View (1940-47), the Avant-garde, and the Uncertain Life of Objects: Criticism as if Fragments Mattered
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.199711300Abstract
This article seeks to study avant-garde cultural production as a fragmentary discourse invested in exploiting the potential incongruity of objects disconnected from overarching narratives. As guiding critical models to this end, it assesses Walter Bejamin's use of montage and Roland Bruthes's notion of the punctum; the object chosen for testing this approach is the discourse of the U.S. surrealist magazine View (1940-1947). Ultimately, the essay proposes an approach to the avant-garde that would incorporate avant-garde strategies into the rhetoric of criticism.
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