Ken Knabb (born 1945) is an American writer, translator, and radical theorist, known for his translations of

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationis ...

and the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

. His own English-language writings, many of which were anthologized in ''Public Secrets'' (1997), have been translated into over a dozen additional languages. He is also a respected authority on the political significance of

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider h ...

Early life

Knabb was born in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

in 1945 and raised in Missouri. He attended

Shimer College Shimer Great Books School (pronounced ) is a Classic_book#University_programs, Great Books college that is part of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Prior to 2017, Shimer was an independent, accredited college on the south side of ...

from 1961 to 1965, then moved to

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, where he took part in the countercultural and radical adventures of the 1960s. In 1969, having become disillusioned with the increasingly authoritarian tendencies in the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...

movement, he became an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

. Later that same year, he discovered some pamphlets by the Situationist International and was so struck by them that he began experimenting with critiques and interventions in a style similar to that of the situationists. Over the next few years, he taught himself French in order to read the original situationist writings (most of which were then unavailable in English) and made several extended visits to France to meet various situationist groups and individuals, as well as shorter trips to meet contacts in other European countries and in Japan and Hong Kong.

Works

In 1981, Knabb published the ''Situationist International Anthology'', a large collection of articles drawn mostly from the French journal ''Internationale Situationniste''. His other translations include Guy Debord's film scripts (''Complete Cinematic Works''), Debord's ''

The Society of the Spectacle ''The Society of the Spectacle'' (french: La société du spectacle) is a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord, in which the author develops and presents the concept of the Spectacle. The book is considered a seminal ...

'', and

Ngo Van Ngô Văn Xuyết (Tan Lo, near Saigon, 1913–Paris, 1 January 2005), alias Ngô Văn was a Vietnamese revolutionary who chronicled labour and peasant insurrections caught "in the crossfire" between the colonial French and the Indochinese Commun ...

's ''In the Crossfire: Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary''. Knabb's own writings include leaflets, comics, pamphlets and articles on

Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...

Georges Brassens Georges Charles Brassens (; 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981) was a French singer-songwriter and poet. As an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his elegant songs with their harmonically complex music for voice and guitar and a ...

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...

, the 1960s hip counterculture, the 1970 Polish revolt, the 1979

Iranian revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

, the 1991

Gulf war The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, the 2006 anti-CPE revolt in France, the 2011

Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...

, the 2016 Trump election, and the 2020 covid crisis. Longer works include ''The Relevance of Rexroth'' (a study of the anarchist poet and essayist

), ''Gateway to the Vast Realms'' (a reader's guide to 500 recommended books), and ''The Joy of Revolution'' (an examination of the pros and cons of diverse radical tactics followed by some speculations on how a nonstate and noncapitalist postrevolutionary society might function).

Perspectives

Although Knabb has remained in substantial agreement with most of the situationist perspectives, some of his writings can be seen as attempts to meld, or at least to juxtapose, those perspectives with the rather different tone and scope of Kenneth Rexroth and with the experiential insights of

Zen Buddhism Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

(he is a long-time Zen practitioner). In a 1977 pamphlet, for example, he critiqued what he saw as the situationists' blindspot regarding religion. Conversely, he has also criticized the political naiveté of "socially engaged" Buddhists. Another of his recurring themes is the importance of paying attention to the psychological or "subjective" aspect of radical activities.Double-Reflection

Bibliography

*''The Relevance of Rexroth'' (1990) *''Public Secrets: Collected Skirmishes of Ken Knabb'' (1997) *''The Joy of Revolution'' (2017, by

AK Press AK Press is a worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. Operated out of Chico, California, the company is collectively owned. History AK was founded in Stirling, Sc ...

) *(trans.)
Situationist International Anthology
' (1981; revised and expanded edition, 2006) *(trans.) Guy Debord’s ''Complete Cinematic Works'' (2003) *(trans.) Guy Debord's ''The Society of the Spectacle'' (2004; revised and annotated edition, 2014) *(trans.) Ngo Van's ''In the Crossfire: Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary'' (2010)

References

External links

Bureau of Public SecretsBureau of Public Secrets Records
at Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University Special Collections * Ken Knabb Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Knabb, Ken 1945 births Living people Situationists Shimer College alumni Translators from French Translators to English American translators