''Situation'' () is a concept developed by French philosopher

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

. It refers to "how ritualized action might be avoided or at least confronted consciously as contrary to the subject's freedom of nihilation".

Overview

The concept was first expressed in his 1943 work '' Being and Nothingness'', where he wrote that: Earlier, in his 1939 novella '' The Childhood of a Leader'' collected in '' The Wall'', Sartre expressed the concept while referring to pranks, saying that they "have a revolutionary value. They disturb. There is more destructive power in them than in all the works of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

." Another famous use of the term was in 1945, in his editorial of the first issue of '' Les Temps modernes'' (Modern Times); arguing the principle of the responsibility of the intellectual towards his own times and the principle of an engaged literature, he summarized that "the writer is in a ''situation'' with his epoch." An influential use of the concept was in the context of theatre, in his 1947 essay ''For a Theatre of Situations'', where he wrote that "if it's true that man is free in a given situation and that in and through that situation he chooses what he will be, then what we have to show in the theatre are simple and human situations and free individuals in these situations choosing what they will be". He then published his series ''Situations'', with ten volumes on ''Literary Critiques'' and '' What Is Literature?'' (1947), the third volume (1949), ''Portraits'' (1964), '' Colonialism and Neocolonialism'' (1964), ''Problems of Marxism, Part 1'' (1966), ''Problems of Marxism, Part 2'' (1967), ''The Family Idiot'' (1971–72), ''Autour de 1968'' and ''Melanges'' (1972), and ''Life/Situations: Essays Written and Spoken'' (1976).

Guy Debord, Letterist and Situationist International

Sartre's concept of ''Situation'' was reprised by

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...

at least since the times of the Letterist International.Hussey, Andrew (2002)
''The game of war: the life and death of Guy Debord''
p. 105.Touza, L. Sebastian (2008),
Antipedagogies for liberation politics, consensual democracy and post-intellectual interventions
', p. 171.Kaufmann, Vincent (2011)
''Guy Debord''
for the '' Institut français''. English translation
Guy Debord
' by Martin Richet In January 1954, the ''Letterist International'' declared: "The new beauty will be that of THE SITUATION, that is to say, ''provisional'' and lived." Sheringham, Michael (2006)
''Everyday life: theories and practices from surrealism to the present''
p. 162. Claire Gilman called Sartre a "father figure" for the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

, and wrote that "Sartre and his philosophy of the situation are fundamental to the SI's notion of everyday life authentically experienced". The relationship between Sartre's philosophy of the situation and the Situationist International is clarified by Peter Wollen in his essay "Bitter Victory". Peter Wollen, ''Bitter Victory: The Art and Politics of the Situationist International'', published in Elisabeth Sussman (1989), ''On the passage of a few people through a rather brief moment in Time: The Situationist International 1957-1972''.

Overview

Guy Debord, Letterist and Situationist International

References

Further reading