Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Literary criticism as an institution
- II National developments in literary criticism
- III Critical movements and patterns of influence
- IV Later nineteenth-century developments: Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism and Decadence
- 14 Realism, Naturalism and Symbolism in France
- 15 Symbolism and Realism in Germany
- 16 Nineteenth-century British critics of Realism
- 17 American literary Realism
- 18 Decadence andfin de siècle
- 19 The avant-garde in early twentieth-century Europe
- V Some major critics of the period
- VI Genre criticism
- VII Literature and other disciplines
- Select bibliography and further reading
- Index
19 - The avant-garde in early twentieth-century Europe
from IV - Later nineteenth-century developments: Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism and Decadence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
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Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Literary criticism as an institution
- II National developments in literary criticism
- III Critical movements and patterns of influence
- IV Later nineteenth-century developments: Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism and Decadence
- 14 Realism, Naturalism and Symbolism in France
- 15 Symbolism and Realism in Germany
- 16 Nineteenth-century British critics of Realism
- 17 American literary Realism
- 18 Decadence andfin de siècle
- 19 The avant-garde in early twentieth-century Europe
- V Some major critics of the period
- VI Genre criticism
- VII Literature and other disciplines
- Select bibliography and further reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter offers a succinct account of avant-garde activity in Europe during the first decades of the twentieth century. In France, and especially in Paris, artistic innovation had been nurtured since at least the 1880s, under the aegis of Decadence, Symbolism and Impressionism. The war in Europe and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 brought a dramatic impetus to the Russian avant-gardists, who strove to assert their relevance to the contemporary situation. In fact, the pragmatic politics of the Bolsheviks set them an impossible challenge, pressurizing them to justify their art-making. Vorticism in England was a brief and rather self-conscious offshoot of Italian Futurism. The short-lived phenomenon known as Dadaism represents a case of an almost ubiquitous European avant-garde movement. One of Dadaism's defining characteristics was its antagonism to the narrow nationalism which underlay the conflicts of the First World War.
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- The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism , pp. 357 - 376Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013