Main entry:

Bürger, Peter, 1936- author.

Title & Author:

Theory of the Avant-Garde / Peter Bürger ; translation from the German by Michael Shaw ; foreword by Jochen Schulte-Sasse.

Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [1984]
©1984

Description:

lv, 135 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Series:

Theory and history of literature ; v. 4

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 122-125) and index.
Foreword: theory of modernism versus theory of the avant-garde / Jochen Shulte-Sasse -- Preliminary remarks -- Introduction: theory of the avant-garde and theory of literature -- Preliminary reflections on a critical literary science. Hermeneutics -- Ideology critique -- Analysis of functions -- Theory of the avant-garde and critical literary science. The historicity of aesthetic categories -- The avant-garde as the self-criticism of art in bourgeois society -- Regarding the discussion of Benjamin's theory of art -- On the problem of the autonomy of art in bourgeois society. Research problems -- The autonomy of art in the aesthetics of Kant and Schiller -- The negation of the autonomy of art by the avant-garde -- The avant-gardiste work of art. On the problem of the category 'work' -- The new -- Chance -- Benjamin's concept of allegory -- Montage -- Avant-garde and engagement. The debate between Adorno and Lukács -- Concluding remark and a comment on Hegel.
Translation of: Theorie der Avantgarde.

Summary:

"Peter Bürger's Theory of the Avant-Garde sets before English-language readers for the first time a fully elaborated theory of the 'institution of art.' He argues that the social history of literature and art cannot be explained by making simple, direct links between the contents of individual works and social history. Rather, he holds, it is the social status of art, its function and prestige in society, that provides the connection between the individual art work and history. Bürger's concept of the institution of art establishes a framework within which a work of art is both produced and received. The French and German literary and visual avant-garde of the 1920s provides the test of Bürger's theory. Focusing on the role of the artistic manifesto and, particularly, on the collage as an art form, he shows how avant-garde movements questioned the autonomous, self-referential status of art in bourgeois society and thus represented a radical break with the aestheticism of high modernism. Bürger attacks metaphysical aesthetics and argues instead for a materialistic aesthetic theory for today, one that is rooted in the reality of the social sphere. His theory calls into question any conventional concept of art derived from Romantic notions of organic unity. As such, Bürger's arguments should have a major impact on Anglo-American literary theory and its view of historical avant-garde movements like Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism, and will be of interest to scholars and students of literature, the visual arts, and the sociology of culture in general." -- Provided by publisher

Resources:
French equivalent / Équivalent français

ISBN:

0816610673
9780816610679
0816610681 (pbk.)
9780816610686 (pbk.)
0719014522 (v)
9780719014529

Subject:

Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
Avant-garde (Esthétique)
Kunst.
Avant-garde.
Theorieën.
Aesthetics.
Art, Modern - Theory.

Added entries:

Shaw, Michael, 1921- translator.
Schulte-Sasse, Jochen, writer of foreword.
Theory and history of literature ; v. 4.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 248839
Call No.: BIB 178398
Status: Available