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.
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