The final radicalism of the avant-garde and its postmodernist consequences

Abstract

The subject of this paper refers to the post-utopian state of the avant-garde, in which it became aware of its own transience. The avant-garde agonistically mythologized it, yet realized that the transience could be overcome only by the avant-garde’s own entering tradition which, otherwise, the avant-garde had previously aggressively denied. To achieve that it decided on its last nihilistic move: it destroyed itself by reaching a compromise with tradition, which meant abandoning its basic ontological tenet. This self-destructive gesture of the avant-garde, which I consider as its final radicalism, at the same time meant the methodological starting point of postmodernism.