GERST 6866

Global Avant-Gardes

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2016-2017.

Focusing on a range of theories and practices from the historical avant-gardes (futurism, surrealism, constructivism) and their political cognates (fascism, capitalism, communism) to the 21st century's pervasively intermedial environments and digital economies, this seminar will explore the development of avant-garde formations in Europe and the Americas, the transnational flows, "creative disruptions," and increasingly "planetary" circulation of such formations, and the ways avant-gardes both are shaped by and respond to technological, economic, and political forces. Situating the aesthetic and political question of avant-gardes in relation to genre and media theory, philosophy of language, postcoloniality, and critical theory, we will place in conversation such figures as Agamben, Benjamin, Bolaño, Breton, Bürger, Butler, Cha, Derrida, Glissant, Goldsmith, Jameson, Kittler, Moretti, Nancy, NourbeSe Philip, Rancìere, Rankine, Spivak, and Zizek.

When Offered Spring.

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