Anarchism and the arts
Encyclopedia
Anarchism has long had an association with the arts
, particularly in music and literature. It shares this trait with other political movements, such as socialism
, communism
, liberalism
, conservatism
, libertarianism
and even fascism
.
The influence of anarchism is not always directly a matter of specific imagery or public figures, but may be seen in a certain stance towards the liberation of the total human being and the imagination.
of the late 19th century, such as that of Stéphane Mallarmé
, who was quoted as saying "Je ne sais pas d'autre bombe, qu'un livre." (I know of no bomb other than a book.) Its ideas infiltrated the cafes and cabarets of turn-of-the-century Paris (see the Drunken Boat #2).
More significantly, anarchists claim that "strains" of anarchism appear in the works of the Dada
group, whose anti-bourgeois art antics saw them wreaking havoc in neutral Switzerland during World War I
, although it could be argued that the Dadaists were much closer to the Council Communists
, having much of their material published in Die Aktion
.
Oscar Wilde
’s 1891 essay The Soul of Man under Socialism
has been seen as advocating anarchism.
Many American artists of the early 20th century came under the influence of anarchist ideas, while others embraced anarchism as an ideology. The Ashcan School
of American realism included anarchist artists, as well as artists such as Rockwell Kent
(1882–1971) and George Bellows
(1882-1925) who were influenced by anarchist ideas. Abstract expressionism
also included anarchist artists such as Mark Rothko
and painters such as Jackson Pollock
, who had adopted radical ideas during his experience as a muralist for the Works Progress Administration
. Pollock's father had also been a Wobbly
.
David Weir has argued in Anarchy and Culture
that anarchism only had some success in the sphere of cultural avant-gardism because of its failure as a political movement; cognizant of anarchism's claims to overcome the barrier between art and political activism, he nevertheless suggests that this is not achieved in reality. Weir suggests that for the "ideologue" it might be possible to adapt "aesthetics
to politics
", but that "from the perspective of the poet" a solution might be to "adapt the politics to the aesthetics". He identifies this latter strategy with anarchism, on account of its individualism
. Weir has also suggested that "the contemporary critical strategy of aestheticizing politics" among Marxists
such as Fredric Jameson
results from the demise of Marxism as a state
ideology. "The situation whereby ideology attempts to operate outside of politics has already pointed Marxism toward postmodernist culture, just as anarchism moved into the culture of modernism when it ceased to have political validity".
In the late 20th century, anarchism and the arts could primarily be associated with the collage
works by James Koehnline
, Johan Humyn Being, and others, whose work was being published in anarchist magazines, including Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
and Fifth Estate. The Living Theatre
, a theatrical troupe headed by Judith Malina
and Julian Beck
, were outspoken about their anarchism, often incorporating anarchistic themes into their performances.
In the 1990s, anarchists became involved in the mail art
movement - "art which uses the postal service in some way". This relates to the involvement of many anarchists in the zine
movement. Many contemporary anarchists make art in the form of flyposters, stencils, and radical puppets.
Surrealism
is both an artistic and political movement aimed at the liberation of the human being from the constraints of capitalism, the state, and the cultural forces that limit the reign of the imagination. The movement developed in France
in the wake of World War I
with André Breton
as its main theorist and poet. Originally it was tied closely to the Communist Party
. Later, Breton, a close friend of Leon Trotsky
, broke with the Communist Party and embraced anarchism and even wrote in the publication of the Anarchist Federation (France)
.
By the end of World War II
the surrealist group led by Breton decided to explicitly embrace anarchism. In 1952 Breton wrote "It was in the black mirror of anarchism that surrealism first recognised itself." "Breton was consistent in his support for the francophone Anarchist Federation and he continued to offer his solidarity after the Platformist
s around Fontenis transformed the FA into the Federation Communiste Libertaire. He was one of the few intellectuals who continued to offer his support to the FCL during the Algerian war when the FCL suffered severe repression and was forced underground. He sheltered Fontenis whilst he was in hiding. He refused to take sides on the splits in the French anarchist movement and both he and Peret expressed solidarity as well with the new FA set up by the synthesist anarchists and worked in the Antifascist Committees of the 60s alongside the FA."
, and by extension, fascism
, anarchism had some minor influence on Futurism
.
Carlo Carrà's best known work was The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli
, painted in 1911. In the 1912 catalogue for the Futurists' first Parisian exhibition Umberto Boccioni
remarked "the sheaves of lines corresponding to all the conflicting forces, following the general law of violence" which he labeled force lines encapsulating the Futurist idea of physical transcendentalism. Mark Antliff has suggested that this futurist aesthetic was "designed to involve the spectator in the very politics that led to Italy's intervention in World War I and, ultimately, to the rise of Fascism
in Italy". The art historian Giovanni Lista
has identified this aesthetic as first appearing in the anarcho-syndicalist current, where Marinetti encountered the Sorelian "myths of action and violence."
The individualist anarchist philosopher and poet Renzo Novatore
belonged to the leftist section of futurism alongside other individualist anarcho-futurists such as Dante Carnesecchi
, Leda Rafanelli, Auro d'Arcola, and Giovanni Governato.
Punk rock
is one movement that has taken much inspiration from the often potent imagery and symbolism associated with anarchism and Situationist rhetoric, if not always the political theory. In the past few decades, anarchism has been closely associated with the punk rock movement, and has grown because of that association (whatever other effects that has had on the movement and the prejudiced pictures of it). Indeed, many anarchists were introduced to the ideas of Anarchism through that symbolism and the anti-authoritarian sentiment which many punk songs expressed.
Anarcho-punk
, on the other hand, is a current that has been more explicitly engaged with anarchist politics, particularly in the case of bands such as Crass
, Poison Girls
, (early) Chumbawamba
, The Ex, Flux of Pink Indians
, Rudimentary Peni
, The Apostles
, Riot/Clone
, Conflict
, Oi Polloi
, Sin Dios
, Propagandhi
, Citizen Fish
, Bus Station Loonies
etc. Many other bands, especially at the local level of unsigned groups, have taken on what is known as a "punk" or "DIY" ethic: that is, Doing It Yourself, indeed a popular Anarcho-punk slogan reads "DIY not EMI
", a reference to a conscious rejection of the major record company. Some groups who began as 'anarcho-punk' have attempted to move their ideas into a more mainstream musical arena, for instance, Chumbawamba, who continue to support and promote anarchist politics despite now playing more dance music and pop influenced styles.
Techno music is also connected strongly to anarchists and eco-anarchists, as many of the events playing these types of music are self-organised and put on in contravention of national laws. Sometimes doors are pulled off empty warehouses and the insides transformed into illegal clubs with cheap (or free) entrance, types of music not heard elsewhere and quite often an abundance of different drugs. Other raves may be held outside, and are viewed negatively by the authorities. In the UK, the Criminal Justice Bill (1994) outlawed these events (raves) and brought together a coalition of socialists, ravers and direct action
ists who opposed the introduction of this 'draconian' Act of Parliament by having a huge 'party&protest' in the Centre of London that descended into one of the largest riots of the 1990s in Britain. Digital hardcore
, an electronic music
genre, is also overtly anarchist; Atari Teenage Riot
is the most widely recognized digital hardcore band. It should be noted that both Digital Hardcore, Techno and related genres are not the sole preserve of anarchists; people of many musical, political or recreational persuasions are involved in these musical scenes.
The genre of folk punk
or "radical folk" has become increasingly prevalent in protest culture, with artists like David Rovics
openly asserting anarchist beliefs.
Negativland
's The ABCs of Anarchism
includes a reading of material from Alexander Berkman
's Now and After
and other anarchist-related material in a sound collage.
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
, particularly in music and literature. It shares this trait with other political movements, such as socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
and even fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
.
The influence of anarchism is not always directly a matter of specific imagery or public figures, but may be seen in a certain stance towards the liberation of the total human being and the imagination.
Historical notes
Anarchism had a significant influence on French SymbolismSymbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
of the late 19th century, such as that of Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé , whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism.-Biography:Stéphane...
, who was quoted as saying "Je ne sais pas d'autre bombe, qu'un livre." (I know of no bomb other than a book.) Its ideas infiltrated the cafes and cabarets of turn-of-the-century Paris (see the Drunken Boat #2).
More significantly, anarchists claim that "strains" of anarchism appear in the works of the Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
group, whose anti-bourgeois art antics saw them wreaking havoc in neutral Switzerland during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, although it could be argued that the Dadaists were much closer to the Council Communists
Council communism
Council communism is a current of libertarian Marxism that emerged out of the November Revolution in the 1920s, characterized by its opposition to state capitalism/state socialism as well as its advocacy of workers' councils as the basis for workers' democracy.Originally affiliated with the...
, having much of their material published in Die Aktion
Die Aktion
Die Aktion was a German literary and political magazine, edited by Franz Pfemfert and published between 1911 and 1932 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf; it promoted literary Expressionism and stood for left-wing policies...
.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
’s 1891 essay The Soul of Man under Socialism
The Soul of Man under Socialism
"The Soul of Man under Socialism" is an 1891 essay by Oscar Wilde in which he expounds an anarchist worldview. The creation of "The Soul of Man" followed Wilde's conversion to anarchist philosophy, following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin....
has been seen as advocating anarchism.
Many American artists of the early 20th century came under the influence of anarchist ideas, while others embraced anarchism as an ideology. The Ashcan School
Ashcan School
The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York's poorer neighborhoods. The movement grew out of a group...
of American realism included anarchist artists, as well as artists such as Rockwell Kent
Rockwell Kent
Rockwell Kent was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, and writer.- Biography :Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York, the same year as fellow American artists George Bellows and Edward Hopper...
(1882–1971) and George Bellows
George Bellows
George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City, becoming, according to the Columbus Museum of Art, "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation".-Youth:Bellows was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio...
(1882-1925) who were influenced by anarchist ideas. Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
also included anarchist artists such as Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
and painters such as Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
, who had adopted radical ideas during his experience as a muralist for the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
. Pollock's father had also been a Wobbly
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
.
David Weir has argued in Anarchy and Culture
that anarchism only had some success in the sphere of cultural avant-gardism because of its failure as a political movement; cognizant of anarchism's claims to overcome the barrier between art and political activism, he nevertheless suggests that this is not achieved in reality. Weir suggests that for the "ideologue" it might be possible to adapt "aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
to politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
", but that "from the perspective of the poet" a solution might be to "adapt the politics to the aesthetics". He identifies this latter strategy with anarchism, on account of its individualism
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
. Weir has also suggested that "the contemporary critical strategy of aestheticizing politics" among Marxists
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
such as Fredric Jameson
Fredric Jameson
Fredric Jameson is an American literary critic and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends—he once described postmodernism as the spatialization of culture under the pressure of organized capitalism...
results from the demise of Marxism as a state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...
ideology. "The situation whereby ideology attempts to operate outside of politics has already pointed Marxism toward postmodernist culture, just as anarchism moved into the culture of modernism when it ceased to have political validity".
In the late 20th century, anarchism and the arts could primarily be associated with the collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
works by James Koehnline
James Koehnline
James Koehnline is a collage artist whose work has graced many anarchist periodicals & books as well as music CDs; has co-edited a number of books and had his work collected in Magpie Reveries....
, Johan Humyn Being, and others, whose work was being published in anarchist magazines, including Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed is a North American anarchist magazine, and is one of the most popular anarchist publications in North America. It could be described as a general interest and critical, non-ideological anarchist journal...
and Fifth Estate. The Living Theatre
The Living Theatre
The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group still existing in the U.S...
, a theatrical troupe headed by Judith Malina
Judith Malina
Judith Malina is an American theater and film actress, writer, and director, who was one of the founders of The Living Theatre.-Early life:...
and Julian Beck
Julian Beck
Julian Beck was an American actor, director, poet, and painter.-Early life:Beck was born in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan in New York City, the son of Mabel Lucille , a teacher, and Irving Beck, a businessman. He briefly attended Yale University, but dropped out to pursue writing and...
, were outspoken about their anarchism, often incorporating anarchistic themes into their performances.
In the 1990s, anarchists became involved in the mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
movement - "art which uses the postal service in some way". This relates to the involvement of many anarchists in the zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
movement. Many contemporary anarchists make art in the form of flyposters, stencils, and radical puppets.
Surrealism
Anarchism has traditionally emphasized the liberation of the imagination and subjectivity from the constraints of the present social order, so it is no surprise that many anarchists are attracted to the work of the surrealists.Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
is both an artistic and political movement aimed at the liberation of the human being from the constraints of capitalism, the state, and the cultural forces that limit the reign of the imagination. The movement developed in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in the wake of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
with André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
as its main theorist and poet. Originally it was tied closely to the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
. Later, Breton, a close friend of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, broke with the Communist Party and embraced anarchism and even wrote in the publication of the Anarchist Federation (France)
Anarchist Federation (France)
Fédération Anarchiste is an anarchist federation in France and Belgium. It is a member of the International of Anarchist Federations since its establishment in 1968.- History :...
.
By the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the surrealist group led by Breton decided to explicitly embrace anarchism. In 1952 Breton wrote "It was in the black mirror of anarchism that surrealism first recognised itself." "Breton was consistent in his support for the francophone Anarchist Federation and he continued to offer his solidarity after the Platformist
Platformism
Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist movement originally theorised by Nestor Makhno and is mainly based on his concept of anarchism and the organisational theories in the tradition of Dielo Truda's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists ...
s around Fontenis transformed the FA into the Federation Communiste Libertaire. He was one of the few intellectuals who continued to offer his support to the FCL during the Algerian war when the FCL suffered severe repression and was forced underground. He sheltered Fontenis whilst he was in hiding. He refused to take sides on the splits in the French anarchist movement and both he and Peret expressed solidarity as well with the new FA set up by the synthesist anarchists and worked in the Antifascist Committees of the 60s alongside the FA."
Futurism
Though typically associated with nationalismNationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, and by extension, fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, anarchism had some minor influence on Futurism
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
.
Carlo Carrà's best known work was The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli
The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli
The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli is a painting by Italian painter Carlo Carrà. It was finished in 1911, during the artist's futurist phase. It currently resides in New York City's Museum of Modern Art....
, painted in 1911. In the 1912 catalogue for the Futurists' first Parisian exhibition Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni was an Italian painter and sculptor. Like other Futurists, his work centered on the portrayal of movement , speed, and technology. He was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy.-Biography:...
remarked "the sheaves of lines corresponding to all the conflicting forces, following the general law of violence" which he labeled force lines encapsulating the Futurist idea of physical transcendentalism. Mark Antliff has suggested that this futurist aesthetic was "designed to involve the spectator in the very politics that led to Italy's intervention in World War I and, ultimately, to the rise of Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
in Italy". The art historian Giovanni Lista
Giovanni Lista
Giovanni Lista is an Italian art historian and art critic born in Italy on February 13, 1943 at Castiglione del Lago and now living in Paris...
has identified this aesthetic as first appearing in the anarcho-syndicalist current, where Marinetti encountered the Sorelian "myths of action and violence."
The individualist anarchist philosopher and poet Renzo Novatore
Renzo Novatore
- Life :Abele Ricieri Ferrari was born in Arcola, Liguria, Italy on May 12, 1890 in a poor peasant family. He did not adjust to school discipline and quit in the first year never coming back after that. While he worked in his father's farm, he self educated himself with an emphasis in poetry and...
belonged to the leftist section of futurism alongside other individualist anarcho-futurists such as Dante Carnesecchi
Dante Carnesecchi
Dante Carnesecchi was an Italian individualist anarchist associated with left wing futurism alongside other individualist anarchists such as Renzo Novatore, Leda Rafanelli, Auro d'Arcola, and Giovanni Governato.-External links:** in Italian*]]...
, Leda Rafanelli, Auro d'Arcola, and Giovanni Governato.
Music
A number of performers and artists have either been inspired by anarchist concepts, or have used the medium of music and sound in order to promote anarchist ideas and politics.Punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
is one movement that has taken much inspiration from the often potent imagery and symbolism associated with anarchism and Situationist rhetoric, if not always the political theory. In the past few decades, anarchism has been closely associated with the punk rock movement, and has grown because of that association (whatever other effects that has had on the movement and the prejudiced pictures of it). Indeed, many anarchists were introduced to the ideas of Anarchism through that symbolism and the anti-authoritarian sentiment which many punk songs expressed.
Anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk is punk rock that promotes anarchism. The term anarcho-punk is sometimes applied exclusively to bands that were part of the original anarcho-punk movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
, on the other hand, is a current that has been more explicitly engaged with anarchist politics, particularly in the case of bands such as Crass
Crass
Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
, Poison Girls
Poison Girls
The Poison Girls were an English anarcho-punk band. The female singer/guitarist, Vi Subversa, was a middle-aged mother of two at the band's inception, and wrote songs that explored sexuality and gender roles, usually from an anarchist perspective...
, (early) Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba is a British musical group who have, over a career spanning nearly three decades, played punk rock, pop-influenced music, world music, and folk music...
, The Ex, Flux of Pink Indians
Flux Of Pink Indians
Flux of Pink Indians were an English anarcho-punk/post punk band, that originated from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England.-Biography:...
, Rudimentary Peni
Rudimentary Peni
Rudimentary Peni are a British anarcho-punk/deathrock band formed in 1980.-Line-up:*Nick Blinko - guitar, vocals, artwork, lyrics*Grant Matthews - bass guitar, lyrics*Jon Greville - drums-History:...
, The Apostles
The Apostles
The Apostles are an experimental punk rock band who developed within the confines of the 1980s Anarcho Punk scene in the UK, but did not necessarily adhere to the aesthetics of that movement.-History:...
, Riot/Clone
Riot/Clone
Riot/Clone was a punk band often associated with the anarcho-punk scene, active from 1979–1983 and then revived in the early 90's until they split up again in 2005. The band were originally known as Riot but the name became Riot/Clone after two members of the original lineup wanted the band's name...
, Conflict
Conflict (band)
Conflict is an English anarcho-punk band originally based around Eltham in South London. Formed in 1981, the band's original line up consisted of: Colin Jerwood , Francisco 'Paco' Carreno , Big John , Steve , Pauline , Paul aka 'Nihilistic Nobody' . Their first release was the EP "The House That...
, Oi Polloi
Oi Polloi
Oi Polloi are an anarcho-punk band from Scotland that formed around 1981. Starting as an Oi! band, they are generally associated more with the anarcho-punk genre. More recently the band have become notable for their contributions to the Scottish Gaelic punk subgenre...
, Sin Dios
Sin Dios
Sin Dios was a hardcore/anarcho-punk band from Spain that formed in 1988 in Madrid. Their first gigs were held in squatted houses . In 1990 they released their first demo "...Ni amo" which contained 13 tracks and took them to their first tour across Spain always playing within autonomous and...
, Propagandhi
Propagandhi
Propagandhi is a Canadian punk band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by Chris Hannah and Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba....
, Citizen Fish
Citizen Fish
Citizen Fish is a ska punk band that has been together since 1990. The band often makes strong social and political statements, dealing with themes such as anti-consumerism, vegetarianism, questioning the status quo, and encouraging people to get along with one another...
, Bus Station Loonies
Bus Station Loonies
The Bus Station Loonies are a 'cabaret punk' band from Plymouth, England. They have been described as a cross between Dead Kennedys, Undertones, Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band....
etc. Many other bands, especially at the local level of unsigned groups, have taken on what is known as a "punk" or "DIY" ethic: that is, Doing It Yourself, indeed a popular Anarcho-punk slogan reads "DIY not EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
", a reference to a conscious rejection of the major record company. Some groups who began as 'anarcho-punk' have attempted to move their ideas into a more mainstream musical arena, for instance, Chumbawamba, who continue to support and promote anarchist politics despite now playing more dance music and pop influenced styles.
Techno music is also connected strongly to anarchists and eco-anarchists, as many of the events playing these types of music are self-organised and put on in contravention of national laws. Sometimes doors are pulled off empty warehouses and the insides transformed into illegal clubs with cheap (or free) entrance, types of music not heard elsewhere and quite often an abundance of different drugs. Other raves may be held outside, and are viewed negatively by the authorities. In the UK, the Criminal Justice Bill (1994) outlawed these events (raves) and brought together a coalition of socialists, ravers and direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
ists who opposed the introduction of this 'draconian' Act of Parliament by having a huge 'party&protest' in the Centre of London that descended into one of the largest riots of the 1990s in Britain. Digital hardcore
Digital hardcore
Digital hardcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk incorporating influences from electronic music. Digital hardcore fuses elements of hardcore punk with various forms of electronic music...
, an electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
genre, is also overtly anarchist; Atari Teenage Riot
Atari Teenage Riot
'Atari Teenage Riot' is a German digital hardcore group formed in Berlin in 1992. The name was taken from a Portuguese Joe song 'Teenage Riot' from the 'Teen-age Riot' album, with the word 'Atari' added as an Atari ST computer was used to create compositions...
is the most widely recognized digital hardcore band. It should be noted that both Digital Hardcore, Techno and related genres are not the sole preserve of anarchists; people of many musical, political or recreational persuasions are involved in these musical scenes.
The genre of folk punk
Folk punk
Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...
or "radical folk" has become increasingly prevalent in protest culture, with artists like David Rovics
David Rovics
David Rovics is an American indie singer/songwriter. His music concerns topical subjects such as the 2003 Iraq war, anti-globalization and social justice issues. Rovics has been an outspoken critic of former President George W...
openly asserting anarchist beliefs.
Negativland
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
's The ABCs of Anarchism
The ABCs of Anarchism
-Track listing:- External links :*It is available for download for free from Chumbawamba's website .* - The ABCs of Anarchism . Includes a list of sources used on the recording....
includes a reading of material from Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century....
's Now and After
Now and After
Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism is an introduction to the principles of anarchism and anarchist communism written by Alexander Berkman...
and other anarchist-related material in a sound collage.
Visual art
- Freddie Baer
- Enrico BajEnrico BajEnrico Baj was an Italian artist and writer on art. Many of his works show an obsession with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptures but especially collage. He was close to the surrealist and dada movements, and was later associatied with CoBrA. As an author he has been described as a leading...
(Funeral Of The Anarchist Pinelli) - Beehive Collective
- Carlo CarràCarlo CarràCarlo Carrà was an Italian painter, a leading figure of the Futurist movement that flourished in Italy during the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to his many paintings, he wrote a number of books concerning art. He taught for many years in the city of Milan.-Biography:Carrà was born in...
(The Funeral of the Anarchist GalliThe Funeral of the Anarchist GalliThe Funeral of the Anarchist Galli is a painting by Italian painter Carlo Carrà. It was finished in 1911, during the artist's futurist phase. It currently resides in New York City's Museum of Modern Art....
) - Flavio Constantini
- Carlos CortezCarlos CortezCarlos Cortez was a poet, graphic artist, photographer, muralist and political activist, active for six decades in the Industrial Workers of the World....
- Eric Drooker
- Marcel DuchampMarcel DuchampMarcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
- Eric Troy Frantz
- Mike FlugennockMike FlugennockMike Flugennock is a left-leaning political cartoonist from Washington, D.C. He is best known for his political posters, which he and others paste across D.C. and in other cities around the country. He is relatively well-known, and his work has received coverage in the Washington Post on several...
- Clifford HarperClifford HarperClifford Harper is an illustrator and militant anarchist. He was born in Chiswick, West London on the 13th of July 1949. His father was a postman and his mother a cook. Expelled from school at 13 and placed on 2 years probation at 14, he then worked in a series of "menial jobs" before 'turning on,...
- Ismo Jokiaho
- Donald JuddDonald JuddDonald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
- James KoehnlineJames KoehnlineJames Koehnline is a collage artist whose work has graced many anarchist periodicals & books as well as music CDs; has co-edited a number of books and had his work collected in Magpie Reveries....
- Latuff
- Josh MacPheeJosh MacPheeJosh MacPhee is an artist, curator and activist living in Brooklyn, New York. MacPhee graduated from Oberlin College in 1996 and spent eight years as an artist and activist in Chicago, Illinois where he established a distribution system called justseeds in order get more radical art projects out to...
- Louis MoreauLouis MoreauLouis Moreau was a French wood-engraver, anarchist and militant pacifist.Trained as a lithographer, in 1900 he settled in Paris to practice his trade. There he developed a passion for drawing, painting and engraving. Additionally, he began contributing to Jean Grave's Temps Nouveaux...
- Arthur Moyse
- Paul SignacPaul SignacPaul Signac was a French neo-impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the pointillist style.-Biography:Paul Victor Jules Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863...
- Gustave CourbetGustave CourbetJean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
- Barnett NewmanBarnett NewmanBarnett Newman was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters.-Early life:...
- Laura Norder
- Richard OlmstedRichard OlmstedRichard Olmsted is an American artist living in Bellingham, Washington. Raised in Mount Vernon, Washington, Olmsted is best known for his pencil drawings...
- Francis PicabiaFrancis PicabiaFrancis Picabia was a French painter, poet, and typographist, associated with both the Dada and Surrealist art movements.- Early life :...
- Camille PissarroCamille PissarroCamille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
- José Guadalupe PosadaJosé Guadalupe PosadaJose Guadalupe Posada: was a Mexican cartoonist illustrator and artist whose work has influenced many Latin American artists and cartoonists because of its satirical acuteness and political engagement....
- Mark RothkoMark RothkoMark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
- Winston SmithWinston Smith (artist)Winston Smith is an artist who primarily uses the medium of collage. He is probably best known for the artwork he has produced for the American punk rock group Dead Kennedys...
- Seth TobocmanSeth TobocmanSeth Tobocman is a radical comic book artist who has been living in Manhattan's Lower East Side since 1978. Tobocman is best known for his creation of the political comic book World War 3 Illustrated, which he started in 1979 with fellow artist Peter Kuper...
- Gee VaucherGee VaucherGee Vaucher is a visual artist who was born in 1945 in Dagenham, East London.Her work with Anarcho-punk band Crass was seminal to the 'protest art' of the 1980s. Vaucher has always seen her work as a tool for social change. In her collection of early works Crass Art and Other Pre Post-Modernist...
- John YatesJohn Yates (artist)John Yates is an English graphic designer, and from 1990 to 1999 was the owner of Allied Recordings . Yates is most well known for the numerous album covers he has done for bands such as Alkaline Trio, Melvins, Antischism, The Promise Ring, Dead Kennedys, Jawbreaker, Crass, and NoMeansNo, among...
- AVOID piAvoid piAdam VOID is an artist, musician and activist living in Baltimore, Maryland. VOID has worked under the pseudonym AVOID pi since 1999 and has produced numerous street works across the United States and Europe. He began his artistc career in South Carolina and in 2006 moved to Brooklyn, New York to...
Comics/sequential art
- J. Daniels
- The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking FreeThe Adventures of Tintin: Breaking FreeThe Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free is an anarchist parody of the popular Tintin series of comics. An exercise in detournement, the book was written under the pseudonym J. Daniels and published by Attack International in April of 1988 and then republished in 1999...
- The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free
- Roberto Ambrosoli
- Anarchik
- Alan Grant
- AnarkyAnarkyAnarky is a fictional character appearing in books published by DC Comics. Co-created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, he first appeared in Detective Comics No.608 , as an adversary of Batman...
- Batman: AnarkyBatman: AnarkyBatman: Anarky is a 1999 trade paperback published by DC Comics. The book collects prominent appearances of Anarky, a comic book character created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle. Although all of the collected stories were written by Alan Grant, various artists contributed to individual stories...
- Anarky
- Jay KinneyJay KinneyJay Kinney is an American author, editor, and former underground cartoonist. A member, along with Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch and R. Crumb, of the original Bijou Funnies crew, Kinney also edited Young Lust, a satire of romance comics, in the early 1970s with Bill Griffith...
- Anarchy ComicsAnarchy Comics-Anarchism:Overtly anarchist in its bent, all content included was based on anarchist philosophy and history. The humor of each anthology was satirical in nature, mocking both mainstream culture as well as traditional leftist ideas of revolution.-Punk rock:...
- Anarchy Comics
- Alan MooreAlan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
- V for VendettaV for VendettaV for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government,...
- V for Vendetta
- Grant MorrisonGrant MorrisonGrant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
- The InvisiblesThe InvisiblesThe Invisibles is a comic book series that was published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication....
- The Invisibles
- Donald RooumDonald RooumDonald Rooum is an English anarchist cartoonist and writer. He has a long association with Freedom Press who have published seven volumes of his Wildcat cartoons....
- Wildcat Comics, see Freedom newspaperFreedom newspaperFreedom is a London-based anarchist newspaper published fortnightly by Freedom Press.The paper was started in 1886 by volunteers including Peter Kropotkin and Charlotte Wilson and continues to this day as an unpaid project. Originally, the subtitle was "A Journal of Anarchist Socialism." The title...
- Wildcat Comics, see Freedom newspaper
- Chaz Wood
- The Black Flag (Graphic novelGraphic novelA graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
)
- The Black Flag (Graphic novel
Music
- Étienne Roda-GilÉtienne Roda-GilÉtienne Roda-Gil was a songwriter and screenwriter. He was married to the painter Nadine Roda-Gil until her death in 1990.-Biography:...
- La Makhnovtchina
Prose
- Edward AbbeyEdward AbbeyEdward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental...
- The Brave CowboyThe Brave CowboyThe Brave Cowboy was Edward Abbey's second published novel, as detailed in . The first-edition of the book is considered the rarest of Abbey's eight novels. There was only one printing of 5,000 copies and many of them have not survived. One online rare book dealer shows copies of the first U.S...
- Good News
- The Monkey Wrench GangThe Monkey Wrench GangThe Monkey Wrench Gang is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey , published in 1975.Easily Abbey's most famous fiction work, the novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the American Southwest, and was so influential that the term "monkeywrench"...
- The Brave Cowboy
- Isaac BabelIsaac BabelIsaak Emmanuilovich Babel was a Russian language journalist, playwright, literary translator, and short story writer. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry, Story of My Dovecote, and Tales of Odessa, all of which are considered masterpieces of Russian literature...
- Discourse on the "Tachanka", Collected Stories
- Old man Makhno
- Iain M. Banks
- The CultureThe CultureThe Culture is a fictional interstellar anarchist, socialist, and utopian society created by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks which features in a number of science fiction novels and works of short fiction by him, collectively called the Culture series....
novels
- The Culture
- Don Bannister
- Hard Walls of Ego
- Ralph BatesRalph Bates (writer)Ralph Bates was an English novelist. He is best known for his writings on pre–Civil War Spain.-Life:Bates was born in Swindon, England in 1899 and as a teenager worked at the Great Western Railway factory...
- Lean Men (1934)
- Alexander BerkmanAlexander BerkmanAlexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century....
- Prison Memoirs of an AnarchistPrison Memoirs of an AnarchistPrison Memoirs of an Anarchist is Alexander Berkman's account of his experience in prison in Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh, from 1892 to 1906...
[1912]
- Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist
- Horst BienekHorst BienekHorst Bienek was a German novelist.Bienek was born in Gleiwitz, Germany . He was forced to leave Gleiwitz in 1945, when the use of the German language was forbidden in Silesia. He resettled in the eastern part of Germany. For a time, he was taught by Bertolt Brecht...
- Bakunin: An Invention (1970)
- André BretonAndré BretonAndré Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
- Albert CamusAlbert CamusAlbert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
- Joseph ConradJoseph ConradJoseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
- The Secret AgentThe Secret AgentThe Secret Agent: A Simple Tale is a novel by Joseph Conrad published in 1907. The story is set in London in 1886 and deals largely with the life of Mr. Verloc and his job as a spy. The Secret Agent is also notable as it is one of Conrad's later political novels, which move away from his typical...
(1907)
- The Secret Agent
- Stig DagermanStig DagermanStig Dagerman was a Swedish author and journalist.Stig Dagerman was one of the most prominent Swedish authors during the 1940s...
- Samuel R. DelanySamuel R. DelanySamuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
- Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous HeterotopiaTriton (novel)Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. It was nominated for the 1976 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and was shortlisted for a retrospective James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 1995...
(1976)
- Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia
- Philip K. DickPhilip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
- The Last of the MastersThe Last of the Masters"The Last of the Masters" is a science fiction novelette by Philip K. Dick. The original manuscript of the story was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on July 15, 1953, and the story was published by the Hanro Corporation in the final issue of Orbit Science Fiction in 1954. It has...
(1954)
- The Last of the Masters
- E L Doctorow
- RagtimeRagtime (novel)Ragtime is a 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow. This work of historical fiction is primarily set in the New York City area from about 1900 until the United States entry into World War I in 1917...
(1975)
- Ragtime
- Martin B. Duberman
- Haymarket (2003)
- Greg EganGreg EganGreg Egan is an Australian science fiction author.Egan published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness...
- Dario FoDario FoDario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor and composer. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the working classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife, actress...
- Accidental Death of An AnarchistAccidental Death of an AnarchistAccidental Death of an Anarchist is perhaps the best-known play by the Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo.- About the play :...
- Accidental Death of An Anarchist
- William GodwinWilliam GodwinWilliam Godwin was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism...
- Caleb Williams (1794)
- Pietro GoriPietro GoriPietro Gori was an Italian lawyer, journalist, intellectual and anarchist poet. He is known for his political activities, and as author of some of the most famous anarchist songs of the late 19th century, including Addio a Lugano , Stornelli d'esilio , Ballata per Sante Caserio Pietro Gori (14...
- Primo Maggio (1895)
- Frank HarrisFrank HarrisFrank Harris was a Irish-born, naturalized-American author, editor, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day...
- The BombThe Bomb (novel)The Bomb is a 1995 novel by Theodore Taylor written to protest against nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll after the natives are forced to move. It was first published by Harcourt Children's Books in October 1995. The book won the 1996 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.-Plot summary:Sorry...
(1908)
- The Bomb
- M. John HarrisonM. John HarrisonM. John Harrison , known as Mike Harrison, is an English author and critic. His work includes the Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories, , Climbers , and the Kefahuchi Tract series which begins with Light . He currently resides in London.-Early years:Harrison was born in Rugby,...
- Jaroslav HašekJaroslav HašekJaroslav Hašek was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and socialist anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty...
- The Good Soldier ŠvejkThe Good Soldier ŠvejkThe Good Soldier Švejk , also spelled Schweik or Schwejk, is the abbreviated title of a unfinished satirical/dark comedy novel by Jaroslav Hašek. It was illustrated by Josef Lada and George Grosz after Hašek's death...
- The Good Soldier Švejk
- Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
- The Moon Is a Harsh MistressThe Moon Is a Harsh MistressThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth....
- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
- Henry JamesHenry JamesHenry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
- The Princess CasamassimaThe Princess CasamassimaThe Princess Casamassima is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist...
(1886)
- The Princess Casamassima
- Ba JinBa JinLi Yaotang , courtesy name Feigan , is considered to be one of the most important and widely-read Chinese writers of the 20th century. He wrote under the pen name of Ba Jin , Pa Chin, Li Fei-Kan, Li Pei-Kan, Pa Kin, allegedly taking his pseudonym from Russian anarchists Bakunin and Kropotkin...
- Family (novel)Family (novel)The Family is an autobiographical novel by Chinese author Ba Jin. It tells the story of an upper-class family in the city of Chengdu in the early 1920s. The novel was first serialized in 1931-2 and then released in a single volume in 1933...
(1931)
- Family (novel)
- Maurice LeblancMaurice LeblancMaurice Marie Émile Leblanc was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French counterpart to Arthur Conan Doyle's creation Sherlock Holmes.- Biography :Leblanc was born in...
- Arsène LupinArsène LupinArsène Lupin is a fictional character who appears in a book series of detective fiction / crime fiction novels written by French writer Maurice Leblanc, as well as a number of non-canonical sequels and numerous film, television such as Night Hood, stage play and comic book adaptations.- Overview :A...
books were inspired by Marius JacobMarius JacobAlexandre Jacob , known as Marius Jacob, was a French anarchist illegalist. A clever burglar equipped with a sharp sense of humour, capable of great generosity towards his victims, he became one of the models for Maurice Leblanc's character Arsene Lupin.- A rough start :Jacob was born in 1879 in...
- Arsène Lupin
- Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le GuinUrsula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
- The DispossessedThe DispossessedThe Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, set in the same fictional universe as that of The Left Hand of Darkness . The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1974, both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1975, and received a nomination for...
- The Dispossessed
- Emanuel LitvinoffEmanuel LitvinoffEmanuel Litvinoff was a British writer and human rights campaigner, and a well known figure in Anglo-Jewish literature.-Background:...
- A Death Out Of Season
- J. William Lloyd
- John Henry MackayJohn Henry MackayJohn Henry Mackay was an individualist anarchist, thinker and writer. Born in Scotland and raised in Germany, Mackay was the author of Die Anarchisten and Der Freiheitsucher . Mackay was published in the United States in his friend Benjamin Tucker's magazine, Liberty...
- Der Schwimmer (1901)
- Ken MacLeodKen MacLeodKen MacLeod , is a Scottish science fiction writer.MacLeod was born in Stornoway. He graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics....
- Fall Revolution sequence
- Leo MaletLéo Malet-Biography:Leo Malet was born in Montpellier. He had little formal education and began work as a cabaret singer at "La Vache Enragee" in Montmartre, Paris in 1925....
- Fog on the Tolbiac Bridge
- Ethel ManninEthel ManninEthel Edith Mannin was a popular British novelist and travel writer. She was born in London into a family with an Irish background....
- Red Rose
- The Lover Under Another Name
- Henry MillerHenry MillerHenry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
- Tropic of Cancer
- Michael MoorcockMichael MoorcockMichael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
- George OrwellGeorge OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
- Homage to CataloniaHomage to CataloniaHomage to Catalonia is political journalist and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. The first edition was published in 1938. The book was not published in the United States until February 1952. The American edition had a preface...
(1938)
- Homage to Catalonia
- Émile Pataud (and Émile PougetÉmile PougetÉmile Pouget was a French anarcho-communist, who adopted tactics close to those of anarcho-syndicalism...
)- How Shall We Bring About The Revolution? (1913)
- Pedro de PazPedro de PazPedro de Paz is a Spanish writer.After working in computing for more than 15 years, de Paz decided in 2002 to try a career in literature. His first novel, El hombre que mató a Durruti , won the José Saramago Novel Competition . The novel was translated into English and published by ChristieBooks...
- The Man Who Killed Durruti
- Marge PiercyMarge PiercyMarge Piercy is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Gone to Soldiers, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II.-Biography:...
- Woman on the Edge of TimeWoman on the Edge of TimeWoman on the Edge of Time is a novel by Marge Piercy. It is considered a classic of utopian "speculative" science fiction as well as a feminist classic.-Plot summary:...
- Woman on the Edge of Time
- Emeric PressburgerEmeric PressburgerEmeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a multiple-award-winning partnership known as The Archers and produced a series of classic British films, notably 49th Parallel , The...
- Killing a Mouse on Sunday
- Thomas PynchonThomas PynchonThomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
- Against the DayAgainst the DayAgainst the Day is a novel by Thomas Pynchon. The narrative takes place between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the time immediately following World War I and features more than a hundred characters spread across the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central Asia, and "one or two places not strictly...
(2006)
- Against the Day
- Adam Roberts
- SaltSalt (novel)Salt is a novel by British science fiction author Adam Roberts.-Plot introduction:Colonists from Earth set out for a distant planet, but during the voyage, a factional skirmish turns into an irrevocable grudge, to play out during the course of their colonisation...
- Salt
- Olivia & Helen Rossetti
- A Girl Among the Anarchists (1903) by Isabel Meredith (fictional memoir)
- Eric Frank RussellEric Frank RussellEric Frank Russell was a British author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales, and...
- ...And Then There Were None (also here and here) (1951; expanded into novel The Great ExplosionThe Great ExplosionThe Great Explosion is a satirical science fiction novel by Eric Frank Russell, first published in 1962. The story is divided into three sections...
, 1962)
- ...And Then There Were None (also here and here) (1951; expanded into novel The Great Explosion
- Ramon J. Sender
- Seven Red Sundays (1932)
- Victor SergeVictor SergeVictor Serge , born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich , was a Russian revolutionary and writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919 and later worked for the Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator...
- Birth of our Power
- Men in Prison
- Upton SinclairUpton SinclairUpton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
- BostonBostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
(1928)
- Boston
- Leo TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
- J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
- B. TravenB. TravenB. Traven was the pen name of a German novelist, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. A rare certainty is that B...
- Government (1931)
- The Carreta (1931)
- March to the Monteria (1933)
- The Troza (1936)
- The Rebellion of the Hanged (1936)
- The General From The Jungle (1940)
- Lois WaisbrookerLois WaisbrookerLois Waisbrooker was an American feminist author, editor, publisher, and campaigner of the later nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. She wrote extensively on issues of sex, marriage, birth control, and women's rights, plus related areas of radical thought like free speech, anarchism, and...
- Richard WhitingRichard WhitingRichard Whiting may refer to:* Richard Whiting , the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey before the Dissolution of the Monasteries...
- No. 5 John Street
- Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
- Robert Anton WilsonRobert Anton WilsonRobert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
- Illuminatus trilogy
- Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati
- Emile ZolaÉmile ZolaÉmile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
- Germinal (1885)
- The Debacle (1892)
Poetry
- Tony Blackplait
- Raegan ButcherRaegan ButcherRaegan Butcher is an American poet and singer. He is known for his association with the anarchist collective CrimethInc., who published his first two books of poetry, Stone Hotel and Rusty String Quartet. According to a CrimethInc. biography, Butcher was born in Seattle, Washington and moved to...
- Voltairine De CleyreVoltairine de CleyreVoltairine de Cleyre was an American anarchist writer and feminist. She was a prolific writer and speaker, opposing the state, marriage, and the domination of religion in sexuality and women's lives. She began her activist career in the freethought movement...
- Hugo Dewar
- Barcelona (1936)
- Lawrence FerlinghettiLawrence FerlinghettiLawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
- Pietro GoriPietro GoriPietro Gori was an Italian lawyer, journalist, intellectual and anarchist poet. He is known for his political activities, and as author of some of the most famous anarchist songs of the late 19th century, including Addio a Lugano , Stornelli d'esilio , Ballata per Sante Caserio Pietro Gori (14...
- Sadakichi HartmannSadakichi HartmannCarl Sadakichi Hartmann was a critic and poet of German and Japanese descent.Hartmann, born on the artificial island of Dejima, Nagasaki and raised in Germany, became an American citizen in 1894. An important early participant in modernism, Hartmann was a friend of such diverse figures as Walt...
- Joe HillJoe HillJoe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle , and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World...
- Philip LamantiaPhilip LamantiaPhilip Lamantia was an American poet and lecturer. Lamantia's visionary poems were ecstatic, terror-filled, and erotic which explored the subconscious world of dreams and linked it to the experience of daily life.-Biography:...
- Philip LevinePhilip Levine (poet)Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...
- John Henry MackayJohn Henry MackayJohn Henry Mackay was an individualist anarchist, thinker and writer. Born in Scotland and raised in Germany, Mackay was the author of Die Anarchisten and Der Freiheitsucher . Mackay was published in the United States in his friend Benjamin Tucker's magazine, Liberty...
- Anarchy
- John ManifoldJohn ManifoldJohn Streeter Manifold was an Australian poet and critic, known also for his interest in Australian folksongs. He was born in Melbourne, into a well known Camperdown family. He was educated at Geelong Grammar School, and read modern languages at Jesus College, Cambridge. While in Cambridge he...
- Makhno's Philosophers
- Renzo NovatoreRenzo Novatore- Life :Abele Ricieri Ferrari was born in Arcola, Liguria, Italy on May 12, 1890 in a poor peasant family. He did not adjust to school discipline and quit in the first year never coming back after that. While he worked in his father's farm, he self educated himself with an emphasis in poetry and...
- Kenneth PatchenKenneth PatchenKenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. Though he denied any direct connection, Patchen's work and ideas regarding the role of artists paralleled those of the Dadaists, the Beats, and Surrealists...
- Benjamin PéretBenjamin PéretBenjamin Péret was a French poet, Parisian Dadaist and a founder and central member of the French Surrealist movement with his avid use of Surrealist automatism.-Biography:...
- Diane di PrimaDiane di PrimaDiane Di Prima is an American poet.-Early life:Di Prima was born in Brooklyn. She attended Hunter College High School and Swarthmore College before dropping out to be a poet in Manhattan...
- Herbert ReadHerbert ReadSir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....
- Kenneth RexrothKenneth RexrothKenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...
- Again at Waldheim
- Lola RidgeLola RidgeLola Ridge was an anarchist poet and an influential editor of avant-garde, feminist, and Marxist publications best remembered for her long poems and poetic sequences...
- Karl ShapiroKarl ShapiroKarl Jay Shapiro was an American poet. He was appointed the fifth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1946.-Biography:...
- Death of Emma Goldman
- Gary SnyderGary SnyderGary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
- Ernst TollerErnst TollerErnst Toller was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days.- Biography :...
- George WoodcockGeorge WoodcockGeorge Woodcock was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet, and published several volumes of travel writing. He founded in 1959 the journal Canadian Literature, the first academic journal specifically...
- Black Flag
- Fernando PessoaFernando PessoaFernando Pessoa, born Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa , was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language.-Early years in Durban:On 13 July...
- O Banqueiro Anarquista
Television/film
- Julian BeckJulian BeckJulian Beck was an American actor, director, poet, and painter.-Early life:Beck was born in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan in New York City, the son of Mabel Lucille , a teacher, and Irving Beck, a businessman. He briefly attended Yale University, but dropped out to pursue writing and...
- Actor, director and painter who founded "The Living TheatreThe Living TheatreThe Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group still existing in the U.S...
" with Judith Malina.
- Actor, director and painter who founded "The Living Theatre
- Luis BuñuelLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
- In particular, his documentary Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin PanLas Hurdes: Tierra Sin PanLas Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan , is a 27-minute-long documentary film directed by Luis Buñuel and co-produced by Buñuel and Ramon Acin...
.
- In particular, his documentary Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan
- Peter CoyotePeter CoyotePeter Coyote is an American actor, author, director, screenwriter and narrator of films, theatre, television and audio books. His voice work includes narrating the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Apple's iPad campaign. He has also served as on-camera co-host of the 2000 Oscar...
- Martin B. Duberman
- Mother Earth: An Epic Drama of Emma Goldman's Life
- Jon JostJon JostJon Jost is an American independent filmmaker.Born in Chicago to a military family, he grew up in Georgia, Kansas, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. He began making films in January 1963 after being expelled from college. In 1965 he was imprisoned by US authorities for 2 years 3 months for...
- Nelly Kaplan
- Adonis KyrouAdonis KyrouAdonis Kyrou was a Greek filmmaker and writer.Residing in France, where he was a critic, filmmaker, and author of L'Âge d'or de la carte postale , Amour - érotisme & cinéma and Le surréalisme au cinéma , the last two published by Eric Losfeld's publishing house Le Terrain Vague.He was a...
- Judith MalinaJudith MalinaJudith Malina is an American theater and film actress, writer, and director, who was one of the founders of The Living Theatre.-Early life:...
- Actress who was an integral part of the "Living Theater" with her husband
- Godfrey ReggioGodfrey ReggioGodfrey Reggio is an American director of experimental documentary films.-Life:Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Reggio co-founded La Clinica de la Gente, a facility that provided medical care to 12,000 community members in Santa Fe, and La Gente, a community-organizing project in...
- Jean VigoJean VigoJean Vigo was a French film director, who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s and was a posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
- Yoshishige YoshidaYoshishige Yoshidais a Japanese film director and screenwriter.-Career:Graduating from Tokyo University, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and debuted as a director in 1960 with Rokudenashi...
- Directed Eros Plus MassacreEros Plus Massacreis a Japanese black-and-white film released in 1969. It was directed by Yoshishige Yoshida, who wrote it in cooperation with Masahiro Yamada.-Plot:The film is a biography of anarchist Sakae Ōsugi, who was assassinated by the Japanese military in 1923...
, about anarchists Sakae Ōsugi and Noe ItōNoe Itowas a Japanese anarchist, social critic, author and feminist.-Biography:Itō graduated from Ueno Girls' High School in Ueno, Tokyo, and joined the Bluestocking Society , producer of the feminist arts and culture magazine Seitō in 1912...
.
- Directed Eros Plus Massacre
- Yu Yong-Sik
- Directed AnarchistsAnarchists (film)Anarchists is a 2000 South Korean action film, directed by Yu Yong-Sik and written by Park Chan-wook. Set in Shanghai in 1924, the film is about a covert cell of insurrectionist anarchists who attempt to overthrow the Japanese government's occupation of Korea through propaganda of the deed...
, about an underground cell of insurrectionary anarchists.
- Directed Anarchists
Theatre/drama
- Martin B. Duberman
- Mother Earth: An Epic Drama of Emma Goldman's Life (1991)
- Tom StoppardTom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
- The Coast of Utopia (A Trilogy) (2002)
- Howard ZinnHoward ZinnHoward Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
- Emma: A Play in Two Acts about Emma Goldman, American Anarchist (2002)
See also
- Anarchist symbolismAnarchist symbolismWhile anarchists have historically largely denied the importance of symbols to political movement, they have embraced certain symbols for their cause, including most prominently the circle-A and the black flag...
- Anti-artAnti-artAnti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
- ArtivistArtivistArtivist is a portmanteau word combining "art" and "activist". Frank Berganza states..."When one pushes for change, , by utilizing their creative ability to communicate in ways of their artistic activity, that is known as Artivism". Artivism developed in recent years while the anti-globalization...
- List of fictional anarchists
- Libertarian science fictionLibertarian science fictionLibertarian science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that focuses on the politics and social order implied by libertarian philosophies with an emphasis on individualism and a limited state-- and in some cases, no state whatsoever....
, some of which constitutes anarcho-capitalist literatureAnarcho-capitalist literatureAnarcho-capitalism has been the subject of a number of works of literature, both nonfiction and fiction.-Nonfiction:The following is a partial list of notable nonfiction works discussing anarcho-capitalism. Works by Bastiat, de Molinari, and others were written before the terms "anarcho-capitalism"...
.
External links
- Anarchism, Art, & Critical Mass
- Anarchism & Science Fiction, a bibliography of works of science fiction which feature or were inspired by a theme of anarchism.
- When Gendarme Sleeps – Anarchist Zine of Poetry
- Libertarian Communist Library Arts and Culture Archive
- Notes on the history of anarchism in literature: a chronology
- Parser: New Poetry and Poetics, a journal of anarchist poetry and poetics
- People's history of Culture, a working class and anarchist cultural history page
- Anarchism and Film, a database of anarchist films created by Santiago Juan-Navarro and hosted by ChristieBooks