Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.17234/ZGB.32.2

On the Possibilities of Theorising the Avant-garde in Literary Studies

Christine Magerski orcid.org/0000-0001-7004-7291 ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

To those familiar with the literary feuilleton, Kim de l’Horizon, the winner of the German and Swiss Book Prize 2022, embodies »the avant-garde in perpetuity«. The phrase alludes not only to the excessive, commercially driven use of the term ›avant-garde‹, but also to the paradox of a movement that remains static. The purpose of this article is to refine the concept of the avant-garde and to demonstrate its inherent potential for contemporary literary practice. The article delineates two approaches: first, a formalist perspective informed by systems theory; second, an interpretation of the avant-garde as the institutionalisation of deviation.

Keywords

avant-garde; contemporary literature; Peter Bürger; Niklas Luhmann

Hrčak ID:

311742

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/311742

Publication date:

20.12.2023.

Article data in other languages: german

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