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Preface to the
Situationist International Anthology
In 1957 a few European avant-garde groups came together to form the Situationist
International. Over the next decade the SI developed an increasingly incisive and coherent
critique of modern society and of its bureaucratic pseudo-opposition, and its new methods
of agitation were influential in leading up to the May 1968 revolt in France. Since then
— although the SI itself was dissolved in 1972 — situationist theses and tactics
have been taken up by radical currents in dozens of countries all over the world.
In this anthology I have tried to present a useful selection of situationist writings
while at the same time illustrating the SI’s origins and development. Thus some early
texts are included even though they express positions that were later repudiated by the
situationists. But even the later texts reveal mistakes, contradictions, projects that
never materialized, problems that remain to be solved. In other publications I have
presented my own views on a few of these issues; but here I have as far as possible let
the SI speak for itself.
The major portion of the anthology is drawn from the French journal Internationale
Situationniste (it includes about a third of the IS articles). The rest
consists of various shorter publications and documents. I have not included any excerpts
from the situationist books, Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle,
Vaneigem’s Treatise on Living for the Young Generations, Viénet’s Enragés
and Situationists in the Occupations Movement and Debord and Sanguinetti’s The
Real Split in the International. Anyone who is serious will want to read these books
in their entirety. The English translations of them that have appeared are all
unsatisfactory, but sooner or later someone will publish accurate versions.
The only previous English-language SI anthology, Christopher Gray’s Leaving
the Twentieth Century, is particularly bad. In Bureau of Public Secrets #1 I
have already criticized the superficiality of Gray’s commentaries on the SI. His
translations are on the same level. Not only do his chummy paraphrases obscure the precise
sense of the original, but there is scarcely a page in which he has not left out sentences
or paragraphs without any indication of the omission, or even made completely gratuitous
additions of his own.
About half the texts in the present anthology have been translated into English for the
first time. All the others have been freshly translated, but I have gone through all the
previous translations and incorporated many of their best renderings. I received an
immense help from Nadine Bloch and Joël Cornuault, who answered hundreds of questions
regarding the French texts, then checked the entire manuscript, correcting many errors and
suggesting many further improvements. Dan Hammer also made a number of good suggestions.
Asterisks refer to my notes at the end of the book. The only notes original to the SI
are the numbered footnotes in On the Poverty of Student Life. Within the text,
all annotations in square brackets are mine and my omissions are indicated by [...]. I
have not generally annotated references to historical events, etc., that enterprising
readers can easily find out about for themselves. Nor have I tried to explain supposed
difficulties in the SI’s language. After the usual diet of ideological pabulum it may
be a momentary shock to be forced to think; but those who are really confronting their
lives and therefore this society will soon understand how to use these texts. Those who
aren’t, won’t, regardless of explanations. Situationist language is difficult
only to the extent that our situation is. “The path to simplicity is the most complex
of all.”
KEN KNABB
December 1981
Note on the new online version:
The Bureau of Public Secrets website now includes all the texts from the SI
Anthology. While preparing the online versions over the past year I rechecked all my
translations against the French originals. I did not discover any significant errors of
content in those translations, but I took the opportunity to make numerous minor stylistic
improvements in order to make them more clear and idiomatic. The book versions remain
completely reliable. From now on, however, I recommend that those who plan to reproduce
any particular article use the latest online version.
In a few cases articles that were abridged in the book have now been translated
complete. In the future I may add some new texts.
—K.K.
September 1999
No copyright.
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