A Genealogy and Critique of Guy 
             Debord's Theory of Spectacle 
                             
                        Tom Bunyard 
                             
           PhD Thesis, Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of 
                          London 
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
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          The work presented in this thesis is the candidates own.  
           
          Signed:...................... 
           
          Date:.......................... 
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
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                         Abstract 
           
           
           
           
             This thesis addresses Guy Debord's theory of spectacle through its primary 
          philosophical and theoretical influences. Through doing so it highlights the importance 
          of his largely overlooked concerns with time and history, and interprets the theory on 
          that basis. The theory of spectacle is shown to be not simply a critique of the mass 
          media, as is often assumed, but rather an account of a relationship with history; or more 
          specifically, an alienated relation to the construction of history. This approach thus 
          offers a means of addressing Debord’s Hegelian Marxism. The thesis connects the latter 
          to Debord’s interests in strategy, chance and play by way of its existential elements, and 
          uses these themes to investigate his own and the Situationist International’s (S.I.) 
          concerns with praxis, political action and organisation.  
             Addressing Debord and the S.I.’s work in this way also highlights the 
          shortcomings of the theory of spectacle. The theory is based upon the separation of an 
          acting subject from his or her own actions, and in viewing capitalist society under this 
          rubric it tends towards replacing Marx's presentation of capital as an antagonistic social 
          relation with an abstract opposition between an alienated consciousness and a 
          homogenised world. Yet whilst the theory itself may be problematic, the conceptions of 
          time, history and subjectivity that inform it may be of greater interest. Drawing attention 
          to Debord's claims that theories should be understood as strategic interventions, and also 
          to the S.I.'s calls for their own supersession, the thesis uses its observations on the 
          nature of Debord's Hegelian Marxism to cast the theory of spectacle as a particular 
          moment within a broader notion of historical agency. It thus contends that Debord's 
          work can be seen to imply a model of collective political will, and offers initial 
          suggestions as to how that interpretation might be developed.  
                             
                             
                             
                             
                             
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                                Contents   
              
             Acknowledgements…………………………………………..……………5
             Preface…………………………………………………………..…………6 
             Introduction: Debord, Time and History…………………….………...13 
              
             Part One: Art and Negativity, 1952-1961 – Introduction……………..39 
             Chapter One: Negativity and the End of History……………………...46 
             Chapter Two: 'We are Artists only insofar as we are No Longer 
             Artists'……………………………………………………………………63 
             Chapter Three: The Everyday and the Absolute……...……………....78 
             Conclusion to Part One………………………………………………….95 
              
             Part Two: Capital and Spectacle, 1962-1975 – Introduction…...…...104 
             Chapter Four: The Spectacle...……………………………..................111 
             Chapter Five: Fetish and Appearance………………………………...121 
             Chapter Six: Marxism and Spectacle…………………………………139 
             Conclusion to Part Two……...………………………………………...160 
             Postscript: May 1968 and the End of the S.I…………………………166 
              
             Part Three: 'The Theory of Historical Action', 1976-1994 – 
             Introduction…………………………………………………………….169 
             Chapter Seven: The Integrated Spectacle ……………………………176 
             Chapter Eight: Strategy and Subjectivity…………………………….190 
             Chapter Nine: Freedom and Praxis…………………………………...204 
             Conclusion to Part Three………………………………………………218 
              
             Conclusion………………………………………………………………220 
             Bibliography…………………………………………………………….232
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