Raoul Vaneigem
(In the
1960s.)
Bio: Born 21 March 1934 in Lessines, Belgium. Father, Paul
Vaneigem, was a Socialist, anticlerical railway worker. Mother's name:
Marguerite Tilte. Between 1951 and 1956, Raoul pursued and obtained a
degree in Roman philology at the Free University of Brussels. Between
1956 and 1964, he was a professor at the Ecole Normale de
Nivelles. (He was forced to resign in 1964 after it was revealed
that he'd had an affair with one of his students.) In 1960, he sent his
work about French poetry to Henri Lefebvre, who then forwarded it to Guy
Debord. In 1961, he joined the Situationist International, and remained
a member until his resignation in November 1970. Between 1964 and 1972,
he was the editor of the Encyclopedia of the Current World. In
1986, he began work on an Encyclopedia Universalis. Especially in
the 1990s and 2000s, he published a great many nonfiction books, as well
as a novel. The father of four children, he now lives in Belgium.
Photographs
Newspaper photo of him at a demonstration circa 1960-1961 (detail). Full image.
With Guy Debord in the early
1960s.
By himself in 2003.
In 2005.
Reviews of his books
The Movement of the Free Spirit
(1986).
A Declaration of the Rights
of Human Beings: On the Sovereignty of Life as Surpassing the Rights of
Man (2000).
Texts in Translation
Pre-Situationist:
Isidore Ducasse and the Count of Lautréamont
in the Poésies 1958
Fragments pour une Poétique 1960
Situationist International:
First letter to Guy Debord, 24 January 1961
Letter to Guy Debord, 19 February 1961
Life goes by, life escapes (song lyrics)
1961
Basic Program of
the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism (with Attila Kotanyi)
Internationale Situationniste #6, 1961
Theses on the
Paris Commune (with Guy Debord and Attila Kotanyi), 18 March
1962
Basic
Banalities, part one, Internationale Situationniste #7,
1962
Basic
Banalities, part two, Internationale Situationniste #8,
1963
Ideologies,
Classes and the Domination of Nature Internationale
Situationniste #8, 1963
No dialogue with people who are suspect, no
dialogue with cunts, (with Jan Strijbosch) published as tract, 27
February 1963
"The
Revolution of Everyday Life," 1963-1965
Some Theoretical
Topics That Need To Be Dealt With Without Academic Debate or Idle
Speculation Internationale Situationniste #10, 1966
Aiming for
Practical Truth Internationale Situationniste #11, 1967
Notice to the
Civilized Concerning Self-Management Internationale
Situationniste #12, 1969
Situationist Orientation Debate:
Notes on the
orientation of the SI March 1970
Several precise points 23 April
1970
Note of synthesis for the meeting of 19 May
1970 May 1970
Letter of resignation from the Situationist
International, 14 November 1970
Post-Situationist:
Terrorism or Revolution, an introduction to
Ernest Coeurderoy 1972
Contributions to The Revolutionary Struggle, Intended To Be Discussed,
Corrected, And Principally, Put Into Practice Without Delay 1974
From
Wildcat Strike to Total Self-Management 1974
A
Cavalier History of Surrealism 1977
The Book of
Pleasures 1979
"The Resistance to Christianity" 1993
A Warning to Students of All Ages
1995
In Praise of Refined Laziness 1996
Foreword to "The Inhumanity of
Religion" 2000
Preliminary Notes on a Project for the
Construction of Oarystis, the City of Desires 2002
Interview published 12 September
2003
The Prisons Must Be Destroyed 2004
New preface to "The Movement of the Free
Spirit" 2005
Answers to Six Questions 2007
What's Free is the Absolute Weapon 2011
Greece: the Cradle of a New World 2012
Beyond the Impossible 2012
Nothing Has Ended; Everything Begins (excerpts) 2014
Self-Portraits and Caricatures of the Situationist International (2015)
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