Year: 2012

Contr'un

Tentative outline for the Bakunin Project

May 21, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
From this point on, I’ll be directing most of the Bakunin-related material to the Bakunin Library blog, but I wanted to let my readers here, and on the aggregators where this blog appears, know that I have posted a tentative outline for the Collected Works of Bakunin and would welcome feedback.
Bakunin Library

Strategizing a bit

May 21, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
There are inevitably choices to be made about any “collected works” project. Even a “complete works” collection generally has to draw some specific lines around what will count as “complete,” generally by limiting what will count as “works.” In the case of Bakunin, the most complete writings are his letters, addresses, and a body of shorter articles, generally addressing fairly specific occasions. His longest and most ambitious published works were nearly all extracted from larger, unfinished manuscripts. It’s not an uncommon problem, but it does pose a particular set of problems, not the least of which is that it takes […]
Bakunin Library

Bakunin on Hamlet (1837)

May 18, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Welcome to the Bakunin Library, which is part of a project to translate and publish the work of anarchist Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) in English. The blog will feature news about the translation project and the eventual publication by PM Press. It will also feature working translations of previously untranslated works, transcriptions of earlier translations, and material relating to the life and thought of Bakunin. Without further ado, I would like to launch the site with a new, slightly rough translation of an early essay by a young Bakunin on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, an apparently unpublished work […]
Contr'un

More on the Bakunin project

May 16, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Thanks to those who have responded. Here’s a few more details about the project: Bakunin’s works were published in nine languages, with the majority in French, and then most of the works in other languages were translated into French for the CD-ROM that was issued in 2000. Ideally, we’ll be able to have everything carefully checked against the original language, but, given the translators available and the grassroots nature of the project, we may well take advantage of the French translations to develop working drafts in English. It looks to me like the division of labor is likely to involve: […]
Uncategorized

Victor Serge, Sports

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
SPORTS By “Le Retif” From “Le Rèvoltè” # 18, September 1908 Sports are booming an obsession. The kiosks are inundated with sports journals” “L’ Auto”, “Le Velo”, “Le Sportsman”, “Paris Sport”. Sports-Elevage”. “Tous Les Sports” etc., etc. Each day a new journal is born – and the old ones don’t die! Sports literature is almost becoming . . . a sport! And not only literature. I defy you to take a walk in the street without encountering a young man in helmet, white tunic, the cyclist’s uniform – or of a worker or gentleman caught up in reading a sports […]
anarchist individualism

Mauricius, E. Armand as I Knew Him

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
  E. ARMAND AS I KNEW HIM By Mauricius (From “E. Armand, Son Vie, Son Ouevre”, La Ruche Ouvrier, 1964) I encountered E. Armand for the first time one beautiful night in the spring of 1905 at the Causeries Populaires in the rue Muller in Montmartre, where I had come that night in a very banal way. I lived then on the place du Theatre-Montmartre and on this street was a police station, in front of which I saw some men talking. I approached them. Suddenly, I saw coming from the police station an almost completely naked man who was […]
Uncategorized

Works of Bakunin in English – call for translators and readers

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
As I announced here a month or so back, PM Press has decided to move ahead with the oft-mentioned Collected Works of Bakunin project, and I’ve been asked to coordinate and edit the thing. The prospect is equally exciting and daunting. I’m in the early stages of planning the introductory sampler volume and getting a general sense of what could, and what should, be included in the subsequent volumes. My inclination is to be as inclusive as possible, but the “possible” will depend a good deal on how much participation there is in the translation and editing process. I’ve volunteered […]
Uncategorized

Andre Lorulot, Individualism And The Social Question

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Individualism And The Social Question By Andre Lorulot (From the “L’Anarchie” pamphlet, “L’ Individualisme; Doctrine de révolte et de solidarité”. No date, probably circa 1912) Are individualists revolutionaries or can they be disinterested in the Social Problem? Do they enter into struggle with the milieu, go forth attempting to modify institutions and turning principles upside down? Or do they seek to adapt as best as possible to conditions of capitalist life? We have said that the individualist is the individual who wants to live at any price, who wants to realize their happiness and not be bruised, a person who […]
anarchist individualism

E. Armand, The Critical Activity of Individualists

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
  The Critical Activity of Individualists E. Armand One should not be mistaken: individualist anarchists are negators, destroyers, demolishers. They are those who believe in nothing, respect nothing. Nothing in fact is exempt from their critique of disintegration, Nothing is sacred. When do they make a critique? At every moment. Not one event or one historical fact which can not be critiqued. Not one suffering, not one sorrow, not one mourning which can not give rise to a critique; not one human drama which does not suggest a critique. Where does one criticize? In every milieu How does one criticize? […]