Drawing on published works as well as personal correspondences written between 1948-1994, this book conceptualizes Guy Debord's politics of communication and how it sought to undermine the hierarchical, monological language of the spectacle. Matthews traces Debord's search for critical communication strategies that could subvert the reified "language of manufacturing" from the philosopher's early activities in anti-aesthetic 'terrorism' (e.g., the neo-poem, metagraphics, and détournement) to advocating forms of horizontal communication between autonomous revolutionary groups or individuals using 'native' language. Matthews ultimately finds that to critique the language of the spectacle, Debord relied on the power of the negative to speak the ironic language of contradiction, of critical theory, and of the incommunicable.

Edward John Matthews teaches at Fanshawe College.