Tiqqun

Tiqqun is the name of a French philosophical journal, founded in 1999 with an aim to "recreate the conditions of another community." It was created by various writers, before dissolving in Venice, Italy in 2001 following the attacks of September 11, 2001. The journal was the object of some interest in the media after the arrest of Julien Coupat, one of its founders.

Tiqqun is also, more generally, the name of the philosophical concept which stems from these texts, and is often used in a broad sense to name the many publications containing the journal's texts, in order to designate, if not a specific author, at least "a point of spirit from which these writings come."

Tiqqun became better known to an American audience in 2009 and 2010 after Glenn Beck featured commentary on the English edition of The Coming Insurrection (rumoured to be co-authored by several former members of the Tiqqun collective) in his media broadcasts.

Origin and use of the name

The name of the journal comes from the great importance that the writers give to the philosophical concept of Tiqqun (the best definitions are found in the texts Theory of Bloom and Introduction to Civil War). It is the French transcription of the original Hebrew term Tikkun olam, a concept issuing from Judaism, often used in the kabbalistic and messianic traditions, which simultaneously indicates reparation, restitution, and redemption. It has also come to designate, more broadly, a contemporary Jewish conception of social justice.^[1]

Affiliations

Tiqqun’s poetic style and radical political engagement are akin to the Situationists and the Lettrists. Tiqqun has influenced radical political and philosophical milieus, post-Situationist groups, and other elements of ultra-left, squat and autonomist movements, as well as some anarchists. Tiqqun’s themes and concepts are strongly influenced by the work of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, who in turn wrote a public editorial supporting Coupat's due process legal rights.^[2]

English translations

• Introduction to Civil War (translated by Alexander R. Galloway and Jason E Smith). Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2010. ISBN 978-1-58435-086-6. This volume, part of Semiotext(e)'s Intervention series, contains the texts "Introduction to Civil War" and "How Is It To Be Done?", which were originally published in issue 2 of Tiqqun (2001).^[3]
• This is Not a Program. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2011. ISBN 978-1-58435-097-2. This volume, which is also a part of Semiotext(e)'s Intervention series, contains the texts "This Is Not a Program" and "A Critical Metaphysics Could Be Born as a Science of Apparatuses," which were originally published in issue 2 of Tiqqun (2001).
• Tiqqun 1 Publisher unknown, 2011. No ISBN. This "faithful reproduction, in English, of the original release of Tiqqun #1" is distributed by Little Black Cart books, an anarchist book distribution project.^[4]
• Theory of Bloom (translated by Robert Hurley). LBC Books, 2012. ISBN 978-1-62049-002-0. First published in France in 2004.
• Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl (translated by Ariana Reines). Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2012. ISBN 978-1-58435-108-5. First published in France in 1999.

See also

• Communization
• Autonomism
• Post-Anarchism
• Insurrectionary anarchism

Notes

1. For example, see the completely unaffiliated American magazine Tikkun, which also takes the Jewish term Tikkun olam for its title, but in the name of left-liberal social justice.
2. Giorgio Agamben, "Terrorisme ou tragi-comédie" Libération (Paris, France: November 19, 2008). (Cf. also a widely circulated English translation.)
3. Tiqqun, Introduction to Civil War (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2010), "A Note on the Translation," p. 7.
4. See the "About Us" section of Little Black Cart.

References

• Ceccaldi, Jérôme. "Rions un peu avec Tiqqun." Multitudes 8 (2002): pp. 239–242.
• Culp, Andrew. "Insurrectionary Foucault: Tiqqun, The Coming Insurrection, and Beyond." Academia.edu.
• Smith, Jason E. "The Politics of Incivility: Autonomia and Tiqqun." The Minnesota Review 75 (Fall 2010): pp. 119–132.
• Read, Jason. "From Restricted to General Antagonism: Tiqqun’s Introduction to Civil War" Unemployed Negativity. Blogger May 27, 2010. Web.
• Read, Jason. "A Million Blooms: Tiqqun and Negri on the Actualization of Ontology." Unemployed Negativity. Blogger July 7, 2011. Web.
• Wood, Alden. "The Cultural Logic of Insurrection: Essays on Tiqqun and The Invisible Committee." Repartee (2013).

External links

• bloom0101.org is dedicated to the free diffusion of Tiqqun texts, as well as their translations in a variety of languages.
• tiqqun.info
• clairefontaine.ws
• tiqqunista.jottit.com is the work of an anonymous translator, providing texts from "Tiqqun" magazine in English.