Theory of the Avant-Garde

1984
•
Author:

Peter Bürger
Translated by Michael Shaw
Foreword by Jochen Schulte-Sasse

This volume sets before English-language readers for the first time a fully elaborated theory of the “institution of art.” The author argues that it is the social status of art, its function and prestige in society, that provides the connection between the individual art work and history. Bürger’s concept of the institution of art establishes a framework within which a work of art is both produced and received.

This volume sets before English-language readers for the first time a fully elaborated theory of the “institution of art.” The author argues that it is the social status of art, its function and prestige in society, that provides the connection between the individual art work and history. Bürger’s concept of the institution of art establishes a framework within which a work of art is both produced and received.

Bürger provides us with an expansive and compelling explanation of an immensely complicated phenomenon. He offers American principals in the modernism debate a degree of theoretical and historical reflection uncommon even in this age of theory. It deserves a wide and thoughtful reading not merely among literary critics but by all concerned with the fate of art.

—

Minnesota Review

This volume sets before English-language readers for the first time a fully elaborated theory of the “institution of art.” The author argues that it is the social status of art, its function and prestige in society, that provides the connection between the individual art work and history. Bürger’s concept of the institution of art establishes a framework within which a work of art is both produced and received.

Peter Bürger is professor of French and comparative literature at the University of Bremen. He is the author of The Decline of Modernism and The Institutions of Art.

Michael Shaw has translated the works of Max Horkheimer, Karl May, and Hans Robert Jauss.

Jochen Schulte-Sasse is professor in the Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch at the University of Minnesota.

Bürger provides us with an expansive and compelling explanation of an immensely complicated phenomenon. He offers American principals in the modernism debate a degree of theoretical and historical reflection uncommon even in this age of theory. It deserves a wide and thoughtful reading not merely among literary critics but by all concerned with the fate of art.

—

Minnesota Review