Debord et Jouffroy, alliés en instance de poésie

Abstract

Alain Jouffroy and Guy Debord belong to the same generation, "attracted" by suicide and revolution, being in touch with surrealism and the Marxist movement(s) of May 68. Jouffroy never became a member of the Situationist group, but in the frame of "Poetry of real-life" he wrote the poems that the Situationists refused to produce. His poetry had a grasp of the everyday situations/meetings, by criticizing the capitalist society, and overcoming the very notion of poetry without abandoning the poetic means, proving, thus, that criticism of capitalism and criticism of poetry are both compatible with poetry itself. Jouffroy applies sabotage and guerilla war methods—as well as Situationist methods such as the textual-détournement—on his own texts to provoke a poetic-language revolution. Situationnists used to criticize Jouffroy's views. All the same, by publishing Revolutionary Individualism, Jouffroy enters into virtual dialogue with Debord, mainly, on The Society of the Spectacle. Jouffroy discusses Situationist topics including textual-détournement and the overcoming/abolition of art. In his Trans-paradis-express poetry collection, he stages his imaginary meeting with Debord and Ducasse. Finally, he inverts the course of history, officializes his alliance with Debord by establishing him as ``the poet of Paris'', an image that emerges from Debord's own films, life and autobiographical works. He inscribes Debord's project in his own poetical and revolutionary project: Revolutionary Individualism and the "Poetry of real-life". In this way, he justifies Debord's work as well as his own.