Sign-In
Cart
Anarchy and Art: Literary, Visual and Political Cultures from 18th to 20th Centuries
Hardcover
Literary CriticismSocial Movements
ISBN13: 9781839999178
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: Mar 2 2027
Pages: 100
Language: English
Reveals how major Euro-American writers from the late 18th to mid-20th century engaged with anarchist thought, revealing anarchism as a significant yet overlooked force shaping Western literary modernity.
- Anarchy and Art: Literary, Visual and Political Cultures from 18th to 20th Centuries is a comparative research on Euro-American literary history that seeks to integrate political discourse into literary theory. What is the relationship between Western literature and the politics of dissent? How does the 19th-century novel respond to the anarchist Propaganda of the deed? How do poetry and theatre respond? These and other issues are at the heart of this research, which attempts to analyze the literary and figurative representation of anarchism and the character of the anarchist between the 18th and 20th centuries.
- The volume speaks of plural anarchisms to take account of the semantic polyvalence with which this specific doctrine is approached here. Tracing the fluctuating fortunes of the concept--from condemnation to exaltation--it explores how anarchy has been deployed as a metaphor for both cultural collapse and artistic genesis. From Matthew Arnold and T. S. Eliot to the Italian theory of Gianni Vattimo and Giorgio Agamben, the term has been used as a symbol of aesthetic innovation and philosophical critique, echoing the Bakuninian notion of the creative revolution. The aim of the research is to analyze the biases with which literature, and its audience, have approached anarchist doctrine and, at the same time, the aesthetic representation they have given it.
- The book is organized into two sections. The first Tempo, Anarchist Literature and Its 18th Century Origins, revolves around the relationship between literature and the rise of anarchist doctrine. The second Tempo, Literature and Anarchism in 19th and early 20th Centuries, revolves around how literary genres interact with anarchism, often favoring long-lasting forms of experimentalism.
- At the end of the volume, two appendixes extend the research to visual studies. Appendix I: Visual Cultures and the Image of the Anarchist between the Fin de Siècle and the Early 20th Century studies the representation of anarchist-type and the revolutionary-type across newspapers, caricatures, portraits, and mass culture. It analyzes the visual construction of the enemy, or the outcast, from Belle Époque to Modernism, beginning with physiognomic studies and Cesare Lombroso's essay Gli anarchici (1894). Appendix I aims to situate anarchist imagery within a broader critical discourse on cultural representation and ideological encoding.
- Finally, in the light of visual theory, Appendix II: Art and Anarchy. From the Verbal to the Visual: Edgar Wind, Pupil of Aby Warburg explores the relationship between anarchism and visual culture as well as Warburg's legacy and influence on Edgar Wind's notorious essay Art and Anarchy (1963). This writing, with its swirling comparative aspiration, constitutes the necessary comparison of the manuscript, and it helps to reconstruct the post-20th-century reception of the dyad art and/vs. anarchy.
Also in
Literary Criticism
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
Sachs, Aaron
Hardcover
Queer Faith: Reading Promiscuity and Race in the Secular Love Tradition
Sanchez, Melissa E.
Paperback
Ancient Rome at the Cinema: Story and Spectacle in Hollywood and Rome
Theodorakopoulos, Elena
Paperback
How to Be a Cat: (Cat Books for Kids, Cat Gifts for Kids, Cat Picture Book)
Swerling, Lisa
Lazar, Ralph
Hardcover
Hidden Hemingway: Inside the Ernest Hemingway Archives of Oak Park
Cirino, Mark
Elder
Vetch, Aaron
Hardcover
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines (Large Print Edition)
Foster, Thomas C.
Paperback
Much ADO about Nothing: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Shakespeare, William
Sparknotes
Paperback
Twelfth Night: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It
Hauser, Emily
Paperback
Romeo and Juliet: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
Saunders, George
Paperback
Mythology (75th Anniversary Illustrated Edition): Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
Hamilton, Edith
Hardcover
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise
Rundell, Katherine
Hardcover
Mean Dads for a Better America: The Generous Rewards of an Old-Fashioned Childhood
Shillue, Tom
Paperback
The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paperback
But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition: 40 Love Stories That Inspired Our Favorite Films
Lopez, Kristen
Hardcover
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Romney, Rebecca
Paperback
Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance: The Forgotten Founding Mothers of the Fairy Tale and the Stories That They Spun
Harrington, Jane
Hardcover
Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear: A. A. Milne and the Creation of Winnie-The-Pooh
Brandreth, Gyles
Hardcover
A Midsummer Night's Dream: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Julius Caesar: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Shakespeare, William
Sparknotes
Paperback
The Odyssey: An Illustrated Guide: A Character-By-Character Guide to the Story of Odysseus
Metzger, Doug
Hardcover
The Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women: Serving Tea with a Side of Scorn
Reed, Emily
Hardcover
The Dream Factory: London's First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare
Swift, Daniel
Hardcover
The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded
Major, John S.
Fadiman, Clifton
Paperback
The Greek Tragedies: Seventeen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
Euripides
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Paperback
Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe
Ogden, Emily
Hardcover
Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Palmer, Ada
Walton, Jo
Hardcover
A Treacherous Secret Agent: How Literature Spoke Truth to Power During the Red Scare
Garber, Marjorie
Hardcover
Taylor Swift by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, from Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets
Tatreau, Tiffany
Feder, Rachel
Hardcover