ABSTRACT
Reflexive transformation is a leitmotif of Western modernity, progressing – modernists believe – toward universal happiness and enlightenment. However, such a claim of teleological progress has been disputed by countercultural movements as farcical – an Enlightenment ideal of utopia that would be better replaced by Romantic versions of infinite dys/utopias. Yet, paradoxically, these cultures of resistance have been emerging from within modernity itself, manifesting expressive, cosmopolitan and reflexive tropes that arise from the very modern dynamics they criticize.
