Watching the red dawn: the American avant-garde and the Soviet Union

Haran, Barnaby

Abstract

© Barnaby Haran 2016. All rights reserved. This book offers the first sustained examination of the cultural relations of the American and Soviet avant-gardes in a period of major transformation. From the formation of the USSR in 1922 until its recognition by the American government, American avant-garde artists, writers and designers watched the 'Red Dawn' with fascination, enthusiastically reporting on its post-revolutionary cultural developments in articles and books, and brought these works to an American audience in ground-breaking exhibitions. Americans also emulated and adapted aspects of Soviet culture, as in the case of the New Playwrights Theatre, a group that mixed Russian avant-garde theatrical techniques with jazz, vaudeville and slapstick comedy in plays about strikes and racial injustice. Figures discussed include Louis Lozowick, Jane Heap, Frederick Kiesler, Ralph Steiner, John dos Passos, Margaret Bourke-White and Langston Hughes. Watching the red dawn takes an innovative interdisciplinary approach, considering these developments in architecture, theatre, film, photography and literature, and will be invaluable for students and specialists in these subject areas. It provides a new perspective on American avant-garde culture of the inter-war years.

Citation

Haran, B. (2016). Watching the red dawn: the American avant-garde and the Soviet Union. Manchester: Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719097225.001.0001

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Online Publication Date: Sep 1, 2016
• Publication Date: Apr 29, 2016
• Deposit Date: Apr 12, 2019
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Pages: 1-213
• Book Title: Watching the red dawn, The American avant-garde and the Soviet Union
• ISBN: 9781784997687; 9780719097225
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9780719097225.001.0001
• Keywords: Avant-garde; Architecture; Photography; Film; Theatre; Russia; Machine; America
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1543476
• Publisher URL: http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk