In this Book
- Vanguard Performance Beyond Left and Right
- Book
- 2015
- Published by: University of Michigan Press
summary
Vanguard Performance Beyond Left and Right challenges assumptions regarding “radical” and “experimental” performance that have long dominated thinking about the avant-garde. The book brings to light vanguard performances rarely discussed: those that support totalitarian regimes, promote conservative values, or have been effectively snapped up by right-wing regimes the performances intended to oppose. In so doing, the volume explores a central paradox: how innovative performances that challenge oppressive power structures can also be deployed in deliberate, passionate support of oppressive power. Essays by leading international scholars pose engaging questions about the historical avant-garde, vanguard acts, and the complex role of artistic innovation and live performance in global politics. Focusing on performances that work against progressive and democratic ideas (including scripted drama, staged suicide, choral dance, terrorism, rallies, and espionage), the book demonstrates how many compelling performance ideals—unification, exaltation, immersion—are, in themselves, neither moral nor immoral; they are only emotional and aesthetic urges that can be powerfully channeled into a variety of social and political outlets.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. xiii-xiv
- Part I. Heroic Vanguards and Radical Reactionaries
- 9/11 as Avant-Garde Art?
- pp. 38-51
- Patricide and the Fascist Sublime
- pp. 75-89
- Part II. Exalted and En Masse
- Beijing, 2008
- pp. 160-187
- “One Vision”: Music, Performance, Combat
- pp. 212-233
- Part III. Research Wings for the Right
- Beatrice Joanna and the Rhetoric of Rape
- pp. 261-278
- Avant-Garde Theory and Right-Wing Ideology
- pp. 298-321
- Contributors
- pp. 322-327
Additional Information
ISBN
9780472121397
Related ISBN(s)
9780472119677
MARC Record
OCLC
930443961
Pages
334
Launched on MUSE
2015-11-27
Language
English
Open Access
No