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 ---
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