Mario Perniola - Counter-Culture

Counter-Culture

Perniola, however, does not only have an academic soul but also an anti-academic one. The latter is epitomized by his attention to alternative and transgressive cultural expressions. His first major work belonging to this anti-academic side is L’alienazione artistica (Artistic Alienation 1971), in which he draws on Marxist thought that inspired him at that time. Perniola argues that alienation is not a failure of art, but rather a condition of the very existence of art as a distinctive category of human activity. His second book I situazionisti (The situationists 1972; republished with the same title by Castelvecchi, Rome, 1998) exemplified his interest in the avant-garde and the work of Guy Debord. Perniola gives an account of the Situationist International and post-situationist movement which lasted from 1957 to 1971 and in which he was personally involved from 1966 to 1969. He also highlights the conflicting features which characterized the members of the movement. The journal Agaragar (published between 1971 and 1972) continues the post-situationist critique of capitalist and bourgeoisie society. Perniola then published his book on the French writer George Bataille (George Bataille e il negativo, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1977; George Bataille and the Negative). The negative here is conceived as the motor of history.