Leaving the Twentieth Century - by McKenzie Wark (Paperback)

About the Book

"The Beach Beneath the Street first published by Verso 2011. The Spectacle of Disintegration first published by Verso 2013"--Colophon.

Book Synopsis

The acclaimed history of the groundbreaking Situationist movement

The Situationist International, which leaped to the fore during the Paris tumult of 1968, has extended its revolutionary influence right up to the present day. In Leaving the Twentieth Century, the movement is captured for the first time in its full range and diversity.

McKenzie Wark traces the group's development from the bohemian Paris of the '50s to the explosive days of May '68. She introduces the group as an ensemble, revealing the work and activities of thinkers previously obscured by the reputation of founding member Guy Debord. Roaming through Europe and exploring the vital lives its members--including Constant, Asger Jorn, Michèle Bernstein, Alexander Trocchi, and Jacqueline de Jong--Wark uncovers a group riven with conflicting passions. She follows the narrative beyond 1968, to the Situationists International's disintegration and beyond: the ideas of T. J. Clark, the Fourierist utopia of Raoul Vaneigem, René Vienet's earthy situationist cinema, Gianfranco Sanguinetti's pranking of the Italian ruling class, Alice Becker-Ho's account of the anonymous language of the Romany, and Debord's late films and his surprising work as a game designer.

Review Quotes

"Wark's readable explanation of the movement's ideas is the best I have read."
--Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times

"A playful, smart and occasionally epigrammatic study of the Situationists ... this brilliant account is not only an essential work for our own times; it also comes with a cover that, with the minimum of manual dexterity, folds out into a collaborative graphic essay"
--John Burnside, Times Literary Supplement

"They could be treated as histories of the Situationist milieu and its aftermaths, but to do so would miss entirely what makes them such compelling and, at times, hilarious reading. [...] What really drives The Beach Beneath the Street and The Spectacle of Disintegration is their impatience with contemporary cultural and intellectual institutions that, for all of their posturing, are largely complicit with the prevailing political order"
--Sydney Review of Books

"Wark is a marvellous guide to the micro-society of the Situationists ... She brings to the task a necessary sympathy, an encyclopedic knowledge, and a certain stylistic irrepressibility"
--Alex Danchev, Times Literary Supplement

"Wark is a fine aphorist ... Playful, angry, depressed, celebratory, this is a book for anyone not convinced that there is no alternative to the way we live now"
--Christopher Bray, Observer

"[A] smart overview of the situationist movement"
--Hari Kunzru, New Statesman, Books of the Year

"Covering the SI's adventures in philosophy, art, architecture, literature and cinema (and suggesting that we should do away with many of the distinctions between these categories), Wark traces a lineage we have apparently lost.. The author's primary proposal is that although we live in serious times we should still have fun with time. We should treat history as a user's manual. This history of the SI shifts with gay abandon between past, present and future tenses, and constantly rattles the boundaries"
--Art Review

About the Author

McKenzie Wark is best known for a series of books of twenty-first century critical theory, including A Hacker Manifesto, Gamer Theory, and Capital is Dead. She has also written works that contribute to an alternate history of Marxism, including Leaving the Twentieth Century and Molecular Red. Her survey books on contemporary theory and problems in collaborative knowledge production are General Intellects and Sensoria. She also writes in an autotheoretical style in books such as Dispositions, Philosophy for Spiders, Raving and Love and Money, Sex and Death. She is a professor of media and cultural studies at a university in New York.