The Theory of the Avant-Garde / Edition 1

by Renato Poggioli

Overview

Convinced that all aspects of modern culture have been affected by avant-garde art, Renato Poggioli explores the relationship between the avant-garde and civilization. Historical parallels and modern examples from all the arts are used to show how the avant-garde is both symptom and cause of many major extra-aesthetic trends of our time, and that the contemporary avant-garde is the sole and authentic one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674882164
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/15/1981
Series:	Belknap Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.65(d)

Table of Contents

THE CONCEPT OF THE AVANT-GARDE

Prologue

Terminological ups-and-downs

The two avant-gardes

A novel concept, a novel fact

THE CONCEPT OF A MOVEMENT

Schools and movements

The dialectic of movements

Activism

Antagonism

ROMANTICISM AND THE AVANT-GARDE

Popularity and unpopularity

Romanticism as a precedent

Down-with-the-past

Anticipations

AGONISM AND FUTURISM

Nihilism

Agonism

Futurism

Decadence

FASHION, TASTE, AND THE PUBLIC

Fashion, avant-garde, and stereotype

Intelligentsia and elite

The intellectual elite

The avant-garde and politics

THE STATE OF ALIENATION

Art and society

Psychological and social alienation

Econoimic and cultural alienation

Stylistic and aesthetic alienation

TECHNOLOGY AND THE AVANT-GARDE

Experimentalism

Scientificism

Humorism

Nominalistic proof

AVANT-GARDE CRITICISM

Prerequisites

The problem of obscurity

Judgment and prejudgment

Criticism, right and left

AESTHETICS AND POETICS

Dehumanization

Cerebralism and voluntarism

Metaphysics of the metaphor

The mystique of purity

HISTORY AND THEORY
Historical parallels

Modernity and modernism

The overcoming of the avant-garde

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

Poggioli’s study is a magnificent achievement. In both his topic and his manner of treatment, he has demonstrated that the criticism of art is indistinguishable from the criticism of life.

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

His rich background…ideally equipped him for the task of mapping the wilderness of avant-garde art and aesthetics. Indeed, Poggioli tackles his vast subject systemically, by integrating the aesthetic approach in a psychological, social, and historical range.

Comparative Literature Studies

There can be no doubt that this book is a classic.

British Journal of Aesthetics