Theorizing the Avant-Garde
Author | : Richard John Murphy |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 340 |
Release | : 1999-04-22 |
ISBN-10 | : 0521648696 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780521648691 |
Rating | : 4/5 (96 Downloads) |
Download or read book Theorizing the Avant-Garde written by Richard John Murphy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-04-22 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Modernism, Expressionism and Theories of the Avant Garde, Richard Murphy mobilises theories of the postmodern to challenge our understanding of the avant-garde. He assesses the importance of the avant-garde for contemporary culture and for the debates among theorists of postmodernism such as Jameson, Eagleton, Lyotard and Habermas. Murphy reconsiders the classic formulation of the avant-garde in Lukacs and Bloch, especially their discussion of aesthetic autonomy, and investigates the relationship between art and politics via a discussion of Marcuse, Adorno and Benjamin. Combining close textual readings of a wide range of films as well as works of literature, it draws on a rich array of critical theories, such as those of Bakhtin, Todorov, MacCabe, Belsey and Raymond Williams. This interdisciplinary project will appeal to all those interested in modernist and avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century, and provides a critical rethinking of the present-day controversy regarding postmodernity.