| Learning objective | Avant-garde movements are characterized by progressive notions on art, social and political issues as well as by radical criticism on the current circumstances. This is why the specific characteristics of the historic avant-garde of the early 20th century will be a central theme of this lecture: they cannot be separated from the experience of modernity, of the catastrophic course of the First World War, and of the concept of new models of society whose political implementation is a major goal after the end of the war.
The lecture is part of the ‘Science in Perspective’ course programme aimed at enabling the students to deal with avant-garde texts and artworks independently, especially in the context of literary and cultural history. They will also explore theoretical positions such as Peter Bürger's assumption that in the course of the historic avant-garde movements "the social subsystem that is art enters the stage of self-criticism".
The contemplation of the historic avant-garde is a crucial prerequisite to find scientific answers to the question about the possible effects of art nowadays. Thus, in this lecture the topic is on the one hand tackled from the historic perspective: literary texts and manifests by Heym, van Hoddis, Werfel, Lasker-Schüler, Toller, Marinetti, Ball, Tzara, Huelsenbeck, Hausmann, Apollinaire, Breton, Goll, and others will be read. On the other hand, debates of cultural policy and literary theory which were initiated by the avant-garde will be discussed (texts by Lukács, Benjamin, Bloch, Brecht, Adorno).
This lecture examines the modernist Avant-Garde movements by addressing three specific aspects. First, the ambivalent reception of technological innovations, second, the aesthetic programmes which focused on specific developments at the close of the 19th century, and third, political activism and the establishment of a new social model through Avant-Garde movements prior to World War One, and, following the disastrous consequences of World War One, an activism which was accused of being politically ineffective and lacking resilience to totalitarian ideologies. |
Performance assessment as a semester course