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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.
What is work? Why do we do it? Since time immemorial the answer to
these questions, from both the left and the right, has been that
work is both a natural necessity and, barring exploitation, a
social good. One might criticise its management, its compensation
and who benefits from it the most, but never work itself, never
work as such. In this book, Alastair Hemmens seeks to challenge
these received ideas. Drawing on the new 'critique-of-value' school
of Marxian critical theory, Hemmens demonstrates that capitalism
and its final crisis cannot be properly understood except in terms
of the historically specific and socially destructive character of
labour. It is from this radical perspective that Hemmens turns to
an innovative critical analysis of the rich history of radical
French thinkers who, over the past two centuries, have challenged
the labour form head on: from the utopian-socialist Charles
Fourier, who called for the abolition of the separation between
work and play, and Marx's wayward son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, who
demanded The Right to Laziness (1880), to the father of Surrealism,
Andre Breton, who inaugurated a 'war on work', and, of course, the
French Situationist, Guy Debord, author of the famous graffito,
'never work'. Ultimately, Hemmens considers normative changes in
attitudes to work since the 1960s and the future of anti-capitalist
social movements today. This book will be a crucial point of
reference for contemporary debates about labour and the anti-work
tradition in France.
What is work? Why do we do it? Since time immemorial the answer to
these questions, from both the left and the right, has been that
work is both a natural necessity and, barring exploitation, a
social good. One might criticise its management, its compensation
and who benefits from it the most, but never work itself, never
work as such. In this book, Alastair Hemmens seeks to challenge
these received ideas. Drawing on the new 'critique-of-value' school
of Marxian critical theory, Hemmens demonstrates that capitalism
and its final crisis cannot be properly understood except in terms
of the historically specific and socially destructive character of
labour. It is from this radical perspective that Hemmens turns to
an innovative critical analysis of the rich history of radical
French thinkers who, over the past two centuries, have challenged
the labour form head on: from the utopian-socialist Charles
Fourier, who called for the abolition of the separation between
work and play, and Marx's wayward son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, who
demanded The Right to Laziness (1880), to the father of Surrealism,
Andre Breton, who inaugurated a 'war on work', and, of course, the
French Situationist, Guy Debord, author of the famous graffito,
'never work'. Ultimately, Hemmens considers normative changes in
attitudes to work since the 1960s and the future of anti-capitalist
social movements today. This book will be a crucial point of
reference for contemporary debates about labour and the anti-work
tradition in France.
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.
The 2008 global financial crisis has led to the re-emergence in
public discourse of the idea that capitalism could end. For many,
it was proof of the notion that capitalist civilisation has an
endemic tendency towards crisis that will ultimately bring about
its demise. Must we assume, however, that such an eventuality would
inevitably result in the liberation of humanity, as many orthodox
Marxists claim? Through a collection of specially revised essays,
first published in France between 2007 and 2010, Anselm Jappe draws
on the radical new perspective of "the critique of value" as a
critical tool with which to understand today's world and to
re-examine the question of human emancipation. The Writing on the
Wall offers a powerful new analysis of the decomposition of
capitalism and its critics.
The extreme is an essential aspect of contemporary experience.
Thrill-seekers spend the weekend in the search of the adrenaline
rush of "extreme sports". In the political arena, the world has
begun to rediscover the split between the "extreme" left and the
"extreme" right. Through 24-hour rolling news, images of violence,
torture and war are televised unremittingly into the living room;
while the Internet places hardcore pornography, snuff film and
cannibalism within easy reach of anyone with a personal computer or
a smartphone. The "extreme" has even become a quality companies
seek to associate with the most banal of commodities such as ice
cream and hair gel. These different manifestations of extremity
suggest a contradictory, even paradoxical, relationship with the
"extreme".The contributors to this book explore how writing in
French, from the Middle Ages to the present day, has interrogated
extremity. Taken together, these essays demonstrate that the
quality of the extreme can be applied to a great number of texts
for different reasons and from myriad perspectives. Moreover, the
extreme is revealed as a quality both distinct from, and in tension
with, the crossing of boundaries associated with transgression. It
is a movement towards and away from a centre of radiation that
escapes cultural norms without necessarily reinforcing them. This
sensation of rushing and wandering outside the boundaries of what
is considered safe and normal provides the extreme with its
adrenaline-charged response of excitement or horror.The analyses
contained in this volume consider a number of manifestations of the
"extreme litteraire". The ambiguities of gender in medieval romance
are explored in the context of the Arthurian court. The 19th
century is examined through the prose poems of Baudelaire and the
litterature sauvage of the Zutistes. The difficulties of writing
the trauma of war and genocide in the 20th century are discussed
through the work of Jorges Semprun and Agota Kristof. The
contemporary extreme in French literature is examined in the
autofiction of Christine Angot, the work of Annie Ernaux and
Catherine Millet, the controversial novels of Michel Houellebecq,
and the worldwide influence of the Marquis de Sade on writing
today.Whilst the "extreme litteraire" may have a wide variety of
expressions in French literature, it is always outside, beyond and
far from the centre of our everyday experience. It shocks us,
excites us and horrifies us, often all at once. This book seeks to
provide an insight into how and why the extreme has fascinated, and
continues to fascinate, the French literary imagination.
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