MOČNIK, Rastko; ŽIŽEK, Slavoj; SKUŠEK, Zoja; BOYNIK, Sezgin
Punk Suprematism. Theoretical Writings on Punk, Nation, State, Art, Bureaucracy, and Socialism
The first English translation of theoretical writings on punk, art, socialism, bureaucracy, and nationalism by Slavoj Žižek, Rastko Močnik, and Zoja Skušek. Written in the first half of the eighties, these texts are a unique mixture of punk attitude with theoretical concepts borrowed from Althusser, Lacan, and avant-garde art. Written in a turbulent period of Yugoslav socialism, these texts were trying to understand the political importance of punk as a mass movement of impoverished youth. The conclusions of these interventions had a lasting effect on the theoretical formation of Yugoslav post-Marxism, as well to the organizational forms of the socialist alternative. The book also includes a foreword on the historical context of the eighties and the extensive narrative bibliography of punk related publications in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia written by Sezgin Boynik. In addition to this, it also includes translations of the two editorials to Punk Problemi written by renowned Slovenian theoreticians.
Punk Suprematism is the first volume of the Punk Research Series. The series starts from the idea that punk is a break, and it will focus on punk as something completely separated from bourgeois culture.
“We see punk as a radical gesture within youth mass culture with the most precise, immediate, and declarative expression. Our working hypothesis is that punk is an expression and form, combining learning with negation, dialectics with refusal, violence with egalitarianism, negativity with community, and fierceness with collectivity. This attitude has reshaped everything in our culture, including concepts within theory, structures of organisation, and forms of experimental art. With the series we will detect this punk effect, particularly focusing on its internationalist and explicitly political iterations. Punk Research Series will continue with publications about The Pop Group concert in Helsinki in 1980 organised by the Communist Party of Finland; a complete annotated bibliography of punk and underground fanzines published in Turkey from the beginning of the eighties; analysis of the global impact of Finnish hard-core punk syntax; and studies on punk education, the non-repressive vituperative language of punk poetry, proletarian queer narratives, the images of class struggles in hard-core punk, and the definition of punk-jazz.” [publishers’ note]
Published by Rab-Rab Press, 2021
Design by Ott Kagovere
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