San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research Fall 2016 Mémoires: The Revolutionary Map of the Twentieth Century Megan Merritt San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Merritt, Megan, "Mémoires: The Revolutionary Map of the Twentieth Century" (2016). Master's Theses. 4769. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.kdne-5s22 https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/4769 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MÉMOIRES: THE REVOLUTIONARY MAP OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Art & Art History San José State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree Master of Arts by Megan Merritt December 2016 © 2016 Megan E. Merritt All Rights Reserved ii The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled MÉMOIRES: THE REVOLUTIONARY MAP OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Megan E. Merritt APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & ART HISTORY SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY December 2016 Dr. Dore Bowen Department of Art & Art History Dr. Anthony Raynsford Department of Art & Art History Professor Janet Silk Department of Art & Art History iii ABSTRACT MÉMOIRES: THE REVOLUTIONARY MAP OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Megan E. Merritt The artistic collaborations between Guy Debord and Asger Jorn blossomed in 1957, and have typically been explored in terms of their context within the canon of the Situationist International (SI), a notorious group of political thinkers and activists who formed in July, 1957, with a shared repulsion for capitalism and consumerism. Before co-founding the SI with Jorn and several other individuals, Debord was part of the Lettrist International, a splinter group of the Lettrists, which allowed Debord more authority and autonomy to create his first film, Hurlements en Faveur de Sade (Howls for Sade, 1954), and explore other media that would become synonymous with the liminal period when Debord was splitting from the LI and forming the SI. The book explored in this thesis, Mémoires (1959), is a visual narrative loosely based on Debord’s time in the Lettrists, which takes place during this transitional period between his political and artistic groups. Mémoires has traditionally been examined by leading scholars in the field of Art and Art History as an important project between Debord and Jorn, but has not been critically analyzed by American and English-speaking scholars through first-hand experiences with the book. My personal encounters with several different editions of Mémoires at three disparate archives is documented in this thesis, which will ultimately argue that the book is a critical work in the pre-Situationist canon, and one which can be viewed as a revolutionary, albeit idealistic, road map for the future, when placed in its historic context. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The SJSU Master’s Thesis could not have been completed without the help and support of many individuals. First and foremost, I want to thank Dr. Dore Bowen for her continuous support and genuine interest in my topic, and for helping me develop some of the ideas found in this thesis. Second, I would like to thank both Dr. Anthony Raynsford and Professor Janet Silk for serving in my thesis committee and for providing timely feedback and thoughtful input regarding my thesis. Thanks are also due to several friends and colleagues within the Art History & Visual Culture department, who supported me and gave feedback during the course of my research and writing. I would also like to thank Simon Sadler for his book, The Situationist City, which incited my interest in the Situationist International, and provided me with a context on which to ground my argument. I would like also to thank the thesis reviewers, who remain anonymous, but whose efforts and approval do not go unnoticed. Lastly, a big thank you goes out to my mom who has always been my biggest cheerleader and has continued to be interested in my thesis topic and research since I started this project. She traveled with me to all three archives and has been endlessly patient and emotionally supportive throughout these five years. Without her, this thesis would not have been possible. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................ vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Discovering Mémoires in the Archives: Getty Research Institute, Stanford University, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France .................................................... 19 Stanford University ..................................................................................................... 20 Getty Research Institute: Part I .................................................................................. 24 Bibliothèque Nationale de France .............................................................................. 31 Getty Research Institute: Part II ................................................................................. 38 Chapter Two: Formal Components of Mémoires ........................................................... 44 Debord and Jorn: Artistic Dichotomy ......................................................................... 47 June 1952: Entry/Ingress ........................................................................................... 52 December 1952: Appropriation and Layering ............................................................. 58 September 1953: Mapping ......................................................................................... 66 Ekphrasis: A Poetic Re-telling of Mémoires................................................................ 76 June 1952 .............................................................................................................. 76 December 1952 ...................................................................................................... 77 September 1953 ..................................................................................................... 77 Chapter Three: Development of Mémoires .................................................................... 79 Naked City ................................................................................................................. 79 Howls for Sade (Hurlements en Faveur de Sade, 1957) ............................................ 84 Potlatch ...................................................................................................................... 89 Potlatch #4–July 13, 1954 ...................................................................................... 90 Potlatch #5–July 20, 1954 ...................................................................................... 92 Potlatch #7–August 3, 1954 .................................................................................... 95 Asger Jorn – Post-CoBrA Years and Pre-Situationist Collage .................................... 96 Fin de Copenhague (Goodbye to Copenhagen, 1957) ............................................... 99 Chapter Four: Mémoires in Contemporary Culture ...................................................... 107 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Mémoires. Personal photograph taken at Stanford Auxiliary Library, January 2013. Guy-Ernst Debord, Structures Portantes d’Asger Jorn. © 1977, Jean- Jacques Pauvert Aux Belles Lettres………………………. 22 Figure 2. Personal photograph taken at Stanford Auxiliary Library, January 2013. Guy-Ernst Debord, Structures Portantes d’Asger Jorn. © 1977, Jean-Jacques Pauvert Aux Belles Lettres………………………………………………………… 23 Figure 3. Fin de Copenhague. Personal photo taken at the Getty Research Institute of inside cover stating that there were 200 copies printed, March 2014. Asger Jorn and Guy- Ernst Debord. © 1959, Permild & Rosengreen………….. 25 Figure 4. Fin de Copenhague. Personal photo taken at the Getty Research Institute showing Permild & Rosengreen logo, March 2013. Asger Jorn and Guy-Ernst Debord. © 1957, Imaginist Bauhaus. ......................................................... 25 Figure 5. Mémoires, 1959. Personal photo taken at the Getty Research Institute, March, 2014. Guy-Ernst Debord, Structures Portantes d’Asger Jorn. © 1959, Permild & Rosengreen ..................................................................... 27 Figure 6. Mémoires,1959. Personal photo taken at the Getty Research Institute showing sandpaper cover, March, 2014. © 1959, Permild & Rosengreen……………………. 27 Figure 7. Mémoires, 1959. Personal photo taken at the Getty Research Institute of collage detail, March, 2014. Guy- Ernst Debord, Structures Portantes d’Asger Jorn……….. 28 Figure 8. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Personal photo taken in library foyer. October, 2014…………………………….. 28 Figure 9. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Personal photo taken in library foyer. October, 2014……………………………. 33 Figure 10. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Personal photo taken in library foyer. October, 2014. ………………………… 34 vii Figure 11. Archival Reading Room at the Bibliothéque Nationale de France. Digital Image. Bibliothéque Nationale de France. Accessed June 10,