Thomas Crow and Avant-garde Theory from a Cultural Studies Perspective

Abstract

Abstract: The hostility of aesthetic modernism to mass culture has been a central position in avant-garde theory from the Frankfurt School to the October Group. Although mass culture has already been rehabilitated through a re-evaluation and critique of modernism, no avant-garde theory has achieved reconciliation with mass culture. Inspired by cultural studies theories, Thomas Crow argues that potential criticality is already embodied in mass culture and that, by appropriating it, avant-garde art can offer new solutions to art while expressing an implicit social critique. Crow re-defines the concept of the “avant-garde” to allow for a historical narrative that makes room for mass culture. On one hand, while the October Group returns to the oppositional mode of critical aesthetics, Crow defends neo-avant-garde art by revealing the tension and dynamic cooperative relationship between high art and mass culture. On the other hand, this dialectical relationship has led the Utopian avant-garde theory to embrace the realistic dimension of cooperation and competence.

Key words: avant-garde art, mass culture, Thomas Crow, cultural studies, the October Group

Jiang Wei. Thomas Crow and Avant-garde Theory from a Cultural Studies Perspective[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2024, 44(3): 131-140.

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