The Community in Avant-Garde Literature and Politics

This book rethinks the concept of community taking Jean-Luc Nancy’s influential essay “La communauté désoeuvrée” as its starting point, tracing subsequent scholarship on community and adding new insights on avant-garde aesthetics and politics. Extensively exploring the communitarian dimension of avant-garde aesthetics and politics (focusing on artistic groups, intellectual circles and theoretical collectives), the author aims to bring literature and art into a philosophical examination of the paradoxical and complex idea of community. This book rethinks the concept of community taking Jean-Luc Nancy's influential essay "La communauté désoeuvrée" as its starting point, tracing subsequent scholarship on community and adding new insights on avant-garde aesthetics and politics. Extensively exploring the communitarian dimension of avant-garde aesthetics and politics (focusing on artistic groups, intellectual circles and theoretical collectives), the author aims to bring literature and art into a philosophical examination of the paradoxical and complex idea of community. Zrinka Boézić is Assistant Professor of Literary Theory and History in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. Her research interests include narrative theory, intersections between literature and philosophy, the position of literature and literary theory in relation to politics, avant-garde theory and practice, theories of representation and problems of testimony Preface 7 Acknowledgements 10 Contents 11 About the Author 13 Chapter 1: The Dis-/Appearing Community: The Avant-Garde, Politics, and Literature 14 References 39 Chapter 2: Manifesting Dispossession: Politics of the Avant-Garde 42 References 58 Chapter 3: Literary Communities and the Political 61 Futurism, Technology, and De-/Subjectification 61 Surrealism and Emancipation 80 Expressionism and Revolution 94 References 107 Chapter 4: Experiencing Community: Theoretical Collectives and Circles 113 References 129 Chapter 5: Totalitarian Subject(s) and Literature 132 References 146 Chapter 6: Art Collective and the Politics of Anonymity 148 References 161 Chapter 7: Conclusion 163 References 167 Index 168