The Community in Avant-Garde Literature and Politics

“The topic of community could not be more important in the contemporary world. Zrinka Bozic’s fascinating, wide-ranging study offers a new perspective on totalitarianism, community, art and the avant-garde. Demonstrating lucidly the intimate connections between community, art and politics, this timely investigation dissects the political, philosophical and artistic past and present, and in doing so even offers some hope for the future.” — Sarah Colvin, Schröder Professor of German and Fellow, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, UK.

"In this sophisticated study, Zrinka Božić re-examines the important and highly contentious relationship between communitarianism and the ideologies and practices of the historical avant-garde. Mobilising a plethora of conceptual resources, from Bataille and Nancy to Agamben and Esposito, Božić offers an intriguing account of how various avant-garde movements embrace collectivity, seeking to preserve forms of political and social engagement that are as radical as they are ephemeral, while artistically working with and against the limitations of communitarian cultures." — Professor Galin Tihanov, is George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
This book rethinks the concept of community taking Jean-Luc Nancy’s influential essay “La communauté désoeuvrée” as its starting point, tracing subsequent scholarship on community and adding new insights on avant-garde aesthetics and politics. Extensively exploring the communitarian dimension of avant-garde aesthetics and politics (focusing on artistic groups, intellectual circles and theoretical collectives), the author aims to bring literature and art into a philosophical examination of the paradoxical and complex idea of community.

Zrinka Božić is Assistant Professor of Literary Theory and History in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. Her research interests include narrative theory, intersections between literature and philosophy, the position of literature and literary theory in relation to politics, avant-garde theory and practice, theories of representation and problems of testimony.