Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Culture - Softcover

Wollen, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844672506 ISBN 13: 9781844672509

Publisher: Verso Books, 2008

Synopsis

Raiding the Icebox is a kaleidoscopic review of the avant-garde and radical subcultures of the twentieth century, and explains how the most powerful artistic statements of the era redrew the line between high and low art.
Beginning with an analysis of the role of Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet, Wollen argues that modernism has always had a hidden, suppressed side which cannot easily be absorbed into the master-narrative of modernity.
Wollen reviews the hopes, fears and expectations of artists and critics such as the Bauhaus movement, as fascinated by Henry Ford's assembly line as they were by the Hollywood dream factory, concluding with Guy Debord's caustic dystopian vision of an all-consuming "Society of the Spectacle."
Finally, Wollen chronicles the emergence of a subversive sensibility as he explores some of the unexpected new cultural forms which non-Western artists are taking as modernism enters into crisis at the beginning of a new century: reversing the rules of the game and raiding the icebox of the West.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Wollen (1938-2019) was a cultural critic, film theorist, curator and avant-garde filmmaker. His books include Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, Raiding the Icebox, Readings and Writings, and Singin' in the Rain. He co-wrote the screenplay for Antonioni's The Passenger, and subsequently made six films in collaboration with Laura Mulvey, including Riddles of the Sphinx. His final film was a solo project, Friendship's Death, starring Tilda Swinton.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso Books
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844672506
• ISBN 13: 9781844672509
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240