File spoon-archives/avant-garde.archive/avant-garde_1998/avant-garde.9806, message 56


From: malgosia askanas <ma-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: avant-garde failing-fortune
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 08:46:09 -0400 (EDT)


George wrote:

> 	Actually, what this sort of analysis neglects is the fact that our
> society isn't simply "capitalist," that is, entirely controlled by
> commodity exchange. Sociologists, like Pierre Bourdieu, have emphasized
> that there are other institutions, e.g., educational institutions,
> artistic and literary, etc. that are based on principles that run counter
> to the principles of commodity exchange. The struggles of the artistic
> avant-garde take place in these other arenas, the art world, which is
> established at a distance from the economic world. The relationship
> between these two universes is complex, although the former (the artworld)
> is clearly dominated by the later (economic world) though it is *not*
> reducible to it. 

I am not sure what it would mean for a society to be "_entirely_ controlled by
commodity exchange".  Is it possible to imagine all of the functions that
societies must perform to maintain themselves -- including such things as
child-rearing and motivating people to work -- to be organized on the basis
of commodity exchange?  In any case, it is precisely _because_ art -- partly
for residual reasons, partly in order to fulfill its functions, etc. -- 
both constitutes non-alienated labor and communicates meanings which rely, in
one form or another, on non-alienation -- that there is such a thing as "the 
struggles of the artistic avant-garde".  But it seems to me that these
contradictions are very much part of capitalism -- there is no such thing
as "simply capitalism", it must of necessity always occur complexly.  No?


-m


     --- from list avant-garde-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005