7 buck morss walter benjamin between academic fashion and the avant-garde

8/10/2019 7 Buck Morss Walter Benjamin Between Academic Fashion and the Avant-Garde

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Walter Beniamin:

Between Academic Fashion and the

A v a n t G a r d e

i L

usan

Buck-Mons*

m

3

Abstract In the present con text of the trium ph o f capitalisrn over real socialisrn, this

article points ou t that, despite their ideological differentes, both Systems are bound to

the same conception o f history-as-progress. In contrast, it recalls Walter Benjamin s

philosophy of history, marked by the critique of progress

in

the

narne of a revoIutionary

time, which in terru pts history s chronological continuurn. Benjamin s perspective is

used to stu dy the contlict of ternporalities amo ng the Soviet artists in the two decades

after the October Revolution: on the one hand, the anarchic, autono mou s and critical

time of interruption -which is the time

of

avant gade - on the other hand, the

synchronization with the ideas of a progressive time as ordeted y the Comrnunist

Patty; this is the time o van gua rd, whose capitalist Counterpart is fashion.

Kcywords Philosophy of history; Walter Benjamin; Soviet Avant-Garde.

Rcsumo

Nestes ternpos de triunfo d o capitalismo sobre o socialismo real, o presente

artigo rnostra que, apesar de suas diferences ideologicas, ambos

OS

sistemas baseiam-

se nurna concepcäo da hist6ria como progresso. Contra stivamen te, lernbrad a a

filosofia da historia de Walter Benjamin, rnarcada pela critica do progresso e ?

concepcäo de

um

ternpo revolucionirio, quc interrompe

o

continuurn histiirico.

A

luz da teoria benjaminiana estudad o o conflito de concepgöes de tempo entre OS

artistas soviiticos das duas dicad as posteriores Revolucäo de Ou tu br o de 19

17:

de

um lado, o tempo da inter rup po, anirquico, autonomo e critico

-

ue

6

o tempo da

i

The author is Professor ofPolitica lPhilosophy and Socia lTheorya t Cornell University,

USA.

7 buck morss walter benjamin between academic fashion and the avant-garde

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