ch. 1. The theory of the avant-garde -- ch. 2. The poet as seer: Rimbaud -- ch. 3. The poets of time: Apollinaire and the Italian futurists -- ch. 4. Negation, scandal, and purification: the Dada movements -- ch. 5. The revolutionary unconscious: surrealism -- ch. 6. The avant-garde and political revolution: Mayakovsky and Russian futurism -- ch. 7. Literature, politics, and the critical spirit: Brecht -- ch. 8. Postmodernism and the neo-avant-garde