Tom McDonough

This volume is a revised and expanded version of a special issue of the journalOctober (Winter 1997) that was devoted to the work of the Situationist International (SI). The firstsection of the issue contained previously unpublished critical texts, and the second sectioncontained translations of primary texts that had previously been unavailable in English. Theemphasis was on the SI's profound engagement with the art and cultural politics of their time(1957-1972), with a strong argument for their primarily political and activist stance by two formermembers of the group, T. J. Clark and Donald Nicholson-Smith.Guy Debord and the SituationistInternational supplements both sections. It reprints important, hard to find essays by GiorgioAgamben, Libero Andreotti, Jonathan Crary, Thomas Y. Levin, Greil Marcus, and Tom McDonough anddoubles the number of translations of primary texts, which now encompass a broader and morerepresentative range of the SI's writings on culture and language. In a field still dominated byhagiography, the critical texts were selected for their willingness to confront critically thehistory and legacy of the SI. They examine the group within the broader framework of the historicaland neo-avant-gardes and, beyond that, the postwar world in general. The translations trace the SI'sreflections on the legacy of the avant-garde in art and architecture, particularly on the linguisticand spatial significance of montage aesthetics. Many of the translated works are by Guy Debord(1932?1994), the impresario of the SI, especially known for his book The Society of theSpectacle.

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