Provoking democracy : why we need the arts / Caroline Levine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levine, Caroline, 1970-

Series:

Blackwell manifestos

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy and the arts.

Arts and society.

Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Social aspects.

Avant-garde (Aesthetics).

Social aspects.

Physical Description:

xiii, 252 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Malden, MA : Blackwell, 2007.

Summary:

Provoking Democracy makes an exciting and compelling new argument: that democracies require art -challenging art -to ensure that they are acting as free societies. In the twentieth century, democratic societies turned to dissenting and unpopular artists such as Jackson Pollock, Bertolt Brecht, D. H. Lawrence, and 2 Live Crew to prove their commitment to freedom from majority rule. Author Caroline Levine shows how artists in the tradition of the avant-garde may once again prove to be effective catalysts for contemporary change.Moving beyond debates over obscenity, public funding, and censorship, Provoking Democracy gets at art 's value and purpose in democratic societies, concluding that the most rebellious artists need the protection of the democratic state, just as the freest and fairest democracies need the provocations of art.

Contents:

Democracy meets the avant-garde

The people v. the arts

Propaganda for democracy: the avant-garde goes to war

Obscenity and the democratization of culture

Originality on trial

Conclusion: artists, academic writing, and the classroom.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-237) and index.

ISBN:

9781405159265

140515926X

9781405159272

1405159278

OCLC:

76794746

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description