Communism and the avant-garde in Weimar Germany : a selection of documents / Ben Fowkes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fowkes, Ben, author.

Series:

Historical materialism book series ; Volume 269.

Historical Materialism Book Series ; Volume 269

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Socialism--Germany--History--20th century.

Socialism.

Communism--Germany--History--20th century.

Communism.

Radicalism--Germany--History--20th century.

Radicalism.

Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Germany--History--20th century.

Avant-garde (Aesthetics).

Communism and art--Germany--History--20th century.

Communism and art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (504 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Leiden, The Netherlands : Brill, [2023]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How did the revolutionary Left view cultural modernists? Their uneasy relationship is illustrated in this book with quotations ranging from Alexander’s ‘Dada is merely an impertinence’ through Trotsky’s ‘There cannot be a proletarian culture’ to Averbakh’s ‘Tear off the masks!’ and Becher’s ‘There can only be one kind of genuine art: fighting art.’ This book covers communist attitudes to the whole field of cultural innovation, from the art of the left abstractionists to the literature of the worker-correspondent movement and the music of Weill and Eisler through to proletarian film, theatre and photography and takes full account of the impact on Weimar left culture of external events, such as the First World War, the ‘Great Change’ in the Soviet Union, and internal German developments such as the failure of revolution after 1918 and the rise of Nazism. Each chapter starts with an introduction that provides a context to the documents and indicates the current state of research.

Contents:

Preliminary Material / Ben Fowkes

Copyright Page / Ben Fowkes

Preface / Ben Fowkes

Acknowledgements / Ben Fowkes

Abbreviations / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 1 Introduction: The Avant-Garde and Cultural Innovation / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 2 The German Setting / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 3 The Shock of War and Its Aftermath / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 4 Following the ‘Alexander Line’ / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 5 The Revolt of Art Becomes a Revolt against Art / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 6 Parallel Developments: The Wider European Context / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 7 The Soviet Cultural Background: The Debates of the 1920s and Their Relevance / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 8 The New Start of 1925 in Germany / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 9 New Forms and New Participants: Worker-Correspondents and Worker-Photographers / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 10 The Impact of the Great Change: The Attempt to Organise and Unify Proletarian Culture / Ben Fowkes

Chapter 11 Political, Literary, and Artistic Aspects of the Proletarian Culture Movement / Ben Fowkes

Conclusion: The End of Weimar and the Coming of Socialist Realism / Ben Fowkes

Appendix List of Documents by Chapter / Ben Fowkes

Note on Sources / Ben Fowkes

Bibliography / Ben Fowkes

Index / Ben Fowkes.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Print version: Fowkes, Ben Communism and the Avant-Garde in Weimar Germany

ISBN:

9789004515253

9004515259

OCLC:

1351196787

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004515253 DOI