The German Quarterly · 2002 · 55 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesFilm StudiesLiteratureFilm AestheticsFilm CriticismFilm TheoryModernismModernist AestheticsAvant-garde Film TheoryAvant-garde MovementsAvant-garde Visual CultureInterdisciplinary ProjectsPostmodern AestheticsTwentieth-century Historiography
Modernist and Expressionist theories of the avant‑garde are re‑examined through postmodern lenses, highlighting their significance for contemporary culture and debates among theorists such as Jameson, Eagleton, Lyotard, and Habermas. The study reconsiders Lukács and Bloch’s classic avant‑garde formulation, explores art‑politics through Marcuse, Adorno, and Benjamin, and offers a critical rethinking of contemporary postmodern controversies for scholars of early twentieth‑century modernist movements. The authors conduct close textual readings of diverse films and literary works, drawing on critical theories from Bakhtin, Todorov, MacCabe, Belsey, and Raymond Williams.
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.