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Information About

Guy Debord





LIFE

Debord was born into a bourgeois family in '' ( 1973 ) and the autobiographical "In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni". After the dissolution of the Situationist movement Debord became increasingly self-isolated, and his writings more pessimistic. His lifelong Alcoholism began to take a toll on his health. Apparently to end the suffering from a form of Polyneuritis brought on by his excessive drinking, he committed suicide, by shooting himself in the heart, at his cottage in Champot on November 30 , 1994 .


WORKS

Guy Debord's best known works are his theoretical books, '' Society Of The Spectacle '' and '' Comments on the Society of the Spectacle ''. In addition to these he wrote a number of autobiographical books including "Memoires", "Panegyrique", "Cette Mauvaise Reputation..." and "Considerations sur L'assassinat de Gerard Lebovici". He was also the author of numerous short pieces, sometimes anonymous, for the journals "Potlatch", "Les Levres Nues" and "Internationale Situationniste".

In broad terms, Debord's theories attempted to account for the spiritually debilitating modernisation of both the private and public spheres of everyday life by economic forces during the post- WW2 modernisation of Europe. He rejected as the twin faces of the same problem both the market Capitalism of the West and the state capitalism of the Eastern block. Alienation , Debord postulated, could be accounted for by the invasive forces of the 'spectacle' – the seductive nature of capitalism. Debord's analysis developed the notions of " Reification " and "fetishism Of The Commodity" pioneered by Karl Marx and Georg Lukács . This analysis probed the historical, economic and psychological roots of 'the media'. Central to this school of thought was the claim that alienation is more than an emotive description or an aspect of individual psychology: rather, it is a consequence of the mercantile form of social organization which has reached its climax in capitalism.

The Situationist International, a political/artistic movement organized by Debord and his colleagues and represented by a journal of the same name, attempted to create a series of strategies for engaging in class struggle by reclaiming individual autonomy from the spectacle. These strategies, including "Derive" and "Detournement", drew on the traditions of Dada and Surrealism .

The SI initially drew membership from the Lettrist s – a post-Surrealist group of writers and poets dedicated to the destruction of Bourgeois values by reducing the written word to Onomatopoeic syllables. However, the SI broke with the formal aims of the Lettrists and, after subsuming much of their membership, were fully established in their own right by 1959 . After an intense period of theoretical analysis, publication and the expulsion of most of its few members, the SI dissolved itself in 1972 .

Debord's first book, ''Memoires'', was bound with a sandpaper cover so that it would destroy other books placed next to it.

Debord has been the subject of numerous biographies, works of fiction, artworks and songs, many of which are catalogued in the excellent bibliography by Shigenobu Gonzalves, "Guy Debord ou la Beaute du Negatif".


FILMS

  • ''Hurlements en faveur de Sade'' 1952


in favor of Sade

  • ''Critique de la séparation'', Paris, 1961 (short film, Dansk-Fransk Experimentalfilmskompagni).

  • of separation




This film, which was meant to be Debord's last one, is largely autobiographical but begins with a thorough and pitiless critique of the spectator



BIBLIOGRAPHY


Works by Debord

  • ''Memoires'', 1959 (co-authored by Asger Jorn ), reprinted by Allia (2004), ISBN 2844851436.

  • ''La société du spectacle'', , ISBN 0942299795.

  • ''La Véritable Scission dans L'Internationale'', , ISBN 0745321283.

  • ''Œuvres cinématographiques complètes'', , ISBN 1902593731.

  • ''Considérations sur l'assassinat de Gérard Lebovici''m , ISBN 2851841564.

  • ''Commentaires sur la société du spectacle'', , ISBN 0860913023.

  • ''Panégyrique volume 1'', , ISBN 1859846653.



Further reading

  • Internationale situationniste, Paris, - 1977 , ISBN 3921523109; and in Spanish: ''Internacional situacionista: textos completos en castellano de la revista Internationale situationniste (1958-1969)'', Madrid: Literatura Gris {Link without Title} , ISBN 8460599612.

  • ''Situationist International Anthology'', edited by Ken Knabb, Bureau of Public Secrets 1981 , ISBN 0939682001.

  • ''Guy Debord'', Anselm Jappe, University of California Press 1999 , ISBN 0520212045.

  • ''Guy Debord - Revolutionary'', Len Bracken, Feral House 1997 , ISBN 092291544X.

  • ''The Game of War: The Life and Death of Guy Debord.'', Andrew Hussey, Cape 2001 , ISBN 022404348X.

  • ''Guy Debord and the Situationist International'', edited by Tom McDonough, MIT Press 2002 , ISBN 0262134047.

  • ''Guy Debord'', Andy Merrifield, Reaktion 2005 , ISBN 1861892616.



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