Duke University Press Autonomy: The Social Ontology of Art under Capitalism

In Autonomy Nicholas Brown theorizes the historical and theoretical argument for art's autonomy from its acknowledged character as a commodity. Refusing the position that the distinction between art and the commodity has collapsed, Brown demonstrates how art can, in confronting its material determinations, suspend the logic of capital by demanding interpretive attention. He applies his readings of Marx, Hegel, Adorno, and Jameson to a range of literature, photography, music, television, and sculpture, from Cindy Sherman's photography and the novels of Ben Lerner and Jennifer Egan to The Wire and the music of the White Stripes. He demonstrates that through their attention and commitment to form, such artists turn aside the determination posed by the demand of the market, thereby defeating the foreclosure of meaning entailed in commodification. In so doing, he offers a new theory of art that prompts a rethinking of the relationship between art, critical theory, and capitalism. Review "A thorough and valuable commentary on the contemporary position of art within capitalism. Autonomy is essential reading for researchers and students with an interest in contemporary art in relation to the market, and for those interested in Marxist approaches to contemporary aesthetic form."--Oliver Haslam "New Formations" (1/30/2020 12:00:00 AM) "Brown's argument feels, in the end, surprisingly liberating.... No doubt, there are questions prompted by the book that we still might want to have answered.... But these queries are obviously presented less as a critique of Autonomy than a plea to scholars to take up related questions in future volumes. Autonomy inspires such questions because this is a book that unabashedly and provocatively makes demands of us, in the way the very best scholarship, like the very best manifestos and all art, does too."--Lisa Siraganian "Modernism/modernity" (4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM) "In Autonomy, Brown revitalizes a modernist commitment to form and offers a compelling vision of the work of art in the age of its commodification."--Adam Theron-Lee Rensch "Los Angeles Review of Books" (6/5/2019 12:00:00 AM) Review "With wide-ranging scholarship, brilliant and learned commentary, and prose that is impressive for its energy and clarity, Nicholas Brown has written a book that accomplishes what no other work has. A major contribution." (Michael Fried, author of What Was Literary Impressionism?) “In a series of deft and frequently astonishing readings ranging from Richard Linklater's films and Charles Ray's totaled cars to the White Stripes' music and Jennifer Egan's novels, Nicholas Brown's startlingly intelligent Autonomy transforms our understanding of contemporary aesthetic philosophy, literature, and theories of art.” (Lisa Siraganian, author of Modernism’s Other Work: The Art Object’s Political Life) About the Author Nicholas Brown is Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, author of Utopian Generations: The Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature, and coeditor of Contemporary Marxist Theory: An Anthology.