Böcker av Guy Debord

The Society of the Spectacle is a carefully considered effort to clarify the most fundamental tendencies and contradictions of the society in which we find ourselves—in order to facilitate its overthrow.Guy Debord was the founder of the Situationist International, the notorious avant-garde group that helped trigger the May 1968 revolt in France, which brought the entire country to a standstill for several weeks. His book The Society of the Spectacle, originally published in Paris in 1967, has been translated into more than twenty other languages and is arguably the most important radical work of the twentieth century. Ken Knabb’s meticulous new translation is the first edition in any language to include extensive annotations, clarifying the historical allusions and revealing the sources of Debord’s quotations and “détournements.”Contrary to popular misconceptions, Debord’s book is neither an ivory tower “philosophical” discourse nor a mere expression of “protest.” This makes the book more of a challenge, but it is also why it remains so pertinent more than half a century after its original publication, while countless other social theories and intellectual fads have come and gone.It has, in fact, become even more pertinent than ever, because the spectacle has become more all-pervading and glaringly obvious than ever. As Debord noted in his follow-up work, Comments on the Society of the Spectacle (1988), “spectacular domination has succeeded in raising an entire generation molded to its laws.”Debord’s book remains the best guidebook to understanding that mold and breaking it.

"Todo lo que una vez fue vivido directamente se ha convertido en una mera representación." "La sociedad del espectáculo" proporciona una reinterpretación del marxismo, sobre todo del concepto de fetiche de la mercancía aplicado a las condiciones del capitalismo contemporáneo. Guy Debord argumenta que la historia de la vida social se puede entender como la declinación del ser en tener, y del tener en simplemente parecer. Esta condición en la cual la realidad se ha substituido por su imagen representa el momento histórico contemporáneo, cuando la mercancía completa su colonización de la vida social: las relaciones entre mercancías han suplantado las relaciones entre las personas y, en estas, la identificación pasiva con el espectáculo suplanta la actividad genuina. El espectáculo no es una colección de imágenes, escribe Debord, en cambio, es una relación social entre la gente que es mediada por imágenes.

Stinging revolutionary critique of contemporary society.

Letters by writer, filmmaker, and cultural revolutionary Guy Debord conjure a vivid picture of the dynamic first years of the Situationist International movement.