ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the term avant-gardeto connote a rather different tendency from that of the vanguard. It refers to an artistic ambition towards newness, self-presence and absolute originality. George McKay has noted punk's problematic stress on its newness and difference. McKay devotes an entire chapter to Crass and anarchopunk. For McKay, punk's promotion of novelty has some advantages in that it provides sources of energy, vision, creativity for the Left in general. McKay's general concern, somewhat sublimated within his work, can be summarized as a worry that although the promotion of newness provides a certain self-empowerment, it simultaneously undermines crucial elements of the Left's larger tradition. Before proceeding further, an important distinction needs to be made. A major problem with regard to avant-garde novelty should be clear from this brief account: the artist's bold presentation of the unknown is, in fact, contingent upon conditions that are insolubly multiple, and this presentation is thus indexed to representation.
