ABSTRACT

In The Subversive Imagination , professional writers, artists and cultural critics from around the world offer their views on the issue of the artist's responsibility to society. The contributors look beyond censorship and free speech issues and instead emphasize the subject of freedom. More specifically, the contributors question the ethical, mutual responsibilities between artists and the societies in which they live. The original essays address an eclectic range of subjects: censorship, multiculturalism, the transition from communism to capitalism in Eastern Europe, postmodernism, Salman Rushdie, and young black filmmakers' responsibility to the black community.

part 1

Personal Responsibility and Political Contingencies

chapter 1|12 pages

The Prehistory of Art

Cultural Practices and Athenian Democracy

chapter 2|7 pages

A Pled for Irresponsibility

chapter 3|15 pages

Dead Doll Prophecy

chapter 4|20 pages

The Heuristic Power of Art

chapter 5|22 pages

Place, Position, Power, Politics

chapter 7|16 pages

El Diario de Miranda/Miranda's Diary

part 3|64 pages

Theorizing the Future

chapter 13|21 pages

Benetton's “World without Borders”

Buying Social Change

chapter 15|26 pages

Dissed and Disconnected

Notes on Present Ills and Future Dreams