Guy Debord’s Politics of Communication
Liberating Language from Power- Authors:
- Publisher:
- 2023
Summary
Drawing on published works as well as personal correspondences written between 1948-1994, this book conceptualizes Guy Debord's politics of communication and how it sought to undermine the hierarchical, monological language of the spectacle. Matthews traces Debord’s search for critical communication strategies that could subvert the reified “language of manufacturing” from the philosopher’s early activities in anti-aesthetic 'terrorism' (e.g., the neo-poem, metagraphics, and détournement) to advocating forms of horizontal communication between autonomous revolutionary groups or individuals using 'native' language. Matthews ultimately finds that to critique the language of the spectacle, Debord relied on the power of the negative to speak the ironic language of contradiction, of critical theory, and of the incommunicable.
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Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2023
- ISBN-Print
- 978-1-6669-3164-8
- ISBN-Online
- 978-1-6669-3165-5
- Publisher
- Lexington, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 248
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Contents No access
- Preface No access
- Acknowledgments No access
- Introduction No access Pages 1 - 18
- Chapter 1: Debord’s Poetic Prehistory (1949–1952) No access Pages 19 - 52
- Chapter 2: Debord and the Letterist International (1952–1957) No access Pages 53 - 90
- Chapter 3: Debord and the Situationist International (1957–1972) No access Pages 91 - 130
- Chapter 4: Debord’s Post-SI Period (1972–1979) No access Pages 131 - 174
- Chapter 5: Debord’s Final Years/Final Thoughts (1979–1994) No access Pages 175 - 212
- Conclusions No access Pages 213 - 224
- Bibliography No access Pages 225 - 232
- Index No access Pages 233 - 246
- About the Author No access Pages 247 - 248





