The Creative Underground: Art, Politics and Everyday Life

This book examines how the visionary creative ideas of avant-garde and resistant groups, represented by utopian literature and art manifestos, re-invent society. A range of these original texts are critically evaluated in relation to cultural, historical and socio-political contexts and effects, in addition to a variety of artistic and cultural practices. The book underlines their contribution to political ideology, aesthetic theory and public discourse as well as to material leisure practices and everyday life. This re-evaluation of progressive modernist concerns offers enchantment, reinvigorates culture, and presents alternatives to established texts and cultural practices through the terms of active playful leisure. The book teases out the difficult relationship between the individual, culture, and society in relation to marginality while arguing that the creative underground is crucial for a better world, as it offers hope and vital expressions of difference.