Theory of the Avant-Garde

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

• 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