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Rethinking the Vanguard: Aesthetic and Political Positions in the Modernist Debate, 1917-1962
Author(s): John W. Maerhofer (Author)
- Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
- Publication Date: 13 July 2009
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 230 pages
- ISBN-10: 1443811351
- ISBN-13: 9781443811354
Book Description
How has political revolution figured into the development of avant-garde cultural production? Is the vanguard an antiquated concept or does its influence still resonate in the 21st century? Focusing closely on the convergence of aesthetics and politics that materialized in the early part of the twentieth century, this study offers a re-interpretation of the historical avant-garde from 1917 to 1962, a turbulent period in intellectual history which marked the apex, crisis, and decline of vanguardist authority. Moving from the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution to the anti-imperialist and decolonizing movements in the Third World, to the emergence of neo-vanguardism in the wake of postmodernity, this study opens the way for understanding the transformation of vanguardist cultural paradigms from a global perspective, the implications of which also reveal its relevance and application to the contemporary period.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“With a strong and convincing political sense, Maerhofer presents the most interesting angles of the intertwining of avant-garde literary practice and events in the wider world.”―Mary Ann Caws, Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature, Graduate School, CUNY
About the Author
John W. Maerhofer received his PhD in English from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has published articles on Aimé Césaire, Ezra Pound, and the Algerian writer Mohammed Dib. He teaches English and Comparative Literature at Queens College in New York City.
