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The half-life of the Avant-Garde: Introduction

The half-life of the Avant-Garde: Introduction
The half-life of the Avant-Garde: Introduction

This introduction to the special section ‘The Half-Life of the Avant-Garde: 50 Years On from 50 Years On’ explains why the section is conceived to look back at the century since the First World War. It is designed to offer ways of rethinking the concept and the role of the anniversary, where the First World War constitutes the memorialized event. The organization of the section follows the movement between often hidden or submerged forms of continuity. It attempts to think some of the aesthetic and technological legacies and inheritances of the First World War in its durational 100th anniversary (2014–18) through a specific temporal strategy most succinctly captured in the phrase ‘50 years on from 50 years on’. The entry point is the middle of the 20th century, allowing contributors to work backward and forward by examining links between the three separate temporal frames (1964–68, 1914–18 and 2014–18). The consistency but also the strangeness of critical practices, as world history passes with its violent climaxes and depressions, has unique contours in each frame, with Dada providing an exemplary through-line.

Cold War, Dada, First World War, William Burroughs, avant-garde, collage, world fairs
0263-2764
Bishop, Ryan
a4f07e31-14a0-44c4-a599-5ed96567a2e1
Phillips, John
95683bd9-db05-468c-80e9-4856d81bdff3
Bishop, Ryan
a4f07e31-14a0-44c4-a599-5ed96567a2e1
Phillips, John
95683bd9-db05-468c-80e9-4856d81bdff3

Bishop, Ryan and Phillips, John (2020) The half-life of the Avant-Garde: Introduction. Theory, Culture & Society. (doi:10.1177/0263276420958051).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This introduction to the special section ‘The Half-Life of the Avant-Garde: 50 Years On from 50 Years On’ explains why the section is conceived to look back at the century since the First World War. It is designed to offer ways of rethinking the concept and the role of the anniversary, where the First World War constitutes the memorialized event. The organization of the section follows the movement between often hidden or submerged forms of continuity. It attempts to think some of the aesthetic and technological legacies and inheritances of the First World War in its durational 100th anniversary (2014–18) through a specific temporal strategy most succinctly captured in the phrase ‘50 years on from 50 years on’. The entry point is the middle of the 20th century, allowing contributors to work backward and forward by examining links between the three separate temporal frames (1964–68, 1914–18 and 2014–18). The consistency but also the strangeness of critical practices, as world history passes with its violent climaxes and depressions, has unique contours in each frame, with Dada providing an exemplary through-line.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 14 October 2020
Published date: December 2020
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2020.
Keywords: Cold War, Dada, First World War, William Burroughs, avant-garde, collage, world fairs

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 443158
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/443158
ISSN: 0263-2764
PURE UUID: 7de24669-279e-44e4-abab-a9258394a44f

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Date deposited: 12 Aug 2020 16:41
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:48

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Contributors

Author: Ryan Bishop
Author: John Phillips

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