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4. THE CONSTRUCTIVIST MOMENT
- Wesleyan University Press
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THECONSTRUCTIVIS T MOMENT Literaturestays alive by expandinginto non-literature. —Viktor Shklovsky Thisessa yisaresponsetoa callt odefin eth estat eo fmodernis tstudies ,which Ichos etoanswe ragai nfro mth esocia lspac eofDetroi t—wheremodernism ,as acultura limperative ,vanishe san dreappear satrando mwithi nth erationalize d modernitytha tsurrounds.Wherethedescentintoproductio ntha tframe stheprevious chapte rmightb esee na sanaffirmativean dwillfulconfrontatio nwit hth e engineso fmodernity ,th espatia lfigur efo rthisessa yisthecrossin gofborders betweenincommensurat ezonesthathav ebeenconstructedinDetroit' srelativel y shortbu tconvulsiv ehistory .Inspire db yDetroit ,an dchallenge db ytheman yexperiences o fmutua lexclusio non eha swhenlivin gthere,I wantedt omak ethe mostunlikel ycompariso npossibl et ounvei lth estake so fa radica lmodernis m trappedwithintheproductivistlifeworld .Whatresultedwa sadualresearchproject inwhichI turnedt oth ewor ko fE lLissitzky,emblemati co fradica lmodernis min itsmos tformall yarticulated ,Utopia nmode ,an dth erecen tdevelopmen to fth e experimentalelectronicmusi cknownasDetroittechno ,asexamplesofthemutua l permeabilityo fradica lfor man dmoder nlifeworld .A poetic so fnegativ eexem plarity i sth ebridg ebetwee nth etwo ,draw nou ti ncontrastin gmodernis tan d postmodernexample sfromLoui sZukofsk yan dJea nDay .Thisessay,then,i san exercisei ndisjunctio na smuc ha sconjunction,a nattemp ta tth ereciproca lillumination o fculturalpossibilitie stha tough tt ohav emor etod owitheac hother, butbecaus eofth esteril eframewor ko fassigne dcultura lvalues ,d onot .I want , also,tocontinu eacross-culturaldiscussionbetweenSovietmodernis mandAmerican postmodernis mthatI havepursuedsinc emyfirstcontac twithRussia nFormalism .Detroitan dthepoorl yunderstoo dSecondWorld,i tturnsout ,hav emore incommonwitheac hothe rthanma yhavebeensupposed.LocatingtheFormalist devicesofdefamiliarizationan dsemanticshifti narationalizedlifeworldthatseems toignor ethe mcertainl yargue sfo rth econtinue dus eofbot hterms .Finally ,thi s essayi sanattemptt oconstruc tanexampleinan dofitself,asitchallenge san d FROMELLISSITZKYTO DETROITTECHNO 4 crossesove rth egrea tdivid ei nmethodolog ybetweenmodernis man dCultura l Studies,seenonanalogyt oa bordercrossin ginDetroit. THEGREA TDIVID E Alongwit hGenera lMotors 'decisio nt oshif tthei rworl dhead quarters fro mit spreviouslocationi nthemidtow nGenera lMotorsBuilding t oth edowntow nRenaissanc eCenter,an dt omov eman yo fitsoper ations i nfro moutlyin gareas,realestat evalueshav egon eu pabruptl yi n Detroit,reversingdecadesofstagnation.1 Housingvalues,particularlyalong theWoodwar dCorrido ran dth edowntown-Gross ePoint eaxi so fEas t Jefferson,hav eexplode di nanticipatio no fth erelocatio no fmanagemen t closert oth edowntow narea. 2 Eve nso ,a commut efro mnearb ysuburb s suchasHuntingtonWood sandGross ePointestillinvolves,onadailybasis, alesso ni ndystopi a...