Quotational Practices: Repeating the Future in Contemporary Art
Patrick Greaney
Abstract
Literature and art have always depended on imitation, and in the past few decades quotation and appropriation have become dominant aesthetic practices. But critical methods have not kept pace with this development. This book reopens the debate about quotation and appropriation, shifting away from naïve claims about the death of the author. In interpretations of art and literature from the 1960s to the present, this book shows how artists and writers use quotation not to undermine authorship and originality, but to answer questions at the heart of twentieth-century philosophies of history. The ... More
Literature and art have always depended on imitation, and in the past few decades quotation and appropriation have become dominant aesthetic practices. But critical methods have not kept pace with this development. This book reopens the debate about quotation and appropriation, shifting away from naïve claims about the death of the author. In interpretations of art and literature from the 1960s to the present, this book shows how artists and writers use quotation not to undermine authorship and originality, but to answer questions at the heart of twentieth-century philosophies of history. The book argues that quotation is a technique employed by art and philosophy to build ties to the past and to possible futures. By exploring quotation’s links to gender, identity, and history, it offers new approaches to works by some of the most influential modern and contemporary artists, writers, and philosophers, including Walter Benjamin, Guy Debord, Michel Foucault, Marcel Broodthaers, Glenn Ligon, Sharon Hayes, and Vanessa Place.
Keywords:
quotation,
appropriation,
gender,
identity,
Walter Benjamin,
Guy Debord,
Michel Foucault,
Marcel Broodthaers
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780816687343 |
| Published to Minnesota Scholarship Online: August 2015 |
DOI:10.5749/minnesota/9780816687343.001.0001 |
