came in the uprising of May 1968, which they might not have caused but which they certainly encouraged. Bernstein herself, however, had officially retired from the group the previous year. Her marriage to Debord had broken down as he became close to Alice Becker-Ho. The marriage was officially dissolved on 5 January 1972, and he proce ...more

Combine Editions
Michèle Bernstein’s books

Average rating: 3.75 · 379 ratings · 59 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	All the King's Horses [Semiotext(e) / Native Agents] by Michèle Bernstein, John Kelsey (Introduction), Odile Passot (Afterword) 3.67 avg rating — 302 ratings — published 1960 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Night by Michèle Bernstein, Clodagh Kinsella (Translator) 3.82 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 1961 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Theory of the Dérive and Other Situationist Writings on the City by Libero Andreotti (Editor), Xavier Costa (Editor), Constant (Contributor) 4.23 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 1996 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Brioche Knit Love 4.91 avg rating — 11 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Night/ After the Night by Michèle Bernstein, Everyone Agrees, Nina Power (Editor) 2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tous les chevaux du roi it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Night (Common Objectives) by Michele Bernstein (2013-06-01) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Alle Pferde des Königs by Michèle Bernstein, Roberto Ohrt (afterword), Dino Beck (translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	(All the King's Horses (Semiotext(e) / Native Agents)) [By: Michele Bernstein] [Oct, 2008] by Michèle Bernstein, Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Michèle Bernstein (?)

“Vodka goes well with a wintery perspective. Nothing else provokes such presentiments of falling snow except, for some, the communist seizure of the state.”
― Michèle Bernstein, All the King's Horses [Semiotext(e) / Native Agents]

tags: communism, communist, seizure, snow, vodka, winter

5 likes

“I always wake up early in a strange bed. I looked at Bertrand, I wonder about him. There was a sort of easy grace in whatever he did, He didn't talk much. I watched this boy sleeping beside me. God, was he tall, and handsome. I was surprised, during the night, when he's told me he was only nineteen. I never would have imagined this kind of cool confidence could come so early to a person. But nineteen, after all, wasn't so far off. I remembered how stupid I was in my relations with other people then.”
― Michèle Bernstein, All the King's Horses [Semiotext(e) / Native Agents]

tags: adult, confidence, nineteen, relationships, sex, teenager, waking-up

2 likes

“He didn't know me well enough to imagine me any other way than how I was with him.”
― Michèle Bernstein, All the King's Horses [Semiotext(e) / Native Agents]

0 likes

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