Sonic Youth, Sonic Space: Isidore Isou and the Lettrist

SONIC YOUTH, SONIC SPACE Isidore Isou and the Lettrist Acoustics of Deterritorialization 3

The change undergone by the concept of literature— which those attempts marked by the names “the New Novel,” “New Criticism,” “Structuralism” have helped to render spectacular in France— is not in immediate relation to the “Second World War,” having been in the process of becoming long before; however, it found the accelerated conﬁrmation of the fundamental crisis in the war, the change of an era that we do not yet know how to measure for lack of a language. Which amounts to saying, in the crisis that keeps get- ting deeper and that literature also conveys according to its mode, war is always present and, in some ways, pursued. Which amounts to saying that the war (the Second World War) was not only a war, a historical event like any other, circumscribed and limited with its causes, its turns, and its results. It was an absolute. This absolute is named when one utters the names of Auschwitz, Warsaw (the ghetto and the struggle for liberation of the city), Treblinka, Dachau, Büchenwald, Neuengramme, Oranienburg, Belsen, Mathausen, Ravensbrück, and so many others. What happened there— the holocaust of the Jews, the genocide against Poland, and the formation of a concentration camp universe—is, whether one speaks of it or whether one does not speak of it, the depths of memory in the privacy of which, henceforth, each one of us, the youngest as well as the most mature, learns to remember and to forget.—Maurice Blanchot, “War and Literature,” 1971

n 1950 Maurice Jarnoux photographed André Malraux at work in his office stu- diously contemplating the photographic fragments that had allowed him to re- Iimagine the cultures of the world as if a museum without walls (see chapter 1, Figure 1.1), and which would eventually inform his revisioning of the French capital as a city of nothing but. By the same year, Isidore Isou’s Lettrism had already become a well-known fixture in an emergent Parisian art scene intent on rejuvenating avant- garde tactics in studied refusal of both the cultural dominants

77 78 chapter 3 embeddedness of traditional language in everyday routines of perception, be they spa they be perception, of routines everyday in language traditional of embeddedness circumvent the also would alanguage such He hoped that nor textual. clusively visual “disciples,” his call Isou would ¹— notations graphic the sound and touse Isou aimed Bismuth)— (born Lemaître Pomerand Pomerans)Gabriel (born Maurice and whom it out set todestabilize. parameters visual and literary same very the within from articulated first it was notable Isou’s that in scandal, especially critiquedia was me occasional on the as persistence muchrepresentation. Dependent on dogged as vis- available most immediately to be à- or its sonic register tothe manipulations vis he took which experience, over direct photographic of media print and cendancy The Lettrist platform he modeled proposed an artistic critique aimed werebased. at they upon which both correspondence of semiotic presumptions the false the and as later— years twenty Paris to aspired Jew, Ioan- nian born 1925 in Moldavia, self- and Botosani, in Isidor Goldstein to exiled continuity, Isou— historical and coherence of spatial illusion onbuilt the a Roma one. political of the polarities right and left the of both suspension careful through achieved been had Malraux’s much as spectrum, cultural low of this ends and high of both twentieth- manipulation careful through achieved was celebrity century out Isou’s tobe, it turned as contribute. subsequently mid- would Illusory they towhich establishment the and derived had aesthetics Malraux’s which from proposals. This failure was explicitly enmeshed in the movement’sin enmeshed explicitly in was simultaneous failure This proposals. and ultimately togoodimagined, on failed make the more utopian of aspects Isou’s aurally- for the acontainer as France circumscribed lonially it community defined for impossible source universalisms. the as French traditions taken has aesthetics, ern bait- same the perpetuate eventually would and- advent the of mod since that, switch by anti- challenged and being to subject both was Isou such, As conflicts. colonial the imperial constructs that bolstered their presumed authority, world nor of Paris literary and even artistic of as the these contexts neither institutional the wereceed nationalism, the deterritorialized ahegemonic French conquest and cultural by colonial wrought globalization minent language Malraux’s pasLike de deux as Malraux. such figures that Isou’s Lettrism by embodied culture institutional an when against it pitted itself met itslimitations imagined could ex scribed in literary language. In this expectation, however, come in- to be had latter the Isou’s as of territoriality, especially limitations the beyond nity avant- gardist stance commu and enablecommunication would that of tools discourse new to engender planned reinvented. be reinvention, From could Lettrists space the this national and of urban experience hoped the Lettrists the that itsmanipulations sound and through tial or visual. It was imperative that this language find an aural realization, as it was did not correspond to the strict parameters of national boundaries and was neither ex was and boundaries of national parameters strict not tothe did correspond that one language, “spatialized” for adifferently basis the it as to communicate meant As I will demonstrate, Lettrism was unable to exceed the limitations of aco limitations the toexceed unable was Lettrism demonstrate, Iwill As capital, the in arrived newly also young French Jews, equally two Joinedby atfirst of itself image an thenation tooffer aspired had however, Malraux Whereas, de - suppositions spatial such exactly territorialize between the aesthetics of an im of an aesthetics the between ------SI (at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, 1989) has worked to distort our under our 1989) (at worked todistort Boston’s Art, has SI of Contemporary Institute on the exhibition Sussman’s important Elizabeth since received attention Debord has sheer volume the of near- that tosuggest as sofar onego might fact, In hagiographic so theperiod, notit be reiterated need here. of histories cultural for significance SI’s the detailed has scholarship much Certainly, LI.² thefrom defectors by other effort the basis of such suppositions about purity and externality, he elaborated amulti- he elaborated externality, and suppositions of such about purity basis the consumption.4 production and On of capitalist demands regular tothe externality apresumed was he on explained what economic based model an in of “youth” gory cate tothe ascribed Isou that privilege corresponding put the in been found echo had they towhich outside purposes conventional of the exist could expression aural of units discrete such that possibility The articulation. of unmediated avehicle ter as around what he proposed was the ostensible afilmmaker. debut as his made Isou semiotic 1951, in when Cannes, in audience event second involved the amore international rist; purity of atheo the as eventually aperformer,and poet, as 1946,in where presented himself Isou individual in letParis staged was first the elites: tolettered himself order in tointroduce chestrated Isou that or- scandals two media the mark 1946 1951. years and These between duced followers pro his and Isou that work early the of true Isou’sespecially is group. This when he broke from Debord established that on those than rather on terms itsown standing of Lettrist production proper.³ But the movement deserves to be evaluated Guy(SI), Debord 1952 which in founded 1957 and respectively, latter joined the in International Situationist the and (LI) International Lettrist of the ter constellations splin- tothe reference invoked mostin frequently are Paris in when he arrived erated gen exile young the that energy youthful 1950s the the 1960s, and Isou and during others’ cultural- and ofmodel their difference. linguistic the accommodate would that belonging of cultural means for quest anew the ror in prevent him or those not did order toavoid in misappropriations such refuge took Isou with which in junctures whom he workeddis and from ideals, abstractions, The hope toundermine. they institutions national and ultimately recapitulatingdogmas— thishere, as rooted er in colonial universalisms— aesthetic on insistence thesame perform do and often can voice of the difference in that permeate the very cultural about how object lesson avant- an provides trism for and to speak attempts gardist Let such, As of Israel. state Jewish established Isou’s newly in the in and, writings, Europe both in aftermath World Second the immediate its War throughout but also not only during Jewry of European experiences the with synonymous as understood was and Jew male) Ashkenazi (almost exclusively of the that with aligned identity subaltern 1940s, late whom this the he in with worked most seriously artists young rein tegrate successfully could other of the that in Isou’s indeed In and ideals. politics case, into national bodies excluded identitarian recuperative a such that hope the in and experience subaltern of aspecific particularities the communicating vestment in During these five eventful years, Isou pointedly honed his aesthetic doctrine doctrine aesthetic his honedpointedly Isou years, eventful five these During Within a now- standardized history of visual and cultural production in France ------79 sonic youth, sonic space 80 chapter 3 of the world. the of image the it continue toremake would imagined had when Malraux photography as and public space, toremake begin would façadism publicthe urban sphere, when his musée imaginaire Malraux’s when André decades same the precisely tosay is 1950s, early which 1940s late and the during of Paris landscape sion cultural tothe image- dimen and texture provide concept of important audience the and making, signification, linguistic between forged subsequently Lettrism that relationship lated triangu- The sound. would Isou’s art in how arevolutionary case, especially and, like tolook have would art arevolutionary of what ideas their formulated many that self propaganda. It was, therefore,nication had been put, especially by the administrative gymnastics of state- throughgenerated of commu means such towhich a reconfiguration instrumentalization the from inseparable as them of who producers, saw and language’s artists by leftist come torepresentation mistrusted be had function of means other and Union,it Soviet the language in of totalitarianism and Europe in of spread Fascism and rise the Following period. the not in unique certainly tion was scandals. media staged (Treatise on Eternity, Drool toone and 1951), two of the corresponds of which each film, 1947) Music, aNew and first Poetry his to aNew and book, first Introduction poésiehis àunenouvelle musique etunenouvelle by demonstrated most perhaps productively are platforms These experienced. it was andwhich by and relied, it which representation on of signification forms ventional con- the production but also not artistic atrejuvenating only aimed platform media including François Dufrêne and Gil J. Wolman, early members of Isou’s members J. Gil Wolman, and early Dufrêne François entourage including metropole. the in defended and refused both be for self- it battle would the which which through and fought, be would determination lan of crises on subsequent ground essential the an become would into when language decolonization, during guage factored themselves efforts such how about said been com to language of theSecond Worldduring inadequacy inflicted has War, devastation ofless the scale the municate inherent the as perceived then was what to according been written has a goodabout deal efforts to re- create“after language World II” War 1946 from to1954. While Vietnam now is Northern War), what in primarily fought War (or Indochinese First tothe French- lead eventually would lion that Vietnamese re- France War that rebel the Minh off Viet territory, setting Indochinese occupied World Second of the on heels precisely the it was for instance, French. Indochina, In for the import of special areas Indochina, and Africa in world, including colonized historical process. a as of decolonization fruition the saw also decades these Nationalist that toremember portant sentiment, im It Union United equally the Soviet is of States. the and superpowers political and of course, wastheeconomic onagainst culture and the language of differences tocoherethe beyond sought rise in much of the that community of model aEuropean the from emerging transnationalisms by the In this context, Isou’s model— and that of other self- designated Ultra- Lettrists, years these during impacted also were language to renew efforts time, same the At semiotic associa by stripping it of customary language Isou’s on purifying focus Traité de bave et d’étérnité d’étérnité et bave de Traité (Introduction entered ------nouvelle poésienouvelle modern poetry, which of history the celebrating in himself he aligned sopointedly he had which with modestlypoetics defined in French the of specifically tradition removed the from increasingly subtitle work grew his as even of his àune Introduction revo dialectic, lution.” careful held be in would audiences both with engagement 9 His Lettrist the tomake streets the charge will youth thousand “twelve events, these with Salle des sociétés savantes sociétés des Salle the as spots Saint- café- and popular atsuch readings upcoming his toannounce night Germain Saint- boulevards the surrounding streets the He plastered Quarter. Latin Michel the of cabarets and cafés underground thefrequented andwho as “youth” identified elite. French literary the to penetrate thereby and media, leftist and intellectual attentionof the the rouse to needed seriousness the and audacity the both upon himself conferred provocateur young the of old- performance, of poetic variety own his to unleash Dadaists guard poésie musique à unenouvelle etàunenouvelle book,and important most first to publish his Gallimard Gaston and han Paul Jean giants literary the persuade to able was author aspiring the that disruption calculated this from public of attentionhe the gained aresult as only it was Indeed, is dead!” Dada old present), stuff. Tzara of “Enough was which this by announcing: du Vieux- Théâtre Epilogue) atthe an and Four Acts 1946 Colombier(at in January La fuite: poème dramatique en quatre actes et un of Tzara’s Tristan épilogue toaperformance remarks Leiris’s of prefatory Michel interruption public sphere.”“bourgeois boisterous his attentionafter much media garnered 6 Isou the as define would Habermas Jürgen of what mechanisms publicity stitutionalized avant- historical toexploit in the Isou’s demonstrate they as willingness even garde, of the tactics and techniques the with of preoccupations anumber Lettrism’s emplify superiority. to cultural claims its and to legitimize ubiquity its naturalize to itsefforts in depended apparatus Fascism— colonial the upon priority which linguistic the ended by bolstering often artistic resistance that were once so central to efforts of models same by the reinforced subsequently was into and fed had to that gagement oppose the rise of European interventions— these experience, matic of en- of apolitics aftermath the moored in trau and everyday conditionsthe of todeterritorialize so, despite efforts And them. shaped that languages very of the parameters spatial the ever,if able totranscend wererarely, means new by these communicated experiences the that be would trists toconvention.5Let the according for risk made The is literature,” meaning wherein as“theof Blanchot space upheld Maurice what or and signified, signifier between conjunction normative the on interrupting based oftions apublic communicability respectively— SI and primary LI, the takes décollage, involved in becoming before value as a transitional model through which artists labored to generate new condi new togenerate labored artists which through model atransitional as value Although At the same time, Isou also courted a more popular audience among those he those among audience amore popular courted Isoualso time, same the At ex chapter this considerationunderin the period frame that scandals The media was published in 1947, in published Introduction to poésie àunenouvelle was claims Isou , as extending “from Baudelaire toIsou.” Baudelaire “from extending , as and LeTabou .7 most the venerable upstaged Having ,8 boasting that in conjunction (Escape: Dramatic Poem in Introduction Introduction ------81 sonic youth, sonic space 82 chapter 3 work then championed by the established avant- established by the championed work then but equally competing, the as garde Realist andSocialist somuch “old as Tzara stuff,”the performance Surrealist also but the during decried he had practices werenotDadaist the only these among Chief revo complete social acorrespondingly and society of that rebuilding tive lution.¹² affirma- toan leading thereby based, was society on which structures very the mine under necessarily and eventually would enough, far he pushed form, proposed if in experiments the that Isou believed before him, artists Dadaist and Surrealist the with As replaced. be must instead they Isou insists, toadvance, order In for culture uses. tonew simply no of longer adapting capable are words tropes, representation new and experiences new toaccommodate limits normal their beyond stretched been having of result a as bandaged and Tattered rags).¹¹ like them wear we that bandaged so now qu’on ont mots deravaudages déjà “les tant enloques” (words porte les though are continuepoets les mots chaque(enlarge to année” words year) “élargissent each even is, in particular, on poetic innovation ter Auschwitz,”— innovation. It cultural of realm the in fault more he specific that finds he lays the greatest how “af towrite todiscern eager of those accounts other dominated that blame, exile and claiming that events— tocontemporaneous ofattributable war realities the for instance, including, is of language knell death the tobe some he burdenfor of takes what the while that, Isouexplains led to Isou’s text, had the In that letters. with poetics preoccupation development the specific ofmodern Geneva.¹0 in charts book The Congress Jewish thefrom to WorldPalestine passage offer of paid the declining to Paris, cided to travel he before de- and Romania, native his in living still he was while text the have written ness of all expressive forms.¹4 In these forms he locates the possibility for abstraction for abstraction forms.¹4 possibility the expressive he locates forms of all these ness In interrelated on the based culture involves rebuilding platform aesthetic of his part fact, In of media. other but also of of writing, not ofintegration only genres other formupholds topure areduction the To as Isou’s contrary, the of chiseling theory practice. engaged an toward means primary the it as asserting writing, poetic abstract for inherent of politics the non- case aseminal 1947).ature? makes book, Sartre this In Qu’est- done his had in leader leftist and luminary littérature? la ce que literary the as media and forms artistic between separation the toemphasize wants Jean-like he, is not because this model, Lettrist the draft Sartre, to Paul effort his in analyzes Isou that form first the is poetry of prior While innovation. excesses the away and influences; absorb external practices (amplic how aesthetic or to designate expansive) periods these He names of destruction. generation and periods oscillating through operating as he understands which and arts, other the all and for cinema tobe. himself one the Isouimagined like tionaries” “revolu by younger toassault available thus and practice or committed of engaged model adominant positioned as (CPF).¹³ accordingly was Party of these munist Each French of the Com aspirations political tothe and Resistance tothe heirs legitimate, Before such revolution could be achieved, all “enemies of creation” destroyed. be all must revolution achieved, be such Before could to generate meaning on precisely the same order as that of Sartre’s preferred realism. realism. of preferred Sartre’s that order as same the on precisely meaning to generate Isou’s understanding of poetic production corresponds to the model he outlines he model outlines tothe production corresponds of poetic Isou’s understanding ciselant (chiseling or reductive) to describe efforts to purify the form by paring (What Is Liter Is (What amplique ------

une nouvelle etàune poésie nouvelle musique Figure and language in favor of what he understood as a profoundly abrupt chaos.¹5 It bears chaos.¹5 abrupt a profoundly It bears as he understood of favor what in language and of meaning Tristan Tzara’s ones and over disaggregation itslinguistic qualities visual word’s for preference the Mallarmé’s Stéphane tobe considers Isou what in manifest are influence external form of poetic to purge efforts word. for Parallel verse the the of subsequent “destruction” Rimbaud’s Arthur and line, of favor the in ofpoem that Verlaine’s Paul of form ofthe the through apace “annihilation” continued had ing tocontent) (as “anecdote” refers Isou the favor poem’s of in the chisel Such form. of Baudelaire’s refusal Charles with off Victor taken Hugohad after began explains, Isou poetry, ofmodern phase 3.1). equivalent (see chiseling Figure The itsfilmic in or experimentation poetic in if anew, rebuilt no be matter it might sothat ittle fully todisman- but failed somewhat had language poetic purifying in succeeded tion had (Scheme The poétique” II: Evolutionmatériel experimenta such of Material), Poetic L’évolution II: “Schèma du diagrammatic the as Isou’sIn he charts model, which of avant- worth acentury’s almost been already had what experimentation. gardist to complete production, was artistic communicative hence all and poetic, in phase Goldstein. By the late 1940s, Isou was confident that the only means to initiate a new amplic a new initiate to the means only that confident By 1940s, late was Isou the 3 . 1 Isidore Isou, ﬂow chart, “Schèma II: “Schèma chart, . Isidore Isou, ﬂow L’évolution du matériel poétique,” (Paris: Gallimard, 1947 ). Image courtesy Catherine ). Image courtesy Introduction à - - 83 sonic youth, sonic space 84 chapter 3 the explicitly plastic representation of concepts already designated by linguistic con by linguistic designated already of representation concepts plastic explicitly the in fixed become the wordhas Thus graphic. terminally and overwhelmingly word as absorption. orplative focused contem than rather confusion of representation, distracted and instead experience of privacy, by publicity shaped instead space acoustic action, rooted an in nicative zero” of commu “degree the word over priority as the take would letter the such, As letter— of the capacity form, signifying new Isou’s proposed the of core this the form. At Lettrism adifferent totake need would Isouenvisioned them as future of the tory, poetics the his of literary arc the dominate and come toencapsulate of form printed had words text’s reliance on the word— printed of the preponderance the than other on something based be would one that amplic phase, initiation theof a new in element expanded first be to the as letter the refine. Seizing to left form werestill upon of linguistic attributes when formal nonsense of verbal pursuit the last of these, his in names plicitly Isou isolates theavant- single typographic garde, mark Isou of positionsmost in spite of himself.¹6 his own practice poésieà unenouvelle as ready his by it French in Tzara, not is written Indeed, authors. with when, as to exceed what French, in even written is draws Isou on which lineage the that juncture atthis noting he more ex Isou argues that any quest for a new public language must be built from pure pho pure from built be must for public quest anew language any that Isou argues it printed wed page, tothe conditions that impoverishing the absorbed instead has word the that anotation. Maintaining as sound elementsit for the serves which than tion of letters— should never have been understood more anything signifying as real book.¹9 of the word— printed For the realm Isou, accumula an more than nothing tion by removing it from the public realm of speech and relegating it to the private tionary,” he suggests, dic- the without in words “disappear.” “Sensations toexist. cease would engender they tionships ¹8 In this model, conventional language— at least poésieune nouvelle of his exposition main the precedes that manifesto the in he asserts is, or evolution. Itexperience- change of incapable accommodating vehicle, diminishing and thereforelimiting a Theword is such. as perpetuated vention continually and the rise of the media culture it has produced) for having deprived the word the deprived of func its for produced) having it has culture media of the rise the (and history this He bemoans advance. of longer printing’s arc the as technological of re- instead reality limiting and it. presenting determining have ensued— that of function the codifications the form itsprinted and in assumes rela the and representation, things withoutlinguistic that, to lament assessment this on he builds it not not or is did seen heard, and fall, forest the in falls atree if argues Isou grounds his distinction regarding these terms in an understanding of the of the understanding an in terms these regarding distinction his grounds Isou historical the evolution form through of teleological poetic the traced Having Isou’s consideration of the word’s graphic fixity is rooted in what he understands understands he what in rooted is Isou’s word’s of fixity the consideration graphic l lettre la , “the first stereotype.”, “the first principlethat the perverse from ¹7 Operating , Isou asserts the priority of French letters and French culture, al French of priority French and the culture, letters , Isouasserts Introduction poésie àunenouvelle — — rebuilt. be could meaning upon unit which most basic the as l mot le — — the Whereas block of meaning. building the as as the Dada artists’ erroneous artists’ Dada the as Introduction à Introduction ------tival at Cannes can be traced even in the posters advertising the event: Georges C. C. event: Georges the advertising posters the in even traced be can atCannes tival fes- the of pretensions internationalist in 1946.burgeoning The inaugurated ficially of was 1932, in French the launched festival was Veniceof which the Festival, Film iteration contemporaneous the in ambitions manifest 1939 Fascist tothe acounter as in launched Originally exchange. cultural of form transnational important an as ing emerg then just was what underscored that away soin did and century, twentieth mid-the in cinema of official— importance the marked already festival the iteration, high- red- glamour, phenomenon it today, of is this— carpet time atthe fourth its only not the yet was Festival Film Cannes the (Treatise on Drool Eternity). and While film, unfinished of his aspects certain he debuted atleast here that It itspermutations. was all in cinema to be heof understood creation” that specific on“enemy the attack his he launched Festival, Film International Cannes the of 1951, toprint. In occasion on werenot the restricted communication duction and reproof theIsou’s technologies with of amodel signification, such in preoccupations language. conventional of boundaries cultural the exceed might expression hope that his particular in and ples, Isou’s princi animate and aesthetic pervade thus evoke they sounds the and letters convention, tosymbols, graphic according fixed toinvention than rather according 1950s— the nothing.²¹Malleable during fixed mark graphic that content was Isou this production painterly Lettrist the subject theof as fused— much of figured that a fact not re be could form on graphic its letter’s the reliance inherent own Whereas evoke. to weremeant they sounds the than other anything meant never had they because association their in dynamic werestill simply most put, letters and hand other the On thetransportation.²0 field in of enacted transformations the of ble significance formida the afeeble attempttoname in word the “airplane” stammers pathetically that one asserts Isou example, for Elsewhere, of fixity. kind same the achieved eyes, not, Isou’s in had letter the of life, modern changes order tothe in toadapt further any of incapable become expanding had meaning, poetic of normativeor traditional emblem the word, as the If them. tomake necessary movementthe parts body of the often, and, order in sounds toproduce letters other with relationship combinatory in only operate they words, unlike not signs; and cues are Letters of sensation. acy immedi- the with of sound more sync in articulations word of the by evoking ticity tionship defined by presenceand immediacy. rela- adialogic in other and of self binding the assure would language new this ing sound that proposes Isou letters. as non- on such based emblems, be must significant representation of language must be sounded out, so that it may be heard. such, As it To action. and formance reprinted the of communication, ameans as value obtain per event scorefor potential an more than little as printed text the who considered by avant- later experiments the anticipating meaning, notneed visual bolster gardists Isou’s judgment somust spoken.echoes be This nemes and language that assessment Deeply committed to the notion of a recuperable, originary purity that is implicit is that purity notion tothe originary of arecuperable, Deeply committed fac totalizing the and reach deadened the cancel would For sounding such Isou, Traité bave de et d’étérnité ------

85 sonic youth, sonic space 86 chapter 3 in future advertisements for the film. A bemused Jean Cocteau, for example, though though example, for Cocteau, bemused Jean A film. for the advertisements future in he instrumentalize would afact classes, intellectual of the curiosity heightened the accordingly, and, Isou’s augmented iconoclast attention only an media as celebrity Isou’s vehemently excoriating Such publicly and efforts.²4 in audiences general ing resist, however, could not there. They join- cast Isou that of outlier figure by the nated pictures he classifiesas art.” “film ²³ those and this of like twentieth- trajectory features popular between cinema century proper the aesthetic tonegotiate imperative festival’s the invoked as Uroskie has drew An historian one art end of what marking thereby award, Actress Best the earned wood extravaganza AllAbout Eve film gel Van (Mirror Holland of Holland, (Miraclea Milano in Milan) directed by Bert Haanstra), Vittorio roster included DeSica’s international the competitions, principal and the Swedishhouses to American movies.²² In 1951, when Isou’s French for cinema opening some forgave United return debt Frenchthe in States war Blum- the as such arrangements of international light by which agreement, Byrnes in sense make expansions Such international urn. aGrecian from forth rising stock film twisted the form of in now reimagined flags, of national variety greater even an Don’s Jean hued of strip 35mm while larly celluloid, composition for 1952 brandishes asimi colorsand beneath flags of national cavalcade atwisted in dressed woman of adark- dance ecstatic the features 1949 for the Chavannes’s design festival haired meaning that normally structures cinematic narrative, and which, in Isou’s in which, and had narrative, eyes, cinematic structures normally that meaning of syntagmatic kind the tointerrupt image sound and between discordance sponding toexploit meant corre the was cinema representation. Such adiscrepant cinematic a“ to as letters as opposed to on individual reliance the referent printed its through from sound spoken completeto divorce words, herecontent. hoped as he’d independent of film’s ofMuch itself the and in is imagerial Isou aimed to develop symphony, of aLettrist chanting rhythmic the with begins which soundtrack, lated what he referred image- iso the delayed for the to wait because immaterial, somewhat remains track notpatience simply did the have audience the or whether true is this Whether sure.²6 displea their indicate otherwise and toboo began audiences before minutes a few Traité bave de et d’étérnité ventures.²5 more successful far own, his with and creatively aesthetically film the high- for poster this the designed himself Cocteau associating therebyevent, profile Troyon well- rue and arrondissement. wealthy the seventeenth in the of area trafficked enjoyedthree- a the film l’Étoile of the on de Studio famous the at in Paris run week d’avant- teurs garde created Isouspecially a jury,the amember of awarded not officially According to media scholar Vincent Kaufman, it was only the soundtrack of soundtrack the only it was Vincent scholar Kaufman, to media According in fasci were 1951 Cannes in the festival to who flocked media ofMembers the Fröken Julie (Miss Julie Fröken Julie, directed by Alf Sjörberg). Joseph Mankiewicz’s Holly cinéma discrepant for the film and, a year later, completeand, a ayear version butabbreviated film for the ” in the separation of the aural and visual components of visual and aural of the separation the ” in that had been “screened” at Cannes, and this only for only this and atCannes, “screened” been had that , which shared the Grand Prix with the Dutch film Spie Dutch film the with Prix Grand the shared which took home a Special Jury Prize, and Bette Davis Davis Bette and Prize, Jury took home aSpecial Traité was screened outside screened of the was Prix des specta des Prix Miracolo Miracolo ------privy to scenes depicting the pomp and circumstance of an imperial political cere political imperial of an pomp circumstance the and depicting toscenes privy made we are montage, into his weaves Isou that clips excerpted in here, for example, French by the Army. controlled So, terms in Indochina in tensions mounting the communicate to efforts, wereintended for propagandistic sequences such newsreels, in Ivry- Ivry- in sur- form of the in consumption for popular Seine.²8 Army by Produced the d’Ivry toFort relocated recently had which SCA), Armies, of the (Cinematic Section Armées des cinématographique Services of bins the trash the from gleaned allegedly had he rushes of excerpted agooddeal and celebrities of clips literary including stock, image. sound and privileges normally order that archical visible, material form when it is read, and is, way, in this within the hier staked also a takes language that viewer the remind again which intertitles, expository tensive by ex- interrupted are sequences opment image 3.2). (see the Figure Nowagain, and shot, counter-shot, detail; shot; reaction— action, devel narrative and or continuity diegesis— of cinematic codes the standard of establishing refusal flagrant in gether Saint- boulevard the along walking of stitchedto Isou (as Daniel) are and Germain, notwithstanding. Instead, they tend to fixate on banal sequences, likethe long takes adventures romantic Daniel’s narrative, conventional a advance they nor do film, the of sonic dimensions the or explain tosituate on dolittle screen images the most part, For the adventures. romantic various Daniel’s protagonist the describing narration inconsequential, and not if anodyne adetailed, and adécollagiste), (later Dufrêne underlies Lettrist aesthetics— performances by individual poets, including François that theimmediacy sonic underscore if to as moments film the in atvarious surfaces poetry— symphony, re- which of aforementioned Lettrist tions Lettrist the including at aciné- or given hoped togive), had Isou of alecture recita club (clearly arecording of a“public sounds the are debate”or open- this Cut into all right. itsown in lecture object of aesthetic aunique (played construction by Isou) the Daniel and protagonist voice- monologue of the internal present the and narrate tosimultaneously over meant aself- between athree- oscillates as form, on issued cinematic manifesto professed way Traité chapters, three of these Isou’sspan the act Across cinema. of model discrepant )—development),”and en defend, preuve” “La proof (The and articulate, to meant “chapters”—“Le principe three idea),” (The form as développementtakes (The “Le language. and spoken written in signification their and signs todisconnect attempts Isou’s parallel ongoing course, of Such effects, hearing. and terior of projects listening ul tothe equally given weretobe both and reading, as important as be would Seeing registers.²7 visual and textual between established be could no hierarchy and two the of cinema”— wings “two rejoin could relationship or necessary no logical that such tracks— image the sound and the he names which tounhinge meant was conquering, of short amilitary- nothing he championed as which and of dividing tactic inspired cele ically by “enemies other works brated of creation.” For discrepancy, such Isou, rendered it no more an effective tool for social advancement than the more aesthet- Isou’s original 35mm footage is also frequently interrupted by bits of found film by bits interrupted of frequently found film also is Isou’s 35mm footage original version Isou’sof final the Cannes, after year of the overcourse the Revised Traité ------

87 sonic youth, sonic space mony and the mechanistic movement of French troops marching through rural areas (see Figure 3.3).²9 We are also introduced to local Vietnamese culture, in the form of fishermen at work and fragments of temples and villages in ruins (see Figures 3.4 and 3.5). Intercut with the footage from the boulevard Saint- Germain, these images from a site of war have the uncanny effect of destabilizing both the temporal and spatial par- ticularity of Paris, which otherwise appears uniformly grey, abandoned, and near lifeless. Exactly unlike the pageantry of the ceremonies, be they military or political, that Isou weaves into his film, his wanderings along the Boulevard Saint- Germain take no specific direction or focus (see Fig- ure 3.2). We might read the effect of splicing these banal wanderings into the propaganda segments as also disruptive to the presumptive order of the Indo- chinese sequences, rendering them as futile as Isou’s wanderings, or as inexplicable as the other montaged sequences, which are just as likely to vacillate between oppositional pairs—the heights of residential build- ings and the irregular paving stones on the ground, for example, or the church of Saint Germain- des- Prés and a Vietnamese temple—as to repeat some sequences at random. In some instances, the same clips are repeated upside down and in reverse. Most importantly, they are often scratched through in what remains the most literal demonstration of Isou’s theorization of the “ciselant,” or chiseling phase of aesthetic development,

Figure 3.2. Isidore Isou, film still, Traité de bave wherein an artistic genre is reduced to its most essen- et d’éternité, 1951, showing Isou walking along a tial qualities. Here, we see such chiseling put into ef- boulevard in Paris. fect by Isou literally carving into the celluloid of the 35mm film itself, deliberately scratching out faces and Figure 3.3. Isidore Isou, film still, Traité de bave also gouging links between frames such that the “ab- et d’éternité, 1951, showing Isou’s manipulation of found footage of a political ceremony. sent” image renders itself just as positively as the one otherwise captured in the film medium. So, too, does Figure 3.4. Isidore Isou, film still, Traité de bave this image move and vibrate as the film sequences are et d’éternité, 1951, showing a ruined village in projected. Indochina. Within the terms of Isou’s prognoses, such chiseling marks the penultimate stage of a creative cycle built on destruction and re-creation, to which, he argues, that all art forms and the societies from which

88 the while reiterating, again and again, that the images flashing before the audience the audience before flashing images the that again, and again reiterating, while the all film, tothe quality lend aghostly armies faceless these groups. masse, in En ures of multiple fig countenances the oracross leaping faces over hovering single usually in scratches of the most to here Isou’s that victim repeating It violent bears scrapes. falls carpenter of the visage the as defaced, quite is literally image the Indeed, before. tosignify stood had they what tosuggest begin only can fragments These image. that been had of what fragments the presented with atwork, weare of acarpenter image of an Instead age. im- original of the function representational the undermines scratching the First, cial. wanderings in Saint- Germain- des- Prés, which are increasingly disrupted by protagonist’s of flipping, the scenes morerepeated among and spliced introduced, is footage one: chapter in stock here, the had they than soundtrack the from more markedly even on diverge screen images the pursuits, sexual of Daniel’s on atale tor embarks film’s of the chapter,second development.” “The beginning commenta at the the As seen first film’s component are the visual punctuate that frames Thescratched figure. imposed toan ground material as quality itsmost primary in image an register and film’scapture the to made on capacity reducecelluloidits themarks stock, film of the Isou’s scratching of instance dramatic and first deliberate the in demonstrated as and of Isou’s demonstration principles.³0 most important up the set that Lettrist images voice- of the mechanics the the componentinstead is it film, of central the the over as upon seized traditionally have critics Isou’s in whereas not important fact, In work. is image the that is say not to This stock itself. film violence tothe so undone by this over by Isou’s written and ultimately marks are they and related, logically tobe so as are notplaced film the of part this in images The conform. must generated are they by Isou’s effacing scratch, which splits the image in nearly equal halves. halves. equal in nearly image the splits by Isou’swhich scratch, effacing cut path the in 3.5). (see remain Figure avice in image of the fragments cracked Only clenched block of wood asmall filing of acarpenter footage stock tobe appears what Suddenly, scratching. alightning- and reversing, through of strikes white coil like As explained by the mechanics of the “chiseling” phase of Isou’s phase model “chiseling” of the aesthetic mechanics by the explained As The implications of this and the multitude of marred frames that follow are cru follow that frames the marred of and multitude this of implications The Traité bave de et d’éternité are made over the faces of individuals, of individuals, over faces made the are scratched celluloid. ofIsou’s “ciselant”effects technique and de bave et d’éternité et bave de Figure 3 . 5 . Isidore Isou, ﬁlm still, Traité , 1951 , showing the - - - 89 sonic youth, sonic space 90 chapter 3 spatial certainty or “surface coherence” that Siegfried Kracauer had lamented as key key as lamented had Kracauer Siegfried that coherence” or “surface certainty spatial In this way, we might also see Isou’s imaginaire. musée Malraux’s in photographed of the statues faces the as for example, efforts as meant to undo precisely impenetrable, and as silent eminent superficiality, their in revealed thus it are built is that kind of which upon the and photographic apparatus stock film depict. The otherwise would images these which that identify, or name, audience’s topassively the urge disrupts non- images these rendering In therein. contained ages he further representational, 3.5).³¹(see Figure oft- This Isou’s underscores sequence distressing of repeated process of subtraction form away,by saymeans shaping is to atworkwhich filing craftsman a film depicts ofscratched instance first the that it not is insignificant member that weshould sound, re and of image discordance Isou’s onnecessary the insistence Despite celluloid theitself. of materiality the reveal that manipulations to film his would-his of faces the obscuring stock, film into the ings and subjecting be subjects, second chapter of the film, Isoudisorder.” the from film,”the emerge flowers will in thaton new “aIndeed, so order does just that, scraping simplisticdu cinéma discrepant flower- like ciné- at the draw film’s up moment to the the club in leading presentation of to material manipulation and transformation. director, available therefore Isidore the and Isou, case, this in artist, of an material raw platform— aesthetic of foundation his the as Isouprivileges letters the the much like are— intended were they once represent.to They not figures the images, that: just are but the camera also lingers on the famous awnings and façades of Saint- façades and awnings famous on the lingers also but camera the Germain- [Isou] frequents, Daniel protagonist the that cafés and bars several voiceover name the Not does only specific. extremely it nonetheless is unmotivated, and banal mains territory.Saint-Isou’s of In a specific backdrop the while film, Germain-des- re Prés to belonging it as ascribed already had that authority it the from removing implies moreare explicitly ascribed in relation to a specific place; deterritorializing this place relations term,these of the uses more In traditional associations. ble and applications do— also would externalism for more flexi available newly them orderin tomake of relations— Isou’s production, as ofand labor of youth- models own especially based aset of decontextualizing process general involves the deterritorialization Guattari, and For Deleuze suggest. would term of the sense (1972) more the traditional as and their in Guattari and Felix Deleuze by Gilles example, for defined, to be come would term this as both component of deterritorialization, film’s of the strategy acrucial constitute disruptions These Isou’s wanderings. through peripatetic and Indochina from scenes with of Paris city of coherence the spatial the on disrupting cohesion— its temporal focus film’s of the light in sustained meaning additional take 1. chapter in discussed as ence, experi and toknowledge duplicitous photographic of image to the the relationship his film stock with abrasive materials to destroy the quality and integrity of the im the of integrity and the quality todestroy materials abrasive with stock film his Such efforts to disrupt the space of the image—the of the space disrupt and to as a medium efforts Such depth both its [Isou], film’s the Daniel rendered that protagonist, diatribe by the suggested As (Manifesto ofCinema) Isou’s Discrepant (Manifesto intention to“sculpt is Oedipus Anti- Le manifeste manifeste Le ------the experience of spontaneous sensation.³5 of a spontaneous Tomontage into experience his end,the he edits this metaphor through narrative toresist ameans as poetry by Lettrist proposing chapter reporting.³4 advent the before of televisual state- the worldof news diffusion the dominated that newsreels Sunday controlled ences might also have seen footage like that from Indochina, when they ventured to of weekly, Sunday tenderness).³³ “ for cinema their the We might understandcome to this audiences film that as understands insipid, but parallel story nevertheless romantic the to how audi film’s the that author, us voice commentatortells of“Jean- the Isidore Isou,” finds the segment, film end of the At this it parts. into itsconstituent by dividing cisely to pre “conquer” athand, medium the aiming as agenda for Isou) aesthetic own commentator’s the here in (as astand- description of reappear his they perialism, in of im- appropriated metaphoric been bylanguage the into and fed often have tions rela romantic and sexual of war.³² while image Indeed, sculptural the “like being one women, “Eve,” including ofas quest several commentatordescribes whom the con sexual on the turns chapter second the in unfolds that narrative stock the that in important, especially becomes film narrative idiom of the apurportedly through achieved is this That into asite of war peace. as or disallowed discarded been has silence du voix of Les photographic the pairings in leged privi- Malraux that city. juxtapositions French form of the the capital ban Unlike ur and architecture of the heart into the of but ruin, location astate presented in another in rooted culture, another of aspects of reintroducing effect the has montage the above, described the project to of deterritorialization in relationship significantly Much more nothing. absolutely literally say and can they about which tercut, and in are they which with site the shotsof from war the with juxtaposition in weight muteness, assumes their more represented as is acutely what indeed lence, and si- Their speech. own their of generating incapable rendered are propriation they performed), Isou’s in they (either authors of whoselines or the own those their ap for their precisely wereknown montage into his he imports heads” “talking of the many While action. political and speech contemporary between about rift the film’s into the spliced chapter. been second have that Indochina in Salacrou— war from the scenes Armand the and with now associated but also who are Maurois, André Gélin, Brunoy,ette Dhermitte, Danile Delorme, Edouard Danièle Jean- Achard, Marcel time— Blanch Cendrars, Barrault, Blaise Louis Cocteau, Jean the of culture intellectual the in prominently who not featured only filmmakers and dramatists, actors, the depicting found footage here through only introduced who are them, inhabit normally women who men might and of the letters with by association are populated spaces urban these Significantly, film. of fabric the into the interspliced des- as exteriority Daniel/Isou’s to reinforce if perpetual as Prés, clip of François Dufrêne reciting two early examples of what Dufrêne would later later would Dufrêne of what examples early two reciting Dufrêne ofclip François In order to counter this specific variety of banality, Isou concludes thesecond concludesIsou of banality, variety specific orderIn this tocounter The effect is twofold. On a thematic level, Isou might be seen as making a point petite dose de tendresse dominicale et hebdomadaire et dominicale tendresse de dose petite , Isou’s what stitching end in himself ” (little dose dose ” (little aforeigner, words ------

91 sonic youth, sonic space name crirhythmes, nonsensical poems based on a marriage of the human voice as a cry and Lettrist principles of sound- based signification. The poems, an effort to express the body through the means of its immediate capacity for communication, corresponded to Isou and other Lettrists’ belief that the avenue to achieving the kinds of sonorous amplitude they hoped would redefine the conditions of communicating experience in the present involved not only undoing the kinds of narra-

Figure 3.6. Isidore Isou, ﬁlm still, Traité de bave et d’éter- tive emplotments performed in the second nité, 1951, showing the effects of Isou’s “ciselant” tech- chapter of Traité de bave et d’éternité, but also nique and scratched celluloid. involved reconsidering the technological apparatus that had contributed to their dissem- ination and evolution.³6 Thus, in Traité, Isou’s emphasis on “chiseling” the form to its material base meant stripping the medium to a point where it could be redeveloped, with a very different eye to the technological process of cinematic montage and its efforts to adhere sound and image. Indeed, in the film’s first chapter, Daniel is “heard” ruminating— or, rather, the commentator reports that he is ruminating—on the original split of so- called silent cinema into separate tracks, one sonic and one visual. It is in the subsequent fusion of these two elements that Isou locates the origins of what he describes as cinema’s “false perfection,” which has limited the medium and turned it into what he considers to be a “bloated” version of itself. Appropriately then, it is only during the Lettrist recitations that the film’s image track gives way completely to an entirely imageless and uninterrupted flow of scratches, thumbprints, fragments of countdown sequences, and other detritus of ruined film stock, as if to demonstrate visually what is occurring at the same moment in the soundtrack, namely, the complete and cha- otic annihilation of speech as language (see Figure 3.6). By pairing Dufrêne’s crirythmes, for example, with the most pronounced visualizations of chaos the film has to offer, these moments are, perhaps ironically, the most discordant and yet also the ones in which the film’s image and the soundtrack are most in sync. This occurs thematically—in the simultaneous realization of both visual and aural manifestations of non- meaning— but also sensorially, as the rapid, inconsistent spattering of the white scratches pulse quite deliberately with the rhythm of the poet’s sound- making. From chiseled image and chiseled sound, the film hereby reinitiates an amplic phase based on a new vocabulary of reconstructed sound and image. Isou’s desire to thus generate a dissonant or discrepant cinema in order to repriori- tize the parameters of the medium corroborates the hypothesis developed by the art historian and theorist of visuality, Jonathan Crary, regarding the historical parameters of what Guy Debord would claim as “the spectacle,” and the subject that the

92 nodding to an emphatically visual practice that would nonetheless hinge on the au on the hinge nonetheless would that practice visual emphatically toan nodding he is not just prioritizing of radio shouldn’t Why becomeatype of cinema. turn in cinema become atype one representationalet d’éternité bave de Traité In same. of the aradio tocreate it better be would ofvision cinema, medium over another.40 Rather, century. twentieth of the overcourse the vigor increasing with develop would that by variety televisual the especially of propaganda, manipulation tothe available newly observer the made attentionthat such exactly it was that toemphasize it important is of art- sequent analyses athand, materials of looking.³9 the For purpose the historical sub in benefit togreat develop he will of attention,” that kind of amodel subjectivity anew overobserver, enforcing the authority but amore it commanding instituted voice of image, with andnarrative, time, sound space, of way of new organizing acrucial was not only figure, with coincidence full “the that writes Crary model, Debord’s on text illuminating most the remains what In associated. it usually is which with photographic the apparatus than toarchitecture itsstructure in more is akin serves, ob Crary consumption, which, of perceptual organization a condition of alarger and apart both as emerges spectacle register, the visual apurely from Dislodged of itshegemony. political, and cultural both conditions, the historicizing also while constellation, optical exclusively an as term of the reception the it complicates that ³8 technology.” move new tothe costly for the capital provided the sound patents and the owned that conglomerates corporate the with amalgamation and its industry film the within exhibition of production,and integration distribution, “the complete vertical tiated ini experience,” of subjective and nature the in “a transformation calls Crary what inaugurated capacity,film the that In film. sound in of emergence synchronized the space behind a representation or a façade rather than just its surface coherence.It is just itssurface than rather arepresentation or a façade behind space the better,see, imagine or to to audiences same thosecondition might differentially, hearing and reading, of seeing, practices but simultaneous discrepant the in diences re- ative au- schooling that, by reshuffling of verbal kind the precisely engagement, on not acre and on but absorption on based be rupture would Such experience. and of era attention anew toinaugurate he means sound, as words of moving ralization origins to 1927,origins offeature- the release when the The Jazz Singer film length its trace well might spectacle the that proposes old.³7 Crary date, Working this from wrote suggestion in his urbanism— on Debord’sopments photography draws in Haussmannian and Crary devel tocontemporaneous relationship in 1860s the from Manet’sinterpret paintings the to historian term use of art T. Clark’s J. in example, for find, some might which of Debord’s leveling analytic— of dehistoricized kind the against Arguing traction. dis- of attention and mechanisms various through produces spectacle” of“society the Such insight helps make sense of Isou’s suggestion that instead of creating atele of creating of instead Isou’s sense that helps make insight Such suggestion Crary’s location of the spectacle within this historical trajectory is significant in in 1967, the spectacle itself was barely forty years years forty 1967, in barely Spectacle the was of itself Society spectacle The the , when Isou has the commentator ask: “Because of television, radio has has radio of television, “Because ask: commentator the has , when Isou Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle ofthe Society onthe Commentaries (1987) when he that, marked ?,” ?,” ------93 sonic youth, sonic space 94 chapter 3 deed all cultural, production.44 To exclusion of cultural, the weshould conditions add these all deed in- on poetic, death tre,” World Second of the of industrialized War impact the and or “désas “catastrophe” the with tocome attempt toterms the marking as describe ness and concretize the silence) that such literary figuresas Maurice Blanchot would rien”le and“écrire to thele silence” “concrétiser nothing efforts (write with text the “témoigner,” “détruire,” like “torturer,” “tuer,” affiliate (destroy, kill) torture, witness, Isou’s on Indeed, words period. of the events the reliance with consistent a manner that infuses both violent the rhetoric perhaps, help explain, origins Such of Lettrism. tenets central the todevelop began Isoufirst that of Romania, occupation subsequent the German and Axis the Ion and Antonescu minister prime Romanian between alliance of the heels on tosay the is which 1944, 1942 and between Romania in It was demarcations. same these exactly exceed to efforts in used come tobe how it and also territories would specific todelimit used and thought was language which in ways reorient the cally radi would century, twentieth the in others any more perhaps than that, processes two mark decolonization of aglobal Worldend Second of the beginning War the and vinced, could bear the weight of entire civilizations.4³ of con he humanity. was Singleletters, entirety the in but also cultures European in not only resonance finds emotive letter power of the the believed Isou connotations, associative who employed for their poets letters Symbolist tothe dating a tradition in himself Anchoring language. anew tobuild chose Isou tool that the was letter the Introduction in and “Le film,preuve” thechapter of final the proposed both in of society. as anew And, the terms item first Isou’son the powerarticulating was for agenda this constituting height of itspower.” the and of speech dust our the tween above, re- discussed As 4² Drool and Eternity and Drool “ power: its lost has speech contemporary that pronounces Daniel end film, of the ken. At the in— and spo written of— and language, of as is failures it theone on filmmaking coordinates. textual their as disruptions and susceptibledislocations to same the phrases, as themselves of images Isou’s underscores the flow in investment affirmation ten or tautological spoken, such writ whether language, with sound with or images Isou’s toreplace that means film viewer’s the attentionor suggesting securing in has image the that place the undoing problem where, up tonow,the only cinema, been of images.”4¹ from Far has there the theproblem pose to in sentences of first the be you Mr. will Daniel, same, the all film’schapter: “Itfantastic the is in third enigmatically, somewhat also if tically, nificance of this best in Traitéthe sig- bave de as etthe d’éternité voice stranger,” “the of voiceexplains only who identified the perhaps mise- en- abyme en- mise- It is precisely this faith that must be historicized and carefully considered. The considered. carefully and historicized be must that faith this It precisely is Indeed, Isou’sIndeed, Traité film Mon film that identifies him as Isou and his film as Isou’s: “I will call my film my Isou’s:call as film will his and Isou “I as him identifies that Introduction Drool and Marble and Drool or

,” the antagonistic protagonist announces— announces— protagonist ,” the antagonistic the securing thereby à une nouvelle poésieune nouvelle

de bave et d’éternité d’éternité et bave de

à une nouvelle poésieune nouvelle Drool and Steel Steel and Drool or

et à une nouvelle musique et àunenouvelle is as much a treatise on a revolution revolution ona treatise a much as is and Traité de bave et d’éternité in , when he pronounces enthusias- to mark the distance be discussed earlier, discussed ------populations from their place of birth, a phenomenon unique neither to the Fascist expulsion and murder of Europe’s Jews or colonization’s similar appropriations and population decimations. Isou’s own reliance on military metaphor and such imagery as the depic- tion of a French military general constituted entirely of medals and pins— as if made of so many Lettrist ideograms— remind us that such a vocabulary did not remain contained within the register of exclusive references to “The war,” as Blanchot’s phrasing (and capitalization) would have us remember the Second Figure 3.7. Isidore Isou, ﬁlm still, Traité de bave et d’éternité, 1951, showing Lettrist- style poster World War (see Figure 3.7 and the epigraph cited on of a “General.” page 77). Instead, in Traité de bave et d’éternité, such images are explicitly connected to the decolonial conflict unfolding in Southeast Asia. “Cris pour 5,000,000 de juifs égorgés” (Cries for 5,000,000 Slaughtered Jews) is one of twenty Récitations graves et joyeuses (Serious and Joyful Recitations) that Isou claims he appended to the Introduction à une nouvelle poésie after he moved to France. He added the text in order to cede to “the necessity of an integration in the contemporary,” by which he perhaps meant to allude to the French problem of remembering the recent past after the end of the Second World War.45 Whether it was written at the same time as the rest of the text or afterward is of less import than the ways in which this poem further evidences the relationship between the poetic formulation Isou articulates and his efforts to address the historical present, and thereby to address the problem of engaged communication suggested by Sartre as the exclusive domain of non-abstract literature. A hybrid poem that he identifies as a “lettrie”— part event score, part musical score, part poem—“Cris” relies heavily on sounds evocative of mass religion to analogize war and its experience. Such usage is even more pronounced in the monumental sonic symphony “La guerre,” which attempts to tell the history of the Second World War through nothing more than the repetition of sounds generated by the chiseling of proper nouns into constituent letters,46 and is also published in the same volume as an illustration of Isou’s Lettrist theories. While it is true that the excess of such representations might have led some audiences then (but more likely since) to receive these poems as kitsch, a historicized reception must attend to the ways in which their reference to the topic of the slaughter of European Jewry would have been received in 1946 and 1947. As discussed elsewhere in this book, it was at this time that the newly emergent (and short- lived) Fourth Republic found itself divided between the épuration or purge and the trials meant to tease out the matter and manner of French complicity in the extermination of Europe’s Jewry.47 The question of what had happened at the detention centers and work camps in France and farther east was thus unlikely fodder for humor or lightheartedness. “Cris pour 5,000,000 de juifs égorgés” demonstrates well Isou’s engagement in the project of rendering a new language in time with its history. The “récitation” also

95 Figure 3.8. Isidore Isou, poésie graphique, “Cris pour 5,000,000 de juifs égorgés,” from Introduction à une nouvelle poésie et à une nouvelle musique (Paris: Gallimard, performs the “ciselant” characteristic of the Lettrists’ in- 1947). Image courtesy Catherine Goldstein. vestment in purifying form without eschewing meaning. Here then, sonic information is manipulated in order specifically to address and make perceptible the genocide of millions of European Jews during the Second World War. The most important aspect of the Lettrist poem, in this regard, however, is not simply its timeliness, but more so its spatialization of the written word on the printed page (see Figure 3.8). Isou uses dia critics, notational marks, and the sound effects they are meant to evoke in order to address the crises that language— poetic and everyday— experienced in the face of these traumatic events. The notations are also meant as a potential means to counter what we have seen Isou lament as printed language’s privacy by instead activating a public at the precise moment of performance. As was the case with Isou’s modernist forerunners, such as the Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, whose work was of par- amount importance to the aesthetic practices of the period and to the critical gene-

96 hiccups, inhalations, and clicks of the tongue that annotate and clutter the page. Un page. the clutter and annotate that tongue of the clicks and inhalations, hiccups, exhalations, sighs, whispers, phonetic as notations for sounds such handwritten the meaning. totheir central Futurists Velimir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh; the Dada antics of Hugo Ball, of Hugo Ball, antics Dada the Kruchenykh; Alexei and Velimir Khlebnikov Futurists the Apollinaire; Guillaume Surrealist the and netti avant- onomatopoeticFilippo Tommaso the tendencies Futurist of the garde: Mari historical of the experimentation poetic and audience— sensationalism anarchist the Vieux- recall— 1946 Colombier certainly original lost on his not away in atall and avant- lier, similar thebeltedIsou outthat at “innovations.”poems Thesound garde of, self- aware and to, ear relationship acorrective in positioned Lettrism consciously certainly interruption of Tzara’s Isouwas initial of poetry).49 his play suggests, As ferred to as grounded in “ it. hears who audience on publicthe and dimension on acommunal instead depends cance itssignifi- uttered, notions and of publicprivate, graphic and distinct the Confusing sense. little makes poem the recitation. page, On the oral book, it an intended is as of a printed page on the appears poem the although that us remind line third the in extra- such indicate that rattle the tone as symbols of the sounds voice and linguistic the forhoarse painful— instructions written The toitssubject. toallude but begins Holocaust— about the tone not toevoke the of only speaking manages Isou hushed, first four- this of lines first known word, single toa turning without but stanza, line a “râle,” adeep- the asimple Employing scheme rhyme throughout rattle. throated hand- which gle, in read should be indicate bottompage ofprinted notes atthe trian symbol,small a graphic first the includes line The next or distress. dismay indicates traditionally “oy expression that Yiddish vey” the echo page, same on the printed instructions “oiveiguéivéinai,” notational the per as when recited aloud which, que,” or “hoarse.” of series letters, nonsense asingle includes line Thefollowing 48 speaking. strictly of language, realm the beyond from one tosay is formed that audience, areading than other something publicof as his conception his indicates lettries of his appearance Isou’sperience, on visual the focus reader’s ex individual the frame that space and time the with concerned was inspire he would formalism modernist the and Mallarmé Whereas he provisional. renders the in which instructions, his to communicate sary neces devices typographical formal the tocodify have will generations future that everything to do withIsou’s in andmodel),meaning fix and how secure (conditions only se per that impact sual the text should be vi its todowith little very verbally has poetry of his Isou’s qualities graphic attentiontothe articulated. page’s of the space white of margins, the utilization famous Isou Mallarmé’s then, like, even states of Isou’s visible appearance the have generated, early they alogy In the case of the lettrie, this meaning depends upon the hand- upon hand- depends the meaning this of lettrie, and the case the In typography set The aural dimension was not the only path to this new public, which Isou re which public, new this to the path notonly was dimension The aural “Cris” begins with a handwritten notation instructing that it is to be read “rau un nouveau communisme de la poésie la de communisme un nouveau zaum Introduction poésie àunenouvelle experiments of the Russian Russian of the experiments ” (a new communism ” (a communism new lettries on the page is is on page the ------

97 sonic youth, sonic space 98 chapter 3 This is followed by a series of alternating “tffff” and footnoted annotations indicat relationship between words and their signifiers. their and words between relationship onomatopoetic explored the Morgenstern, who had Christian as linguists and ets not tomention nineteenth- Schwitters; such Kurt and po- Hausmann, Raoul century KLEINEN meinen.” This pattern continues such that by the end of the third stanza, stanza, third thethe end by that of continues meinen.” such pattern This KLEINEN boudn loudn “VEINEN the reads: poem, line which of fifth the in those as such ment rapid to a “ crescendo, rises the poem lines, first the in lament Yiddish to allusion hoarse the Following boundaries. linguistic across dialogically, language produces that a pairing toforge if as Hebrew toFrench German, and and Yiddish ries film weaves footage of Paris with that of marching troops in Indochina, “Cris” mar in introduced montage nique discrepant of the tech by the suggested approached should be are polyglossia particular tohow this as trans- similarly Lettrism’s with case the guidelines was as aspirations, media Again, phatic transnationalism em an on based of signification means anew toform voicedattempts tobe meant that was or might have been were that letters nonsensical provided by the letter. phonetic Here, the transcription grounded in multilingualism. spoken of the referentiality direct assumed an through apublic audience denied wise ing, Isou’s lettries attempted to makepoésie available an experience lengthy of the bulk the more constitute years) for several of the present whom he ignores Russians, of the exception (with the forerunners tothese tionship other- rela- disdainful, times laudatory, at other sometimes his regarding reflections tended the sounds Ball emitted within the specific instance of his body and its material pres andmaterial body its his of instance specific the within emitted Ball sounds the Bishop- outlandish Ball’s instance, of meaning the worked tosecure lobster costume 1916. in Voltaire Zurich, in nightclub this Cabaret In atthe “Karawane” poem his of by Hugo Ball performance famous the as for recitations, instance, fromsuch ated differenti- be to needs effect an Such experience. tothe directness ajarring parted poem—“ of the body notation into the through incorporates Isou that moans and screams the but also German of sounds afaux of repetitive shock value not the these only Paris, title. the in referenced Jews slaughtered the with indubitably is poem, of the associated beginning atthe which, rattle the time, same atthe and, by atrain, sound made actual the both including by gibberish translingual of this allusions the concretizing thereby more rattles ing read: nineteen and eighteen scheme.Lines rhyme the in alternate French German and of both evocative sounds dots, black by repeated indicated pauses several after and When performed in the specific temporospatial coordinates of reconstruction of reconstruction coordinates temporospatial specific the in performed When lélan lemains leganne— vanne— le lebanne train le lebanne— letrain; of listen commonality the around sound toform acommunity using Beyond ” or just to screaming, and begins to incorporate the sounds of German “words,” of German sounds the to incorporate begins and ” or just to screaming, in which “Cris” is published. cri égorgé ” and “ ” and hurlement ,” to name but two— ,” but two— to name im have certainly would Traité de bave et d’éternité. Traité d’éternité. baveet de

It is no wonder, then, that Isou’s ex- Introduction àunenouvelle jusqu’à hurle jusqu’à Just as the the Just as ------“Cris.” 56 In this “- the context, especially sounds, German of the in importance tothe us suffix, einin” returns as well as in Isou’s hijacking “elsewhere”) from aJew of being experience the from grew that of culture minor of the a Dada event or interrupt rice Lemaître’s Canailles World Second the during Here, to Mau Paris Irefer War in after. just and Jewish being rendered “silent.” they experiences subaltern by the for poised ground critiques tile fer- as them marking Malraux’s, Andre as aesthetics of such articulation the fed tic ofother.5¹ rapidon consumption development the the culture ofdialec anew This and one on the hand experience historical repressionmitment of tothe catastrophic by France’scom created tensions opposing for firm the Buchloh’s phrase Benjamin exposure,” touse and of silence into “a it split was dialectic as Paris, Reconstruction been in direct countermeasure to the typical presentation 19461947, toundo. In have and Isou’s would what cisely aims effect “chiseling” this of historical experience in ject it embodied.50 sub the form and human of the individuality tothe reference distinct through only meaning assume could of “Karawane” appropriated the polyglossia such, As ence. ing the normal sequence of events at a jazz- of atajazz- sequence events normal the ing under-be must sounds these café, filled modeof sense- or pictorial.55 singular either textual any eschews which making, elusive form of fromthe follows its presentation, impact narratival the métagraphies, of project.54 aprivate, writerly the In fetishization the and impenetrability modernist of spectacle novels the epitomize these that Drucker Johanna as voiced critics by such “readerly” text— amore interactive, tiate sense— aBarthesian in despite arguments attempttoini an positioned or be as it might page, printed the in space its privileged and of writing system hermetic on the acommentary as construed be might genre the 3.9 (see 3.10).5³ Figures page and written the tointerpret such, who struggle must As reader, upon the role the of detective imposing toread, ofinvoke way learning anew present.’ and past categories social ” métagraphies the pictographic, entirely 5² Often or peoples of all but graphics the of painting, art not the only writing into alphabetic introducing ‘thus versa, vice and or completed wereinterrupted by pictures sentences phies prêts is pre meaning of repositories full and final be to perceived were words these That passage that serves as an epigraph to this chapter: Auschwitz, Dachau,as the “absolutes” in names Büchenwald. Blanchot that ones thesame of evocative significantly, word- by repetition the of certain enhanced is contrast “Cris”In this are, that sounds scratching- literal of the in Lettrists of the out faces of the point the fact, in was, Such speaker. of the presence nor physical reference of the the not absurdity the meaning, creates that of sound itself contrast Here, jarring it the is invented word- his tocall have erosive conjunction wewill by formed what sounds. This emphasis in early Lettrism on the experience of being subaltern (here part (here part subaltern being of experience the on Lettrism early in emphasis This of experience onsubaltern the focus similarly period the from works Lettrist Other Isou’s poem works differently, creating meaning through the activation of the of theactivation through Isou’s meaning differently, creating works poem ,” traditional narratives told by an invented system of “neo- hieroglyphics where (Saint Ghetto of the Loans), two examples of what the Lettrists called “ called Lettrists the of what examples Loans), of two the (Saint Ghetto (Riff-GabrielRaff, and to 1951) Pomerand’s Saint ghetto des Traité de bave et d’éternité métagra ------. 99 sonic youth, sonic space 100 chapter 3 grimoire (Paris: O.L.B., in his important “Bremen Speech” (1958), his decision to write in the language of his of his (1958), “Bremen Speech” language the important in decision towrite his in his explained Jew. Celan As aRomanian being despite also German, in writing in sisted of his much more famous and widely celebrated contemporary, Paul Celan, who in possible there. are memories that and experiences the circumscribing and limiting thereby space, it actual which maps with naturalness order the in toquestion language deterritorialize toliterally attempting again fabric, city’s into the absent Jews, of somany presence the and presence, his to write aspired Isou an attempt, such Through occupation. of German years four under complicity local a specifically been had what toforget arefusal tointroduce attempt an as stood Figure It is instructive to compare Isou’s evocation of Germanic sounds with the writings writings the Isou’s tocompare with sounds ofIt Germanic instructive evocation is 3 . 9 Gabriel Pomerand, page from the artist’s book book the from artist’s . Gabriel page Pomerand, 1950 ). ). Saint ghetto prêts: des - words for what was happening.” Instead, it merely “went through it. Went it merely “went happening.” through Instead, was forwords through what “It It me no gave that went of Heby speech. through.” noting murderous continues darknesses thousand the through silence, terrifying through of answers, lack own its gone had “through language this acknowledges Celan west, tothe camps nation extermi of the survivors the from he collected accounts the all in and camp labor internmentRomanian in a own his of loss.”experience the Throughout against cure se- it remained spite In of everything, Yes, language. language. losses: all amid cure se and close reachable, remained not could “Only broached, be one thing distance able.” World Second the throughout when actual War after, and that, 57 He explains “sound the closer” unreach- of the to“bring by adesire motivated was aggressors Figure ety ( ety ARS 3 . ), NewYork / 10 Maurice Lemaître, page from from page . Maurice Lemaître, ADAGP , Paris. , Paris. Canailles , 1950 . ©

2013 Artists Rights Soci- Artists - - 101 sonic youth, sonic space 102 chapter 3 and phoneticized spellings of Hebrew prayers. The first category necessarily contin necessarily category first of The Hebrew prayers. spellings phoneticized and camps of concentration proper names domains: principal two from stemming words such internationalisms— codified as an “International Phonetic Code” Phonetic 6¹— “International an as codified internationalisms— such respond races.” the between concretecommunion and true the become would For60 Isou, subsequent “poetry to which universality, anew create might alphabet a Lettrist a“ reinscribe only (which would appropriations colonialist such of restoring Instead dialects.59 Kirgizien and menian, Ar of Ukrainian, backs on the leans similarly which language, poetic or “Russian” (indien,trouvés espagnol nègre, understands he what from on “ based of “American” appropriative poetry the to be usurpations internationalism such over language distinguish to national one careful is He privileges another. never it that so conventions linguistic of register ample, Isou instructs that Lettrist poetry must draw from an explicitly international Introduction poésie, àunenouvelle his In revived. be could language, national particularly language, conventional from derived usage, of poetic tropes ventional con become had what that possibility the Celan’s regarding than optimistic less far is model His present,not of future. the of is the temporality its world. Similarly, ical phys of the that and page of the that both but space, across time, not is across travels it distance The place. not given is any rooted in language he imagines, that realm reality.”my chart to going, wherewas I to orient out tofind wherewas, myself, I 58 order in tospeak, poems: towrite after, years the and years those “during he tried that “could resurface” “gone that had and through,” that language same the in it was that soexplains and time, across reach that dialogues are of language, instances as poems, that by it by ‘enriched’ suggesting all.” He speech concludes the resurface, could and called the refrain of the poem, meant to be repeated twice, Isou writes: Isou twice, repeated to be meant poem, of the refrain the called be might what In of camps. concentration names German actual the with sounds “einin” repeated of the aspects tonal the replacing time this theme, German the ues qualities.6³ In“Cris” he attempts such power to harness by deploying and terraines “ remain there contrary, to the protests despite his that, acknowledges poésieune nouvelle “Cris.” in tohis one German In evoke appendices of the that sounds language. German the than more period fulsomely the in longing be- ethnic and of national exclusivity tothe spoke nothing notwithstanding, rience expe the Romanian Ion of Antonescu.6² minister prime Thespecifics Romanian the 1940s under early the 1930s late through the and in rights civil of their Jews, manian other Ro somany with along deprived him, had that belonging ethnic and national very on the placed priority of the exclusivity the eradicate could phonetics rendered auniversally for such Isou, that, tothink tobelong. It not is unimaginable wants he to which new, society move the toward integrated anecessary as he sees to what It is in this context, therefore, that we must understand Isou’s discrepant use of the idealized In different. is poetry, in indeed and Isou’s language, in interest ” or “hidden powers” to words, powers communicated by their “sonorous” by their communicated powers” powers to words, ” or “hidden , written as an “Épitre aux Lettristes” (A Letter to Lettrists), Isou toLettrists), Letter (A Lettristes” “Épitre aux an as , written )” (the backs of found dialects: Indian, Black, Spanish) Spanish) Black, Indian, )” of (the found dialects: backs langue coloniale langue ”), he wishes to find a way by which way”), a which by tofind he wishes le dos des dialects dialects des dos le puissances sou puissances Introduction à détourning for ex ------

rhythmic progression, Isou mimics what he called the “universal” language of music, music, of language “universal” the called he what mimics Isou progression, rhythmic toarelentless itself lends scheme rhyme that traditional astrictly within sounds these by containing guerre.” instances, multivoiced“La both In simple his in and pure poésie appended to the lettries the throughout augmented and omatopoeic association, an entirely on theand off, other, through on sonic or cooling sweating meaning term aYiddish intonation.hand, Such disintegration is repeatedas aword), (such the connotes, oneon signification “schwitz” of properunit linguistic suggesting therefore the superfluity of even the most direct language. More than a merely “schwitz,” repetition put. “Auschwitz,”broadly through becomes for example, development more artistic of modern formulations his in and film upholds his in Isou that technique “chiseling” the performs poem the as letter of the unit the ward to- disintegration active subject to an are Rather, they unchanged. to beleft ances real. tothe refer might words such by which words more than tonothing fers re- that language poetic of written kind the to resist and experience traumatic erence toref sound as reproduced of language ability the as toinscribe he hopes what upon Isouinsists poetics, earnest but still naïve word this itsreferent. the from In separates that distance the order in toname of literature” “the space as generalize elsewhere would Blanchot those as displacements same tothe not therefore available is which and grasp, can language no poetic that absolute, something an as as itself to signify sound of “ the toallow poetry, into his enter untransformed ality Celan’sFugue),64 from “Todesfuge” (Death poem image to Isouhopes let re milk” Lettrist law. Preciselymost to resist, even if, as by whole words, avoiding they do not strictly adhere to he the wants Literature”— that and letter such of language capacities ofhelps Isouavoid his abstracting the metaphorical torememberor forget— capacity very “War poetics essay his in suggest would Blanchot as as the famous their shaped have would that words well, too all known have 1940s late would the in “black system. one of priority any naming national the undoing also while of destruction thaousenne,” as if to underscorein the next that line he the rewrites French it all lower- havethenpoint; exclamation an followed by letters, capital all ain first camp, complicityMauthausen case, in a phonetically in this French language version, “mau atBergen- camps of the name the prints Isou Intriguingly, Mauthausen. and Belsen infamous toinclude the expands of camps concentration catalogue the which in and be repeated to meant also is that groupingare followed second by a lines short These The naming of the concentration camps, words that certainly any person French certainly that words camps, concentration the of naming The ADONOI! ADONOOOI! Bouhn Buchenwald! schwitz schwitz— Auschwitz— Nevertheless, these German words are not stranded within the poem as utter as poem the within not stranded are words German these Nevertheless, , so that even the monosyllabic sounds articulated in “Cris” end as aspirations aspirations “Cris” in end as articulated sounds monosyllabic the even , sothat wald ! themselves even as it tries to distill the mechanisms mechanisms the todistill it tries as even Introduction àunenouvelle Ausch witz Ausch ” simply - - - - - 103 sonic youth, sonic space 104 chapter 3 that sound is part of that progress. Isou only destroys, in other words, in order in words, topre other in destroys, only Isou progress. of that part sound is that and progress can itself history that here demonstrates of language chiseling the stead, In- thepoem. in introduced it first had himself Isou it, as or had have would even ble it world refers— towhich “absolute” nor, Blanchot as as neither fact, timeless is in referent— its that history, from but tosuggest erased be it can that cate lamenta- the not of to indi Auschwitz name the Isou diminishes most utopian gesture, his been have may doso. what In sound could rendered as tempted how tomodel language Moreover, change. it at toaccommodate word’s the with incapacity associated Isou experiencedto be of (its) “sensuous terms the properties.” physical 65 berg’s description of music’s toenter “the listener’s capacity consciousness,” through toClement Green- parallel precisely asensation,” amanner in than else anything ing speaker— of the identity physical objectively, “incapable, be ofwould communicat medium— of their quality voice butphysical not human ofthe the aspect tonal the the in completely Isou’s one absorbed It born. sounds, is was menical these hope that ecu an division to according identity affirms that of alanguage destruction of the out Thus sensation. communicates that language into auniversal immediately them based on separation identities constituted components of as traditionally sounds of these recognition the according to national or cultural primal. and nological divisions, only phenome-butrather specific werenot culturally he assumed of which pleasures the to transform God, a lengthy pause, and then the final stanza. final the then and pause, alengthy God, “élohénou” of invocations and or supreme sighs “s’étouffant” dwindling the is poem the in follows ye,Israelites.” “Hear What address: the through time and space across toform toprayer, acommunity invites “Chema Israelle,” which call ofnotations the Hebrew con tothe abstractly named people thus the “Israele,”with connects Isou “Fanny,” names, Jewish “Moisché,” traditional three “Rachelle” and linked Having reads: poem that the in time second for words the of existing translations prayer, phoneticized using precisely to such memory. collective from It is an disappear will event effect itself the capital, metropolitan the that Isou’s “Cris”fabric borrows or the from memory the into Isou hopes city’s to whose the suture experience Jews the like oflanguage Otherwise, happen. the War of inHebrew Indochina still must naming such toprogress, order in for history that, it suggests time, same that he attempts to inscribe it. the At history, to corrects word’s name the but also inadequacy regarding victions within Isou’s to decomposition con-not speaks This only for ground arebuilding. the pare élohénou lad! élohénou ISRAELE! OI! CHEMA WOI zennenne moisché FANNY rachelle elements, sound meant articulated the wordinto of vocally disintegration This In borrowing selected sounds from German, Hebrew, and Yiddish, Isou relies on as opposed to understood, refused the kind of impenetrability that that of impenetrability kind the refused tounderstood, opposed as ------also alludes to this in his film Traité film his in tothis alludes also society. anew toward He avehicle as poetics new his toascribe Isouwanted which with aspects very the rebirth, and of regeneration feeling the with poem conclude the prayer, the component of recited language, most for fundamental epitomize Isouthe zas’ “rauque” or “crescendo,” but rather begins with the descriptive nomination, experiences of Frenchtion. anti- In the sectionSemitism “Notes and,d’un messie abandoning pour Judaïser both la France,” his récitations graves,” “Cris” of“Vingt but which is one, Isou’s refusal Isou of linguistic responds poésie booknouvelle publication àune Introduction of the his after explicitly to his ayear that only And so is not it surprising produces. earnestly otherwise film his that of site specificity very the from one another, condition of repression subtracting with public avant- togeneralize readiness his however, see time, wealso same the At garde. forefront atthe of a position asilent language him has that gesture deeply optimistic a fact, It in is, language. their apeople of and both destruction the to generate from and Hebrew that Isou structures in “Cris” as indicative of the rebirth that he hopes above. described footage Indochinese the he with follows which and asynagogue, in someone praying of over footage the inscribed Isouhas which of David, form of aStar geometric the of image the with are paired thoughts These him. toamuse ceased of dogma sertion other wanted always he had achild, as tones that, Paris66— prayer in recitationand toKoranic available places which lic sounds, these tradition— about pub debates contemporary in echoes important have would which oral this however, best, reinstating At in but annihilated. all been had population ish whoseJew fromacity language actual of an disappearance the 1940s, tomemorialize late the in of Paris landscape” “aural the called be might what in sounds these scribe toin- works ausage such least, very the At wetziwanou.” . . . wetziwanou nou . . . that completes the poem, trailing off into repetitioninvoking only the at ideathe very of end: obligations “wetziwa turn, in and, them to holy command and Israel God asking distress, in of Jews cries (“mitzwotai”). It is this themurmured like together comes God’s incitement in power.faith phrasing the Here, affirm to command us to ameans as dying by the uttered tobe but also retiring, and intoned upon rising tobe meant faith, Jewish ofbook the Deuteronomy, prayer in highest the constitutes the more echoes precisely stanza This “prière.” is: follows what indeed, And wetziwanou . . . wetziwanou . . . wetziwanou ...... wetziwanou . . . wetziwanou mitzwotai barouch israelle israelle Kidischanou chema israélle barouh adonai stan- earlier the in saw as we instruction, an introduced notis by stanza last This To a certain degree, then, we might understand the dialectic between German German between dialectic the understand wemight then, To degree, acertain will give a name and a more particular aspect to this interest of reintegra of interest this to aspect particular more a and name a give will

de bave et d’éternité Shema Yisrael Shema prayers since the too- too- the since prayers as- frequent that, derived from verses in the the in verses from derived that, , when the protagonist in protagonist , when the L’ nomet d’un Agrégation , and with it the with , and - - - - - 105 sonic youth, sonic space 106 chapter 3 the world like the sea.” He concludes that the enemies of the Jews “have destroyed us us destroyed “have Jews of the enemies sea.” the the He world that concludes the like Jews everywhere to assert themselves everywhere he encourages offensives, of support such in fully by and of dispossession “Learn(ing) experience own to circulate around his perhaps Forgetting displaced. they populations very the against physically selves to protect them right their arguing werealready Jews arriving where newly Palestine, “ to“ hopes his explains that is also pictured aslur Jews” with “Down as denunciations such confronts where he in repeatedly walls, Lemaître’s Canailles me,” anti- on the frightens elaborates Isou Paris the on city’sreads he graffiti Semitic “I because write explanation the with begun Having opposed tosonic space. as ical tophys- claims language’s refuse Isou’s complicates that tootherwise ambitions tribe 1946.68 in of Paris on streets the paste did actually Isou revolution”that posters the “Lettrist of significance on the light new shed retrospectively which passages, the following of significance spatial the ticipates Paris de 1947” rues Paris, of 1947) “Affichesles Streets the section pour (Posters for an ethno- invisibly. if the even Thesubtitle of belonged, they group towhich religious larger the toward directed discrimination the challenge necessarily Isou reasoned, would, away such in themselves such.67 as Identifying themselves to name lectuals absence—an intel for to memorialize Jewish charge efforts a his issues in of trauma nature essential the to have witnessed attempts of his imperatives more the ethical as read retrospectively might absolutes— Agamben Giorgio like afigure what as well as larized refusals, Isou and the Lettrists unquestionably grounded them on what they they on what them grounded unquestionably Lettrists the Isouand refusals, larized po- if project as presented their they hence emotive, capacity. and rous, Although sono toits letter that by returning only realizable of expression apurity to achieve of itself,butameans and end in rather toan be meant never was printed letter the toabnegate. meant had they rality, au adissonant through of amore which, models properly and his sonic space based he which upon conquest of paradigm same term— the the reduplicates Isou however, ascribed Guattari and one the Deleuze than sense traditional moreborrows the from world— of adeterritorialized revision this In exclusions. for their resents one which he attributes French, the whoseimperial as manner same the exactly sea” in the like world the around “to circulate instructed one,is which Jewish exclusively an as cast re is Isou new, the imagines that society internationalist instance, to rebuild. this In order in destroying and of chiseling procedures of a“people”ing aesthetic same the mak on the it confers that time same atthe precisely models, deterritorialized earlier France Judaize to thing: essential this accomplish wecan that precisely essential our us reduced and Judaïsme d’attaque Judaïsme Herein lies the paradox of Isouienne Lettrism, along with its failure. For Isou, itsfailure. with along Lettrism, of Isouienne paradox the Herein lies his abandons that of amodel nationalization posits Isou Here, that it seem would dia butalengthy rather form ofatall, aposter the not take does Here, text the .” 70 .” ” (Judaism of attack), he links the situation in France to that in in tothat France in situation the he links of attack), ” (Judaism agiter les hommes ,” or incite them to action.69 Advocating a . It is against such propositions that he propositions such that . It against is ------national memory, and, on the other, to see how these same experiences subsequently subsequently memory, experiences other, on same the national and, how tosee these on between, relationship the a like the memories genocide intoof incorporate to something efforts onethe hand, understand to us redirecting and moments, both pinned decolonization, pointing to important continuities between the violence that under World Second of the decades War between the bridge and important an constitutes thus enterprise Lettrist early here, the charted As hoped toabandon. originally had they that institutions aesthetic and logic of cultural, public, national, imperial an resurrect aesthetics his afashion, such In limiting. as once rejected Isouhad which divisions, ethnic as divisions upon of areinscription national rests identity noritized population of aminoritized areterritorialization as ends by what prescribed of aspace limits the past tosee unable equally remains Isou ones, onto priorities identitarian aesthetic mapping of In hegemonic its nature lure. the spectacular of defiance in cinema make tore ambitions on his broughtto bear he earlier conquer” that and to“divide will of same name the do the soin itJewish, of toas France, remake “identity” the recast universalisms that pervade thinking like that of Halbwachs. Isou’s final proposals to Isou’s humanist the belonging, repeats model about national impose they visions of same. the instances in itself torecognize impulse thenational and thenation described that confines spatial and temporal shared by generated the was commonality such Fornicable. Halbwachs, not commu be will and memories cannot he argued, Without acommon language, as identified Halbwachs what religions, and nations groupings— all upon which narratives to constituted socially families from most all of foundation al the as function both heritage linguistic of weight ashared the and language community. Certainly, maintaining and ofent constructing process of the memory’s to aconstitu be capacity Conversely, emphasized relations. and thesis his narratives, forms, constituted of socially function the are individual by an articulated and memories retained, most formed, subjective those even that idea oncentered the 1945, in Buchenwald in Halbwachs’s death arguments up tohis leading decades the in published and conducted on research consciousness.7¹ Based sions of individualized dimen metaphorical beyondthe spatialized language by asubconscious transmitted so and opposed toindividual, as social and collective was of that amemory possibility they contained. cultures the and boundaries by territorial framed most customarily ofgories being, models of belonging, which sonic articulations— in then- of the exclusions but the reduplicate cannot weredominant still predicated d’éternité et bave on access to pre- distribution— of sense in privileged montage discrepant either the through determined cate understood to be historical truth. And yet, their efforts to disrupt normative models Ultimately, despite its attempts to exceed such parameters and the linguistic pro linguistic the and parameters such Ultimately, despite toexceed its attempts on Halbwachs’s the musings consider Maurice models, of these example an As and of language. The project mi of a by deploying “conquering France” of language. or in their similar ambition to render sound and symbol distinct distinct ambition symbol torender soundand similar their or in cadres sociaux cadres — base themselves. themselves. base — Traité de ------107 sonic youth, sonic space 108 chapter 3 attempts to eschew strategies (like Isou’s) to reinscribe minoritized subjects into dom into subjects chapter. thethe subject next of as figure will histories inant minoritized reinscribe to Isou’s) (like strategies eschew to attempts whose the décollagistes, as artists the work with of such deeply resonate would flict think through the relationship of cultural practice to contemporary historical to conwhich site in fundamental however, a as Isou’s of the space Paris of identification hegemony. national time, and same the At of into cultural epistemes other back” “fed - - give rise. might they towhich genealogies the and practices other occluded has Debord’s language, the privilege this material has received in art- art- in received has material this privilege the owe toIsou’s projects film early 1950 debt in his despite the and Festival Film Cannes the after group the tojoin come to Paris first despitehaving project, Lettrist of the excoriation ment his in tauration,” protection du patrimoine historique et esthétique de la France et tendant à faciliter la res 4 3 2 1 SPACE SONIC YOUTH, 3:SONIC CHAPTER 96 95 94 93 92 immobilière restauration la àfaciliter tendant et France la “ 62–903, Journal in officiel read les pieds plats” (No More Feet), (No Flat “ plats” pieds signed les “Finis broadside, of form amimeographed the in detailed was content protest of their for Chaplin’sconference film, atapress “Fascist” as Chaplin of Charlie protest their denounced publicly Isou after Isou there. arrived had of them each after just Paris, in Jews for orphaned soup kitchen a in HeIsou met toAuschwitz. deported was mother war, his the During Marseille. and Créateurs les et Creations 1950s. Sabatier, See early and 1940s the in Isou surrounded who artists and poets of young flock larger the name use Sabatier,it to who Roland as figures by such as did Filippo Tomasso Marinetti in his famous claims about the age of the Futurists in in Futurists of the age the about claims famous his in Tomasso Filippo Marinetti did as ofstanding terms, he specifiedthat “ under standardized the tocede refusal Isou’s In young. of revolution the customary the nesse “jeunesse la de soulèvement le nucléaire: of well- body the accommodate cannot inTime Moment Brief aRather through People ofaFew Passage Sussman, See Internationals. Situationist and Lettrist the both into research early vehe characteristically was Debord Isou, split with the Following remembered. best are dérive the including practices, of the many developed and Conference 1952 Aubvervilliers atthe re- group splinter the by Debord, Jean- 1952. Debord, Led 29October Ernest dated was J. Wolman, Gil and and Brau, Louis Traité d’économie his Traité in published Isou’s of d’économie first were model economic particulars The tone for the set that catalogue important byan accompanied was Sussman’s exhibition Jean- with ways Berna, Serge J. parted Wolman, Debord Gil with and Along Brau, Louis The term“disciple” corresponds to Isou’s Messianic self-

Malraux, “23 juillet 1962 présentation du projet du loi complétant la legislation sur la la sur 1962 du legislation projet “23 la du présentation loi complétant juillet Malraux, Bouguignon, “Les secteurs sauvegardés.” Stungo, “The Malraux Act 361.Act 1962–72,” Malraux “The Stungo, Forster, “Monument 2. / of Architecture,” Mortality the and Memory Prost, “L’urbanismeProst, 36–37. auMaroc,” , which he began in 1950. He also printed multiple versions of a “Manifesto” detailing detailing of a“Manifesto” multipleversions 1950. printed in He also he began , which and psychogeography, for which the Situationists, as they would come to be known, known, tobe come would they as Situationists, the for which psychogeography, and complétant la législation sur la protection du patrimoine historique et esthétique de de esthétique et historique patrimoine du protection la sur législation la complétant Discours prononcés à l’Assemblée nationale àl’Assemblée prononcés Discours Traité de bave et d’éternité , Lois et décrets , 55. Pomerand was born in Paris in 1926, but grew up in Alsace Alsace upin 1926, but in grew Paris in born , 55. Pomerand was Limelight formed itself as the Lettrist International on 7 December on 7December International Lettrist the as itself formed , 7 August 1962, where it was passed as article number number article as passed 1962, it where was , 7August jeune ”(1949) known work that has issued since that exhibition, exhibition, that since issued has work that known . , at the Ritz Hotel, Paris, on 29 October 1952. on The 29October Hotel, Paris, Ritz , atthe ” need not be associated only with the young, young, the with only not associated be ” need

l’Internationale lettriste historical circles, and the authority allowed allowed authority the and circles, historical and the subsequent journal, journal, subsequent the and , 52–55. , 52–55. .” perception and is perpetuated . While the present study study present the . While ”: Serge Berna, Guy- Le les Lettrisme, Front de la jeu la de Front On the - - - - 237 notes for chapter 3 238 notes for chapter 3 joyeuses” that Isou had recited at the Vieux- Vieux- atthe recited had Isou that joyeuses” et graves récitations “Vingt including poems, Lettrist of the examples several and lettriste” poésie dela manifeste “Le but also 1947 not Isou’sin only included analysis, and lengthy released Isou’s was topublish which book, agreed Gallimard that enterprise this from ing vieux- du Théâtre at the ruption result- attention the press colombier. of the heels on was It inter avant- the the from page staged and undermine, and toemulate he both hoped garde When even direct this approach failed to garner Isou the approval he desired, he took a Gallimard. editor, tothe Gaston instead manuscript “revolutionary” his and himself ing present with do made Isou absent, him but finding Paulhan, Jean director, magazine’s the with audience Hoping for an Paris. in arrival upon his made exile young the ings work not only in the traditional literary and visual arts, including the novel and paint novel and the including arts, visual and literary traditional the work not in only encompass Isou’s such, theorization As and production practice. integrated of an domain the under arts the all included principle that aesthetic toatotalizing expanded tually tion of a Name and the Making of a Messiah). of aMessiah). Making the and oftion aName 8 7 6 5 Wave New the Riding See Jobs, effects. their how marginal Isou’s and were, economics how Jobs notes confused Ivan Richard function. economic totheir tobecome) equivalent (or notrefused become yet had existence whose those his 14 14 13 12 nouvelle musique 11 10 9 Traces question.” Marcus, in See of society structure very the upplacing it ends limits, certain beyond pushed is poetry and of language crisis “when the that explicitly asserts “Tour 1964 defeu,” tract, his in he where of hindsight advantage the with succinctly See Isou, “Lettrisme et révolution de la jeunesse,” jeunesse,” dela révolution et “Lettrisme Isou, See Lettrism’s success. for prepared having as failures Surrealism’s denounces specifically Isou thing.” For Blanchot, “This language of the unreal, this fictive language which delivers delivers which language fictive this unreal, the of language “This Forthing.” Blanchot, of every “the absence todescribe, it means what from distance very its in evokes, him tionale situationniste tionale l’interna Contre toIsou, Partouche byMark preface the See Lettriste.” révolution la faire Vieux- atthe disruption his before weeks Savantes, Sociétés des Salle the literary magazine Nouvelle française revue Sphere. Public Bourgeois ofthe tion ence,” 39. Experi “Mallarmé’s tosilence.” Blanchot, and returns from silence comes tofiction, us Although the event received no media attention, Isou had first performed his poetry at poetry his performed first had Isou attention, no media received event the Although the of French offices Isou’s editorial anecdote, tothe visit repeated toawidely According in mounts Habermas arguments the to central is The phrase for which word, of the category linguistic of the Blanchot’s analysis particular in See Isou’s original words were: “Douze millions de jeunes vont descendre dans la rue pour pour rue la dans vont descendre dejeunes millions were:“Douze words Isou’s original Isou, “Le manifeste de la poésie lettriste,” in in lettriste,” poésie dela manifeste “Le Isou, While Isou made this claim in many different publications, he perhaps stated it most it most stated perhaps he publications, different many in claim this made Isou While In a 1948 tract published in the short- the in published a1948tract In See Isou’s autobiographical account Isou’sSee autobiographical Originally located somewhere between music and poetry, Lettrist production even- production Lettrist poetry, and music between somewhere located Originally (1909). Instead, Isou explains that he means the term as a marker of amarker as term the he means that (1909). explains Manifesto Isou Futurist Instead, , 266. , 14.

1960–2000 , 14. , L’ messie d’un et nom d’un agrégation lived journal Hikma journal lived in the summer of 1945 was one of the first call of 1945 one summer first of the the in was Colombier. Introduction à une nouvelle poésie et à une àune et poésie nouvelle àune Introduction Hikma Hikma 1, no. 2(1948): n.p. , 45. , which issued from Tunis, from issued , which The Structural Transforma- Colombier. (TheAggrega- Lipstick ------oeuvre française” (The Lettrie (The française” oeuvre comme lettrie “La concerns toCritics), which (Explanations critiques” aux “Explications poésie tosee]). you want Isou, everything it preserves possibilities, lettrie .The music. contemporary and poetry beautiful most of the land the also and language (The parallel those of poetry.parallel exactly almost novel, which of the phases chiseling and amplic tothe relation in theory roman du et prose about the history of the festival, see deValck, see festival, of the history the about World Second end of the the War. after For more arena cultural the in developed slowly that cooperation of international degree the indicate measures Such Venice Festival. Film the with integration for abetter toallow meant was that of date of 1951, achange April for 1950, rescheduled when fall was it before editions three saw only Thefestival petition. 1946, in whentwenty- reinitiated was val Thefesti of France. invasion 1939 of the German wake the in one only day after to close consciente (c’est-consciente à- cequ’on voir).” tout faire veut conserve mêmes, possibilités ses par que dire oeuvre qu’elle une parce est premièrement française, est Lettrie .la contemporaine musique et poésie belle plus la de terre la aussi et clair langage du source la est cepays que parce France, according to the same schema. schema. same tothe according 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 jeunesse” “ la de soulèvement Le nucléaire: Traité d’économie and it); on how some tips toachieve (including pleasure of awoman’s tosexual defense tive rights femmes des mécanique La both includes liography, for instance, bib “erotology,” His as economics. and psychology, realms unaesthetic seemingly such in musings theoretical even photography, theater, and dance, performance, in but also ing, practice that closely echoes that of his account of modern poetry. poetry. of modern account of his that echoes closely that practice dans la peinture et la sculpture contemporaines tion with the exhibition of Isou’s work in 1965. See Isou, also Painting and Poetry Between See century. of the parts later the in production advanced mark would that turn linguistic the anticipates practice way, Isou’s this In art- of texts. organizing the and of signs reading bythe strued con- is meaning which one in also is of painting history the that us ity, reminding thereby naux de dieux but on the economic function of varying age groups. groups. age of varying function but economic on the disparities economic not on traditional based class arevolutionary toassemble attempts

Repeated frequently in Isou’s writing, this claim is perhaps best articulated in in articulated best perhaps is claim this Isou’s in frequently writing, Repeated Isou, “Le manifeste de la poésie lettriste,” 14. lettriste,” poésie dela manifeste “Le Isou, more or less more or less inFrance Poetry Concrete his organizes Isou’s Seaman following lead, if As Consider, for instance, Isou’s declaration that “ that Isou’s declaration Consider, for instance, In Lettrist paintings,In the Lettrist letter’s graphicality is emphasized for its strictly capac- visual The Cannes Film Festival was planned to open for the first time in time 1939, was forced first but the for to open planned was Festival Film Cannes The Isou, Isou, “Le manifeste de la poésie lettriste,” 12. lettriste,” poésie dela manifeste “Le Isou, lettrie , 280. These words come in an appendix, the fifth, that Isou writes to the section section the to writes Isou that fifth, the an appendix, in come words These , 280. is French, primarily, because it a is French,because is primarily, Les journaux de dieux de journaux Les could only have appeared in France because country this is the source of clear , précédes d’un éssai sur la définition, l’évolution et le bouleversement total de la de total bouleversement le et l’évolution définition, la sur éssai d’un précédes , 41. The lengthy introduction to introduction The lengthy , 41. as a as French Work of Art). , 140. , 140. one different nations submitted films for com- for films submitted nations one different conscious , in which Isou traces a genealogy of painterly of painterly agenealogy traces Isou which , in Film Festivals Film work [which is to say that by its own own byits that tosay is work [which la Lettrie ne devait apparaître qu’en apparaître devait ne Lettrie la articulates Isou’s articulates dieux de journaux Les , the catalogue published in conjunc in published catalogue , the . Introduction à une nouvelle Le lettrisme et l’hypergraphie l’hypergraphie et lettrisme Le (1949), provoca- arather (1949), Isou which in making making Les jour- Les - - - 239 notes for chapter 3 240 notes for chapter 3 were also enriched with camera shots of works of art, monuments, and museums. See See museums. and monuments, of art, of works shots camera with enriched were also collections The future. for the archives governmental comprehensive todeveloping eye an with images 3) and take abroad; tosend propaganda developing in aid would that images 2) take etc; destructions, ruins, documenting pointof view, i.e., images ahistorical from is uttered. See esp. 24–25n5. 24–25n5. esp. See uttered. is speech fromwhich vessel or infantile— specific the canine as either body as to the imputes of “slobber”— kind Isou’s of this order toemphasize connection French “bave” the which in “slime” of as instead “drool” as translated better be might title of the “bave” the that us of Isou’s for reminding and title mistranslation frequent aboutthe comments astute his for author tothe grateful cinema.” Iam of expanded tradition development of a“postwar noni, “Henri Langlois and the Musée du Cinéma.” Musée the and noni, Langlois “Henri Man See deChaillot. Palais move its tothe supported Malraux long before du Cinéma post- the housed reputationerable for having aven gained had del’Étoile Studio the 62–77. For part, its Paris, in del’Étoile Studio the Devaux, impromptu prize- see history, event, For Cannes more not on uncommon. the was naming War of Independence, the SCA and the SPA would be responsible for the vast outpouring outpouring vast for the responsible be would SPA the and SCA War the of Independence, charge of these organizations was three- three- was organizations of these charge The disbanded. later but SPCA, the as From were joined 1917 to 1919sections the Affairs. supported “Head of State” in South Vietnam. South in of “Head State” supported French- the as topower returned eventually and Minh toHo Chi he abdicated before occupation Japanese the under leader puppet country’s the also was who, for atime, nam 27 26 25 24 23 28 29 Guillot tered by Frédéric Acquaviva. byFrédéric tered remas byRe:Voir asoundtrack released with was 2008, Video in Archive, Film National re-DVD the by French restored A as film. film, the of the versions of 1951 issue both in two- distributed Isou’s with responds four- intended, first English- Uroskie See Director. Best dados, Neorealist, Nice- Matin, Matin, Nice- Combat, including of French newspapers, cited it arange in columnists it premiered; even (ECPAD). défense la de audiovisuelle of archives the in now collected are These Algeria. in experience French military the documenting images moving and of still created by the joint ministries of the Army, Public Instruction, Beaux- Beaux- Instruction, Army, Public of the joint ministries bythe created founded in 1915 to complement the The unfinished film (which was already over four hours long) created a scandal before scandal a created long) hoursfour over already was film(which unfinished The In regard to Cocteau’s prize, Frédérique Devaux notes that at this point in the festival’s festival’s the point in atthis that notes Frédérique Devaux toCocteau’s prize, regard In See Devaux, Le Cinema Lettriste Devaux, See “Film art” is a category that Uroskie understands as epitomized by De Sica’s byDe epitomized as “gritty,” understands Uroskie that acategory is art” “Film The action here presumably surrounds Bao Dai, the last (and first) Emperorfirst) of Viet-last (and the Dai, Bao surrounds here presumably action The Isou, “Traité d’eternité,”Isou, debaveet Isou, in Kauffman, which, mixing Surrealism and Socialist Realism, won the Cannes film award for award film Cannes won the Realism, Socialist and Surrealism mixing which, , “La section photographique de l’armée et la Grande Guerre.” During the Algerian Algerian the Guerre.” Grande During la et del’armée photographique section , “La Le cinéma lettriste Miracle inMilan Miracle and language efforts to argue the significance of Isou’s film in relationship to the to Isou’s relationship of in film the significance argue to efforts language Guy Debord hour version of the film, although all citations provided here are included included are here provided citations all although film, of version the hour L’Humanité. L’Humanité. , , esp. 55–62. Devaux also discusses the premiere of Isou’s premiere the at film discusses also Devaux 55–62. , esp. , 17. “Beyond the Black Box,” 23. Uroskie’s article is one Box,” is of the Black 23.Uroskie’s the “Beyond article , but which also includes, for example, Luis Buñuel’s Luis for example, includes, also , but which Section cinématographe des Armées des cinématographe , 63. TheSection Section photographique de l’Armée Française l’Armée de photographique Section hour film and so not necessarily with the realized and the realized with andso not necessarily film hour L’établissement de communication et de production production de et communication de L’établissement fold: 1) take images that would “be interesting” interesting” “be would that images fold: 1) take liberation revival of Henri Langlois’s Cercle Cercle Langlois’s of Henri revival liberation œuvres de spectacle, 15.cor- screenplay The Arts, and Foreign Foreign and Arts, was was , which was was , which Los olvi - - - - Hurlements en faveur de Sade ofpart the film. It mayalso have to dowith the centrality that such films as Guy Debord, to“see” that long enough stayed only have might audiences or that soundtrack; the only have presented might Cannes, at screening, celebrated and most first its that possibility periods of time in the late 1940s to early 1950s, and all of whom, except for Debord, par for Debord, of whom, except all 1950s, and toearly 1940s late the in of time periods Wolman, Jean- Gil forDebord, Isou of whom followed (all Berna Serge and Brau, Louis Guy while, for ashort but also, Dufrêne, and Lemaître, Maurice Pomerand, Gabriel mentaires sur la société du spectacle du société la sur mentaires devenue une espèce de cinéma. Pourquoi enretour, ne deviendrait- le decinéma. cinéma, espèce une devenue une pas il read with an eye to the religious implications of such an association. an of such implications religious tothe eye an with read be certainly must reductive, least, or, very atthe destructive as presented otherwise action an of creativity the toembody carpenter a Isou chose that fact The stock. film of the ing 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 Indochinese footage. Traité de bave et d’éternité screened first Isou wherein festival film of the connotations internationalist emphatically the dematerialization of art and cinema in the 1960s. 1960s. the in cinema and of art dematerialization the now- soundtracks— the on in their heavily assumed lean have critique— not of the military practices in question, but of the tactics used to denounce it. todenounce used but tactics of question, the in critique— practices not military of the oblique an tomake reference, and allusion on poetic relied that intervention an meeting, of their adisruption content to stage was Debord denunciation, aformal to articulate hoped had Surrealists the Whereas Algeria. in rape and of French torture army’sthe use regarding revelations todenounce organized meeting of aSurrealist interruption staged Debord’sin is found tendency this of instance Asignificant properties. medium’s formal of the toDufrêne’s investigation counter precisely was which endeavors, sincere erwise tooth- disruptions elaborate tostage him allowed tape of magnetic dimensions mative however, For perfor Debord, the recording. tape of magnetic technology new the then was what in interest an developed also GuyDebord time, same the roughly At gether. alto of media print lieu form, in of poetic transmission the and generation the to both Algérie en Paix these poems by exploiting the distortion produced by magnetic tape recording, in as his tomake come would Dufrêne performance, live pure, eschewing Eventually example. ing Dufrêne’s of sonorous amplitude, achievement tothe crew). regard In editing and production the of members or as performers, as chorus, the in “Traité,” in participants ticipated as either My thanks to Elliot Reichert for sharing with me his insights regarding Isou’s scratch- regarding insights mehis with for sharing Reichert toElliot My thanks Crary, “Spectacle, Attention, Counter- Attention, “Spectacle, Crary, Memory,” toDebord, reference in 100; Crary, “Spectacle, Attention, Counter- Attention, “Spectacle, Crary, Memory,” 102. Isou, “Traité de bave et d’éternité,” 32. “Traité d’éternité,” Isou, debaveet Crary, “Spectacle, Attention, Counter- “Spectacle, Crary, Memory,” 101–102. concept notably, were, Isou’s this of whoshared interpretation Lettrists The other the from may derive film orcomponents of spoken the textual the toward abias Such Isou, “Traité de bave et d’éternité,” 65. “Traité d’éternité,” Isou, debaveet Isou, “Traité de bave et d’éternité,” 64. “Traité d’éternité,” Isou, debaveet As spoken in the film and transcribed in the film script, “Le radio, par la télévision, est télévision, la par radio, “Le script, film the in transcribed and film the in spoken As This ironic juxtaposition assumes even greater significance when we remember the when weremember significance greater even assumes ironic juxtaposition This crirythmes (1958). Eventually he would privilege this technological medium as a means ameans as medium technological this (1958). privilege he would Eventually — somatized cries of a body in performance— — performance— in of abody cries interest an provide somatized , and there too the picture of Paris literally “invaded” by the bythe “invaded” literally of Paris picture the too there , and (1952) Wolman, Gil and , 13. L’ anticoncept standard narratives about (1952)— both of which Com- - - - - 241 notes for chapter 3 242 notes for chapter 3 Crary, “Spectacle, Attention, Counter- Attention, “Spectacle, Crary, Memory,” 104. subjectivity. over modern stronghold site spectacle’s of the originary asecond as articulates . Modernisms French Purge ofthe Watts, Allegories also See generations. byyounger contested to be Rousso’s See in particular his retrospective analyses in in analyses retrospective his particular in See fantastique, tout de même, monsieur Daniel, vous serez le premier à poser des problèmes de de problèmes des àposer premier le serez vous Daniel, monsieur même, de tout fantastique, of the various women whom Daniel pursues. women whom Daniel various of the nationalities mention of the the in echoed is that athematic permutations, and identities, relations, transnational of importance the film the in underscores also aforeigner is this that fact The cannot. others what ablesee is Isou’s to who an outsider as position confirms thus and redoubles this aforeigner, because “l’étranger,” out as singled is ideas Daniel’s of Isou’s/ ingenuity the one tosee the that 75. It important “Traité d’éternité,” is debaveet d’images problèmes des que present, jusqu’à iln’y où aeu, cinéma le dans phrases ten Word,” in Demos, “Circulations,” 149. See effects. such undermined have might that individualism inherent of the implications World First the tothe War. however, attentive during is, less Demos of migration stances circum- historical the to relationship in polyglossia Ball’s of effects political the stand 46 45 44 43 42 41 state- the much like prise, state- a was in France radio film, the making and writing was Isou when tonote that 25. “Traité d’éternité,” Here, it important Isou, debaveet is deradio?” espèce 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 5,000,000 juifs égorgéés,” is printed in the same volume, 326–327. volume, same the in printed is égorgéés,” juifs 5,000,000 notre parole et la hauteur de son pouvoir son de hauteur la et parole notre de poussière la entre distance la l’acier,’ et marbre,’ marquer bave le pour ‘La et ou bave ‘La ou century artistic investigations artistic century and Isou’s of language models in my essay, “New Writing ytm rtn Nw Systems.” New /Writing Systems Isou made subsequent to first this publication. musique nouvelle àune et

As spoken in the film and written in the film script, “ script, film the in written and film the in spoken As Buchloh, “Plenty or Nothing,” 88. or “Plenty Nothing,” Buchloh, On the evolution of the “memory” of Vichy collaboration and its realities, Henry Henry realities, its and of Vichy “memory” collaboration of evolution the On the As spoken in the film and written in the film script: “ script: film the in written and film the in spoken As Seaman, Theanalysis of Ball’s performance by T. J. Demos is exemplary in its efforts to under- I discuss several instances of “metagraphic novels” in relationship tomid- relationship in novels” of “metagraphic instances twentieth- several I discuss Introduction à une nouvelle poésie poésie nouvelle àune Introduction Isou, in printed as poem tothe here are citations All guerre,” in “La Isou, Isou, Concrete Poetry inFrance Poetry See Seaman, Concrete Drucker, “Hypergraphy: A Note on Maurice Lemaître,” and “The Art of the of Art Writ- “The and Lemaître,” ANote on Maurice “Hypergraphy: Drucker, Many of these phrases and the activities they describe come from Maurice Blanchot. Blanchot. Maurice from come describe they activities the and phrases of these Many Isou,

“Avertissement,” in Introduction à une nouvelle poésie in “Avertissement,” The Vichy Syndrome Syndrome The Vichy Introduction à une nouvelle poésie Concrete Poetry inFrance Poetry Concrete Figuring the Word the Figuring Introduction à une nouvelle poésie , 326–327. Another edition of the poem exists as a broadsheet that that abroadsheet as exists poem of the edition , 326–327. Another owned television in the Soviet Union that Crary so convincingly convincingly so Crary Union that Soviet the in television owned remains an important text, even as its arguments have begun begun have arguments its as even text, important an remains , 57–75 and 90–99. Drucker interprets the larger Let- larger the interprets Drucker 90–99. and , 57–75 , 210–221. .” 85. “Traité d’éternité,” Isou, debaveet , 206–207. , 131. The Writing of the Disaster the of The Writing Je l’appellerai ‘La bave et l’éternité’ l’éternité’ et bave ‘La Je l’appellerai le voix de l’étranger” le voix de l’étranger” , 365–406. , unpaginated; “Le Cris des des Cris “Le , unpaginated; . owned enter owned ; and Cone, Cone, ; and says: .” Isou, Isou, .” “C’est “C’est - therefore misses the narration’s efforts to ground its experimentations in form within rep within in form experimentations ground its to narration’s efforts the misses therefore self- his in “translations,” and original (published in et hypergraphique duction à une nouvelle poésie nouvelle àune duction lected Prose of Bremen,” City in Free of Hanseatic the Prize Literature the of Receiving Occasion on the “Speech Celan, See “our language.” as toGerman refers Celan tonote that esting yawning. “54” aspiration; during while emitted be should question in sound the that indicate Holocaust inRomania Holocaust Ioanid, Radu see Romania, in rights legal and economic, civil, of Jewish history the races “Paris par un vu étranger,” in Isou’s of and vocabularies intonations Romanian the through filtered are they as ments storytelling. Lemaître’s of implications the contextual imagine to difficult is it markers, historical significant these in representations pictographic other the in conjured explicitly media two broadcasts, radio and articles newspaper through principally it happened, as nicated Second the commu- World which was in way the War plates) of first (in the resentations of afive- ing venture criticized from all sides of the political spectrum. Whereas questions of visible of visible questions Whereas spectrum. political of the sides all from criticized venture amisad French ofstate, the values secular the with of Islam compatibilities the about byJean- ment (led 2012) re- since Copé debate François anational tostage plans initiated 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 author’s of the reign imagination. impenetrable able and unfathom itthe in immersing instead and “real” of the realm the from reading removing byfurther case this in enacted modernism, European in of poetry tradition Mallarmean promoted byapost- being it was as of language privatization component ongoing of the aprincipal all, after was, which impenetrability, of such terms the precisely in project trist use— indicates his frequent reliance on religious and messianic references. messianic and use— on religious reliance frequent his indicates contemporary “epistle”— in an Bible than the in more word frequently found archaic an Lemaître, Lemaître, Within the context of the German- German- of the context the Within As he put it, “les dos des dialectes ukraïnienes, arméniens, kirkiziens, etc.” Isou, kirkiziens, arméniens, ukraïnienes, dialectes des dos he put it, “les As These rights were first restricted in 1938, and then further limited in 1940 and 1941. On and in 1941. 1940 limited further then in and 1938, restricted first were rights These In April 2011, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, the Union Move- for the aPopular party, Sarkozy’s President Nicolas 2011, April In 31. Laocoön,” “Towards a Newer Greenberg, “ text: original the In Prize,”34. Literature the of Receiving Occasion on the “Speech Celan, city’s monu-capital the with associated riffs poetic the in emphasis this We see also Canailles toLemaître’s regard In Isou, Celan, .” Isou, Introduction à une nouvelle poésie Isou, .” Introduction à une nouvelle poésie Poems of Paul Celan ofPaul Poems , 34. plate version of the text that Lemaître reprinted in his his in reprinted Lemaître that text of version plate the Qu’est- Lettrisme le ce que (1956), as opposed to the original ten- original (1956), tothe opposed as , esp. 3–38. , esp. Ur Ur La poésie deviendra la veritable et la concrete communion entre les les entre communion concrete la et veritable la deviendra poésie La no. 1, 1950), which Lemaître also reprints, with annotations annotations with reprints, no. also 1, 1950), Lemaître which , 179n 1. published published Introduction à une nouvelle poésie , 60–63. , 60–63.

, Drucker’s interpretation may stem from her read- from stem may , Drucker’s interpretation . In this code, for example, the notation “1” notation the would for example, code, this . In speaking audiencespeaking in Bremen, it is especially inter- Canailles: monographie supertemporelle , 305. Isou’s self- , 179. plate version that constitutes the the constitutes that version plate presentation of his appendix as , 346–347. La plastique lettriste lettriste plastique La Canailles . Drucker . Drucker . Without The Intro- - Col - - - 243 notes for chapter 3 244 notes for chapter 4 and for the intimate details of customs and institutions of people in a particular time and and time aparticular of in people institutions and of customs details intimate for the and period, of the street’ the in ‘man of the life everyday on the throw they light able for the [ Brittanica) ‘Tripper,’ Encyclopedia tothe according casual the idlers, street boys, by scrawls usually are (graffiti ages of various children sian Pari by drawn was “presumably graffiti the that suggests archives exhibition the in release snap- “a for indiscrimate work as substitute saï’s Graffiti Photographed by Brassaï Modern New York Art, in the form of exhibition an Wall: Parisian ofthe titled Language of Museum atthe photographs of these 120 toexhibit Brassaï invited Steichen Edward inMinotaureParisiens” as “Graffiti in Paris he observed that fiti of architec department the in was Villeglé and of sculpture, department the in enrolled Schulze) remains better known for his quasi- for his known better remains Schulze) Wolfgang Otto Wols (Alfred 1956, part, For October his No. 1–2. 24 100, Release Press place.” See “Graffiti Photographed byto Brassaï be on View atMuseum ofArt,” Modern tinue to hold this opinion after reading these passages. passages. these reading after opinion tohold this tinue Isou’s con take who Holocaust- could those humorous that purposely as poetry themed 1 Epigraph: DÉCHIRÉE CHAPTER FRANCE 4: LA 71 70 69 68 67 larism and Islam,” York New Times Secu “French Debates Panel Baume, dela Maïa and prayers.”Erlanger Steven See street or space, public the for in prayer calls any “minarets, any not he want did that exclaimed Pen’s reply toLe Sarkozy motivated that provocation apolitically in It was occupation. Nazi tothe compared Pen infamously Le “problem” Marine prayer, which of street called ject of debate in French society, the specifics thisof most recent crisis resultfrom the so- hijab—the affiliation—wearing women Muslim religious asthe sub- been have such long 3 2 nants of Auschwitz in articulated clearly most is of witnessing model Agamben’s of integration. thetics Isou’s for mean might aes core theof testimony at absence the witnessing on reflection 432. chose essentielle cette the often surprisingly pictorial photographs of Paris streets that he took during the 1930s. the he during took that streets of Paris photographs pictorial surprisingly often the See Bourriaud, “Interview with Jacques Villeglé,” 136. Dôme. Le and Coupole La between located warehouse coal abandoned toan “discovery” when he moved to Paris. Beaux- des École atthe ment of architecture depart- tothe 1947, In transferred of painting. study Villeglé the abandoned having ture, Villeglé and Hains met at the École des Beaux- Beaux- des École atthe met Hains and Villeglé Brassaï (Gyula Halasz) published some of his photographs of the near- near- of the photographs some of his published Halasz) (Gyula Brassaï first of this location the changed Villeglé Bourriaud, Nicolas with interview alater In See Halbwachs, Halbwachs, See In the original text: “ text: original the In Isou, I am grateful to Rosalyn Deutsche for directing me to think about what Agamben’s Agamben’s what about metothink for directing Deutsche toRosalyn grateful I am See Isou, L’ Isou, See messie d’un et nom d’un Agrégation In English, “The people constitute their own archives.” own their constitute people “The English, In L’ messie d’un et nom d’un Agrégation . : On Collective Memory Judaïser la France la Judaïser ils nous ont détruit et réduits à l’essentiel justement pour accomplir accomplir pour justement àl’essentiel réduits et détruit ont nous ils . Steichen, speaking in his role of curator, described Bras role of curator, described his in . Steichen,speaking , April 5, 2011. www.nytimes.com. 5, 2011. , April .” Isou, L’ messie d’un et nom d’un Isou, Agrégation .” . Arts in Nantes, where he stayed until 1949, until he where stayed Nantes, in Arts tachiste , 413. , 413. shottery or inane pictorialism.” The press press The pictorialism.” inane or shottery , 413–432. It would be hard to imagine toimagine hard It be would , 413–432. Arts in Rennes in 1945. Hains was 1945. was in Rennes Hains in Arts paintings and watercolors than for than watercolors and paintings sic ]” and promotes graffiti as “valu 3–4 (1933): 3–4 1956, 7. fall In etching- like graf- , 423; , 423; Rem------FROM A NATION TORN Decolonizing Art and Representation in France, 1945–1962

Hannah Feldman

Duke University Press Durham and London 2014 © 2014 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Designed and typeset in Adobe Garamond and Trade Gothic by BW&A Books, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Feldman, Hannah. From a nation torn : decolonizing art and representation in France, 1945–1962 / Hannah Feldman. pages cm. — (Objects/Histories) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8223-5356-0 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 978-0-8223-5371-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Art—Political aspects—France—History—20th century. 2. Art and state—France—History—20th century. 3. Decolonization—Social aspects—France—History—20th century. I. Title. II. Series: Objects/histories. n72.p6f45 2014 709.44'09045—dc23 2013042836

This book was made possible by a collaborative grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii INTRODUCTION Art during War and the Potentialities of Decolonial Representation 1

I FRAGMENTS AND FAÇADES: ANDRÉ MALRAUX AND THE IMAGE OF THE PAST AS THE FUTURE OF THE PRESENT 1 Fragments; or, The Ends of Photography 19 2 Façades; or, The Space of Silence 41

II BETWEEN RESISTANCE AND REFUSAL: THE LANGUAGE OF ART AND ITS PUBLICS 3 Sonic Youth, Sonic Space: Isidore Isou and the Lettrist Acoustics of Deterritorialization 77 4 La France Déchirée: The Politics of Representation and the Spaces In-Between 109

III REIDENTIFICATIONS: SEEING CITIZENS BEING SEEN 5 “The Eye of History”: Photojournalism, Protest, and the Manifestation of 17 October 1961 159 6 Looking Past the State of Emergency: A Coda 201 Notes 221 Bibliography 271 Index 305