Henri Lefebvre: A Critical Introduction - autonomous learning

n o t e s
33. Debord, “Réponse à une Enquête du Groupe Surréaliste Belge,” in Guy
Debord Présente “Potlatch” (1954–1957) (Gallimard, Paris, 1996), p. 42.
34. Debord, Guy Debord Correspondance, Volume 1: juin 1957–août 1960
(Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris, 1999), p. 313.
35. Ibid., p. 318.
36. Ibid., p. 318. Emphasis in original.
37. Stendhal, Racine and Shakespeare, cited in Henri Lefebvre, Introduction
to Modernity (Verso, London, 1995), p. 239. Stendhal (1783–1842) was the
penname of Henri Beyle, whose romantic novels, especially Scarlet and
Black (1830) and The Charterhouse of Parma (1839), brought him fame and
a following. Stendhal dedicated his works to “the happy few” and coined
the term Beylism as his philosophical credo for the pursuit of happiness.
His dedication may have been an allusion to Shakespeare’s Henry V: “We
few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” Interestingly, and unbeknownst
to the Lefebvre of Introduction to Modernity, Shakespeare’s phrase would
feature in Guy Debord’s film version of The Society of the Spectacle (1973).
Following the caption of “we happy few,” the frame flashes to wall graffiti
at an occupied Sorbonne, circa late 1960s: “Run quickly, comrade, the old
world is behind you!”
38. Lefebvre, Introduction to Modernity, p. 239.
39. Ibid., p. 346. Emphasis in original.
40. Ibid., p. 359. For his own part, Debord responded graciously to Lefebvre
in a letter dated May 5, 1960. “I am counting on the perspectives of the
Situationists,” the Situ leader told Lefebvre, “(which, as you know, don’t
fear going far out) for at least reconciling romanticism with our revolutionary
side; and better, for eventually overcoming all romanticism.” See Guy
Debord Correspondance, Volume 1, p. 332.
41. Introduction to Modernity, p. 258.
42. Ibid., p. 302.
Chapter 3
1. Interview with author, March 15, 2005. Today, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the ex-
’68 student leader, is copresident of Greens/Free European Alliance in the
European Parliament. He’s also a frequent (and outspoken) political commentator
on French TV with left-democratic, pro-European integrationist
ideals.
2. Introduction to Modernity, p. 343.
3. Lefebvre, The Explosion: Marxism and the French Upheaval (Monthly
Review Press, New York, 1969), p. 7. All page citations to follow refer to
this edition.
4. Lefebvre himself began to document changes (and contradictions) between
“politics” and “the economy” from the mid-1970s onward in a series of
volumes on the state. The title alone of one of them captured the nub of
the shift away from a managerialist style of national government to a
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