ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that in the final years of the twentieth century and these early ones of the twenty-first, the avant-garde seems, on the whole, remarkably silent. By referring to the avant-garde in the theater today, and principally to the French theater, it deals with the question: Whatever did happen to the avant-garde? It may be more fruitful to approach the problem negatively by considering that the essence of the avant-garde is opposed to the essence of what is currently accepted, to the establishment, to even the best of the establishment, especially to the best. If for instance the current mode of literary expression is realism, then the avant-garde will tend to be anti-realist. If, on the other hand, it is symbolism, which, approaching its zenith, becomes formulaic and arbitrary and begins to lose contact with the artistic aspirations of a younger generation, then the avant-garde will be anti-symbolist.
