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Guy Debord: Revolution in the Service of Poetry
Writer, artist, filmmaker, provocateur, revolutionary, and impresario of the Situationist International, Guy Debord shunned the apparatus of publicity he dissected so brilliantly in his most influential work, The Society of the Spectacle. In this ambitious and innovative biography, Vincent Kaufmann places Debord's very hostility toward the inquisitive, biographical gaze at the center of an investigation into his subject's diverse output—from his earliest films to his landmark works of social theory and political provocation—and the poetic sensibility that informed both his work and his life.
Instead of providing a conventional day-to-day account of Debord's life, Kaufmann deftly locates his subject within the historical and intellectual context of the radical social, political, and artistic movements in which he participated. He traces Debord's development as an his involvement with the lettrist movement in the early 1950s, his central role in the Situationist International from 1957 to 1971 and in the events of May 1968, and the productive and frequently misunderstood period between the dissolution of the situationists and his suicide, during which time Debord clarified the rules of his war against inauthenticity.
As Kaufmann makes clear, for Debord political thought and action were inseparable from aesthetics and poetic expression. Whether envisioning the recovery of a lost, protocommunist age of authenticity and transparency in The Society of the Spectacle or critically assessing the possibility of revolution against postmodern capitalism two decades later, Debord advocated and practiced an art of defiance, a concurrently martial and melancholic poetics. Avoiding the mythologies about Debord that both admirers and critics have cultivated, Kaufmann provides a groundbreaking and generous assessment of Debord and his uncompromising struggle against a corrupt civilization.
Vincent Kaufmann is professor of French language and literature at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Robert Bononno, a teacher and translator, lives in New York City.
Instead of providing a conventional day-to-day account of Debord's life, Kaufmann deftly locates his subject within the historical and intellectual context of the radical social, political, and artistic movements in which he participated. He traces Debord's development as an his involvement with the lettrist movement in the early 1950s, his central role in the Situationist International from 1957 to 1971 and in the events of May 1968, and the productive and frequently misunderstood period between the dissolution of the situationists and his suicide, during which time Debord clarified the rules of his war against inauthenticity.
As Kaufmann makes clear, for Debord political thought and action were inseparable from aesthetics and poetic expression. Whether envisioning the recovery of a lost, protocommunist age of authenticity and transparency in The Society of the Spectacle or critically assessing the possibility of revolution against postmodern capitalism two decades later, Debord advocated and practiced an art of defiance, a concurrently martial and melancholic poetics. Avoiding the mythologies about Debord that both admirers and critics have cultivated, Kaufmann provides a groundbreaking and generous assessment of Debord and his uncompromising struggle against a corrupt civilization.
Vincent Kaufmann is professor of French language and literature at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Robert Bononno, a teacher and translator, lives in New York City.
345 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 26, 2023
Better than the last biography of Debord I read. Really great prose and much better organization. However, it falls into a trap of hero-worship and gives Debord not a single criticism. Not only that, it credits seemingly every peripheral figure of Debord's with being basically a Debord puppet who was copying him while never giving any credence to Debord's theoretical influences. It gets tiring after a while. While well-written and interesting, it is not even-handed.
August 15, 2024
Fairly comprehensive demonstration of the unity of Debord´s life and work from his earliest days to his death. Not a conventional biography in format, although that is very appropriate given the subject. I often felt irritated by the prose style, which to me came across as turgid, repetetive and pretentious. Several sections I just skimmed over for this reason, especially at the end.
December 14, 2007
a revelatory biography of one of the twentieth century's least understood and most influential figures. debord's was an exemplary life and an intimidating mind cut short by alcohol-induced nerve disorders (a twice told tale). kaufmann sets aright the relationship between debord and henri lefebvre and art and politics in the situationist international.
October 30, 2007
An excellent straight ahead biography on Guy Debord. At this time there are three good basic bios on the man who is both mysterious and brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews