Anarchism is generally understood as a failed ideology, a political
philosophy that once may have had many followers but today attracts
only cranks and eccentrics. This book argues that the decline of
political anarchism is only half the story; the other half is a
tale of widespread cultural success. David Weir develops this
thesis in several ways. He begins by considering the place of
culture in the political thought of the classical anarchist
thinkers William Godwin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin,
and Peter Kropotkin. He then shows how the perceived "anarchy" of
nineteenth-century society induced writers such as Matthew Arnold,
Henry James, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky to turn away from politics and
seek unity in the idea of a common culture. Yet as other
late-nineteenth-century writers and artists began to sympathize
with anarchism, the prospect of a common culture became
increasingly remote. In Weir's view, the affinity for anarchism
that developed among members of the artistic avant-garde lies
behind much of fin de siècle culture. Indeed, the emergence of
modernism itself can be understood as the aesthetic realization of
anarchist politics. In support of this contention, Weir shows that
anarchism is the key aesthetic principle informing the work of a
broad range of modernist figures, from Henrik Ibsen and James Joyce
to dadaist Hugo Ball and surrealist Luis Buñuel. Weir concludes by
reevaluating the phenomenon of postmodernism as only the most
recent case of the migration of politics into aesthetics, and by
suggesting that anarchism is still very much with us as a cultural
condition.
General
| Imprint: |
University of Massachusetts Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Series: |
Critical Perspectives on Modern Culture |
| Release date: |
October 1997 |
| First published: |
October 1997 |
| Authors: |
David Weir
|
| Dimensions: |
230 x 153 x 17mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback
|
| Pages: |
313 |
| Edition: |
New ed. |
| ISBN-13: |
978-1-55849-084-0 |
| Categories: |
Books
|
| LSN: |
1-55849-084-1 |
| Barcode: |
9781558490840 |
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