secondary literature

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRINTED
Simon Ford (comp.)
The Realization and Suppression of the Situationist International. An Annotated Bibliography 1972-1992 (Edinburgh 1995).
Roberto Ohrt
'Biblio-Geographie', in Phantom Avantgarde. Eine Geschichte der Situationistischen Internationale und der modernen Kunst (Nautilus : Hamburg 1990) 312-330.
Roberto Ohrt
'N'ecrivez jamais. Bibliographie zu den Situationisten 1990-1999', in Roberto Ohrt (Hrsg.), Das grosse Spiel. Die Situationisten zwischen Politik und Kunst (Nautilus : Hamburg 2000) 171-220.
A current bibliography is published as 'Liste des brochures et ouvrages parus en 2000 [- 2004]', in Archives & documents situationnistes / [réd. en chef Christophe Bourseiller] N° 1 (novembre 2001) [-2004].

DISSERTATIONS/THESES

Donald Bacigalupi
Pretty Vacant. Neo-Expressionist Painting, Situationist Theory, and Punk Rock (University of Texas : Austin 1993).
Kelly C. Baum
The Politics of Pleasure: Gender, Desire, and Detournement in the Art of the Situationist International, 1957-1972 (University of Delaware : 2005).
Mary Patricia Joyce
The Limits of Cultural Politics: The Situationist International, 1957-1971 (University of California : Irvine 1997).
René J. Sanders
Beweging tegen de schijn. De situationisten, een avant-garde. Dokumenten, 7 (Huis aan de Drie Grachten : Amsterdam 1989). PhD Amsterdam. See also Siebe Thissen, 'Situationisme bestaat niet. Een gesprek met René Sanders', in Kunst en theorie (1999). This interview also as '"Van wie is de ruimte?" De Situationisme Comeback Tour', in Ravage nr. 288 (23 July 1999).
Frances Stracey
Pursuit of the Situationist Subject (University of London : London 2001).

MONOGRAPHS

Jean-Marie Apostolidès and Boris Donné
Ivan Chtcheglov, profil perdu (Allia : Paris 2006).
Mirella Bandini
L'estetico il politico. Da Cobra all'Internazionale Situazionista, 1948-1957. Saggi/Documenti; 7 (Officina Edizioni : Roma 1977). Translated in French as L'esthetique, le politique. De Cobra a l'internationale situationniste (1948-1957) and published by Sulliver (Arles 1998).
Pino Bertelli
Internazionale Situazionista. L'Immaginazione contro il potere; (in appendice) Gli Indesiderabili della Terra, anonimo francese (Massari Editore : Bolsena 2007).
Laurent Chollet
L'insurrection situationniste / avec la collaboration d'Armelle Leroy (Editions Darango : Paris 2000). Includes bibliography, filmography and discography (p. 331-351).
Simon Ford
The Situationist International. A user’s guide (Black Dog Publishing : London 2005).
Harriet Gough
'Situationism, Futurism, and May 1968', in The Australian Journal of Politics and History 42, nr. 2 (1996) 160-172.
Greil Marcus
Lipstick Traces. The Secret History of the Twentieth Century (Secker & Warburg : London 1989). Reviewed by Phil Edwards for Tribune 21 June 1989 and for New Statesman and Society 13 January 1996. Read also the Interview with Greil Marcus by Billy Bob Hargus (June 1997).
Gianfranco Marelli
L'amara vittoria del Situazionismo. Per una storia critica dell'Internationale Situationniste, 1957-1972. Rovesciare il futuro; 4 (Biblioteca Franco Serantini : Pisa 1996). Translated in French L'Amère victoire du situationnisme. Pour une histoire critique de l'Internationale Situationniste, 1956-1971 and published by Sulliver (Arles 1998).
Jean-François Martos
Histoire de l'Internationale situationniste (Editions Gérard Lebovici : Paris 1989).
Roberto Ohrt
Phantom Avantgarde : eine Geschichte der Situationistischen Internationale und der modernen Kunst (Nautilus : Hamburg, 1990) 333 p. Includes annotated bibliography (p. 312-330).

PERIODICALS

Archives & Documents Situationnistes. Edited by Christophe Bourseiller and published by Editions Denoël (Paris) No. 1 (November 2001) - current.
Lund Art Press vol. 2 (1992) nr 3: special issue 'Bauhaus Situationist'. Contributions by Asger Jorn ('Mind and sense. On the principle of ambivalence in Nordic Husdrapa and Mind Singing'), Peter Shield ('The wanderer'), Björn Rosendahl ('Bauhaus Situationist in Sweden. A retrospective'), 'The Movement for a Scandinavian Bauhaus Situationist (MSBS). Origins, activities and metamorphosis (a chronology)', Gordon Fazakerley ('The ferry boat') and Kjell Erik Vindtorn ('The fragrance of compass roses').
OCRA/Archivio. Studies on the European Avant-Gardes. Edited by Sandro Ricaldone. No. 1 (January 1982) - no. 14 (June 1993).
October Number 79 (Winter 1997) special issue 'Guy Debord and the Internationale Situationniste'. Reprinted in Thomas F. McDonough (ed.), Guy Debord and the Situationist International. Texts and Documents (Cambridge MA 2002). The first section contained previously unpublished critical texts, and the second section contained translations of primary texts that had previously been unavailable in English. The emphasis was on the SI's profound engagement with the art and cultural politics of their time (1957-1972).

ARTICLES, ESSAYS & PAPERS

Deron Albright
'Tales of the City. Applying Situationist Social Practice to the Analysis of the Urban Drama', in Criticism (Winter 2003).
Adam Barnard
'The Legacy of the Situationist International. The Production of Situations of Creative Resistance', in Capital & Class 84, Special Issue (Winter 2004) 103-124.
- [abstract] This article argues that the Situationist International (SI) forms an essential resource that prefigures the values and organisation of certain trends within the creative industries. Reviewing the history and key contributions of the SI, it will discuss the tensions between its artistic and more overtly political elements.The central concepts of the spectacle, dérive, détournement, psychogeography and unitary urbanism are examined in the second section. The third section addresses the construction of 'situations', and earlier attempts at architectural situations. Situations, projects and resistance to the spectacle are the central contributions that can inform creative industries and cultural production. The final section explores possible future directions for the S.I., before examining the Situationists' contribution to creative resistance.
Claus Baumann
Referat über die Geschichte und Theorie der Lettristischen Internationale und der Situationistischen Internationale (Stuttgart 1997).
Giorgina Bertolino and Francesca Comisso
Pinot Gallizio and the Bauhaus Imaginiste. From the international ceramics meetings in Albisola to the congress of free artists in Alba (1954-1956).
Robert C. Black
'The Realization and Suppression of Situationism', in Journal of Unconventional History 7, nr. 1 (1995) 39-53.
- [abstract] Reviews the ideas and styles of the Situationists, an avant-garde movement of artists and intellectuals with an extreme left-wing, anticapitalist political agenda, and the history of the Situationist International (1957-72). [Historical Abstracts].
Jeroen Boomgaard
'De tijd van het woord', in De Witte Raaf Nr. 110 (juli/augustus 2004).
Timothy J. Clark and Donald Nicholson-Smith
'Why Art Can't Kill the Situationist International', in October Nr 79 (Winter 1997) special Issue 'Guy Debord and the Internationale Situationniste'.
Phil Edwards
The construction of situations and the spectre of "situationism". Paper (April 1996).
David Evans
'The Situationist Family Album', in History of Photography 29, nr. 2 (2005) 174-182.
- Examines the tensions and conflicts between the Situationist International movement (begun in 1957) and the Surrealists, particularly as manifested in the former's use of photography in the December 1958 issue of its journal, Internationale Situationniste. [Historical Abstracts].
Harriet Gough
'Situationism, Futurism and May 1968', in Australian Journal of Politics and History 42, nr. 2 (1996) 160-172.
- [abstract] By the 1960's conditions in France encouraged some kind of revolutionary upheaval. At base disillusionment had become endemic. Critics pointed to the disasters in Algeria and Vietnam, to Gaullism and the rise of neofascism, to the appalling conditions in the universities, and to the plight of industrial workers. For a brief moment in 1968 it seemed as if situationist and futurist revolutionary activists would succeed in bringing about the collapse of the existing order. But apart from their ability to create chaos they had no long-term goals or plans, which enabled other groups to take over. Nevertheless, situationism, with its futurist overtones, persisted in university politics and may possibly re-emerge in French life [Historical Abstracts].
Stephan Grigat, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Günther Friesinger (Hg.)
Spektakel - Kunst - Gesellschaft. Guy Debord und die Situationistische Internationale / [contributions by Biene Baumeister, Bernd Beier, Eiko Grimberg, e.a.] (Verbrecher Verlag : Berlin 2006).
Thomas Hecken
'Kunst und/oder Leben. Futuristisches, dadaistisches Varieté, situationistische Aktion, Pop Art', in Thomas Hecken (Hrsg.), Der Reiz des Trivialen. Künstler, Intellektuelle und die Popkultur (Westdeutscher Verlag : Opladen 1997) 109-140.
Stuart Home
'The Palingenesis of the avant-garde', in Variant. Cross currents in culture 2, nr. 1 (Winter 1996).
Sven Lütticken
'De kunst van de revolutie. Over de Situationistische Internationale en haar Nachleben', in De Witte Raaf Nr. 109 (mei/juni 2004).
William McClure
'Triumph of the Spectacle', in Borderlands 3, nr. 1 (2004).
Tom McDonough
'Situationist Space', in October no.67 (Winter 1994) 58-77.
Tom McDonough
'The Naked City. The Dérive in Situationist Paris', in Libero Andreotti, Xavier Costa (eds.), Situacionistas. Arte, politica, urbanismo = Situationists. Arts, Politics, Urbanism (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona : Barcelona 1996) 54-66. Lecture delivered at the "Urban Visions, Urban Texts" conference, New York University, 1995.
Nicola Pezolet
'The Cavern of Antimatter; Giuseppe "Pinot" Gallizio and the Technological Imaginary of the Early Situationist International,', in Grey Room no. 38 (Winter 2010) 62-89.
Christopher Phillips
'Homage to a Phantom Avant-Garde', in Art in America 77, nr. 10 (1989) 182-191, 239.
- [abstract] Seen by some as signaling the end of an era in which formal artistic experimentation merged with radical cultural critique and by others as a mere offshoot of Surrealism, the Situationist International held that spontaneous activity by small autonomous groups was the appropriate esthetic response to a culture of consumer capitalism and spectacle, inspiring a significant following among French students during the 1968 university uprising [Historical Abstracts].
Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen
'The Situationist International, Surrealism, and the Difficult Fusion of Art and Politics', in Oxford Art Journal 27 (2004) 365-387.
- [abstract] The article analyses the relationship between the Situationist International, Surrealism and the French Communist Party. An action undertaken by the Lettrist International directed against the surrealist favourite Charlie Chaplin allows for an elaborate discussion of the relationship between Surrealism and the Situationists. While Chaplin was a very important source of inspiration for the Surrealists, he became a target of ridicule for the Situationists who declared Chaplin to be a reactionary preventing people from protesting against an impoverished existence. Surrealism was an important reference for the Situationists who although acknowledging their indebtedness to Surrealism, also critiqued Surrealism's confidence in the revolutionary potentials of the unconsciousness and critiqued the alliance between Surrealism and the French Communist Party. The Situationist International distanced themselves from all prevailing political organisations and trends and found inspiration for their actions and theories in council communism and Western Marxism. In elaborating their theory they not only drew upon Georg Lukács, Karl Korsch and the council communists but also contemporary philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Henri Lefebvre, whom they nevertheless also ridiculed. The article delineates a map of the artistic-political field within which the Situationists operated and ends with a discussion of the similarities between the rejection of art made by the Situationist International and the dismissal of the neo-avant-garde made by Peter Bürger in his influential Theorie der Avantgarde. [Oxford Art Journal].
Retort
'An Exchange on/ Afflicted Powers. Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War', in October 115 (Winter 2006) 3-12.
Retort
'Afflicted Powers. The State, the Spectacle and September 11', in New Left Review 27 (May-June 2004). Translated in Dutch for the Witte Raaf.
Susan Rubin Suleiman
'Les avant-gardes et la repetition. L'Internationale situationniste et Tel Quel face au Surrealisme', in Cahiers de l'Institut d'Histoire du Temps Present 20 (1992) 197-205.
- [abstract] The Situationist International offers some instructive examples of the methods in which intellectuals respond to the influence of their spiritual forebears. The Situationist outlook was strongly determined by the experience of surrealism in the 1930's. Anxious not to repeat the errors of their predecessors, the Situationists revolted against a surrealism that they felt lacked any solidity or theoretical rigor. What was worse, the surrealists allowed their creations to be sold as works of art, that is, as luxury commodities on the capitalist market. The Situationists' refusal to create works of art and their sole concentration on theoretical and political issues resulted in a fugacity and aridity that assured that their revolt against surrealism would be successful at the same time that it was suicidal. [Historical Abstracts].
Dieter Schrage
'Widerstand im Spektakel - Die Situationistische Internationale. Finden sich bei der S.I. Anknüpfungspunkte für aktuelle Protestbewegungen?' Lecture for the Wiener Kongress 2005, Thursday 12 May.
Howard Slater
'Divided We Stand - An Outline of Scandinavian Situationism', put on the site of the Scandinavian Situationist (January-April 2001). See for more contributions Infopool.
Frances Stracey
'Surviving History. A Situationist Archive', in Art History 26, nr. 1 (2003) 56-77.
- [abstract] It is the contention of this article that the Situationists were keenly aware that conventional forms of historical memorialization risked participating in the reification of everyday life, which they diagnosed as characteristic of a 'society of the spectacle' that reduces social relations to their petrified image. Focusing on a particular Situationist book called Mémoires, this article attempts to reconstruct the Situationists' strategies of self–archiving, through which they tried to counter a spectacular monumentalization of their own history. In the process I attempt to elaborate the alternative model of an archive indicated in Mémoires – what I term an 'involuntary archive' – and the implications this has for writing a history of the Situationists. [Art History].
Frances Stracey
'Destruktion RSG-6. Towards a Situationist Avant-Garde Today, in Neo-Avant-Garde / ed. by David Hopkins. Avant Garde Critical Studies, Volume 20 (Rodopi : Amsterdam/New York 2006) 311-329.
- [abstract] Frances Stracey discusses the supposed politicization of the Situationist movement, following the break between the 'Nashists' and the 'Debordists' in 1962, and demonstrates convincingly that Guy Debord, amongst others in the catalogue for the exhibition 'Destruktion RSG-6', held in Odense in 1963, is still taking his stand in both political and aesthetic terms. In this respect he demonstrates that despite the political dead end of 1968, there is still room for manoeuvre for Situationism today, which explains the increasing interest in the movement. [Review by Per Bäckström in Nordlitt. Journal of culture and literature Issue 21 (Spring 2007) 306-320, 317].
Yvan Tardy
'Les Mots Captifs. The Situationist Subversion of Language', in European Legacy 2, nr. 3 (1997) 405-410.
- [abstract] Examines the collective practice of the Situationist International, whose members in the 1960's promoted the idea of the emancipation of language, and describes their analysis of language and some of their influences and initiatives. The author also explores the originality of their idea and the relationship between their subversion of language and that of other avant-gardes and places it within its historical context [Historical Abstracts].
Yvan Tardy
'The Situationist International 1957-1972', in Contemporary French Civilization 20, nr. 2 (1996) 91-105.
Anthony Vidler
'Terres Inconnues. Cartographies of a Landscape to Be Invented', in October 115 (Winter 2006) 13-30.
Matthew Watts
László Moholy-Nagy and The Situationist International. Creativity and the opportunities for change (November 1998).
Peter Wollen
'Mappings. Situationists and/or Conceptualists', in Michael Newman and Jon Bird (eds.), Rewriting Conceptual Art. Critical Views (Reaktion Books : London 1999) 27-65.
- [abstract] In his essay 'Mappings. Situationists and/or Conceptualists', Peter Wollen considers the relationship between the use made of the map by both the SI and Conceptual artists. Despite being contemporaries, each party used the map in very different ways: where Debord et al described human 'passions' in relation to urban planning, On Kawara and Douglas Heubler, for example, adopted the map as a device which could banish any emotional response to urban space, implying 'a kind of scientificity' in their work, through an explicit alignment with scientific methodology. There is an equal appeal to a 'scientificity' in locative media projects, to some extent this must be a necessity in any 'new media' practice of course. But nonetheless it raises questions as to how the use of maps, new technology and a language driven towards precision might work to make these practices distinct from others. Read more in Simon Pope, 'The Shape of Locative Media', in Mute Magazin M29:: 9.02.05.
Peter Wollen
'Situationists and Architecture', in New Left Review 8 (March-April 2001).
Stefan Zweifel
'Situationist Titles and Taunts', in Stefan Zweifel, Juri Steiner, e.a. (eds.), In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni - The Situationist International (1957-1972) (Zürich 2006) 169-213.
Stefan Zweifel
'Vita Negativa - How to board Dada and Surrealism', in Stefan Zweifel, Juri Steiner, e.a. (eds.), In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni - The Situationist International (1957-1972) (Zürich 2006) 219-225.