The Vanguard of The Avant-Garde: Keywords For Political Agency

ABSTRACT This article examines the terms avant-garde and vanguard as keywords for teaching English through the concept of political agency. For example, political theorist Lea Ypi has conceptualised an ‘avant-garde political agency’ as an experimental process that is meant to be both rhetorically effective and grounded in historical context; however, this approach also presents an opportunity for teachers and students to revisit how Black Power traditions in the USA, for instance, have used the related term vanguard to imagine alternate futures. To reconcile this disconnection, I examine excerpted uses of the two terms from select BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of colour) artists, scholars, and activists. This keyword analysis can provide a useful lesson for teachers and students in English classrooms about the importance of historical context when engaging with challenging texts or experimental artwork. Keyword analysis is a useful way to provide that kind of context, and further, when these two terms are combined, the resulting ‘vanguard avant-garde’ perspective encourages historicised forward thinking through an understanding of agency that foregrounds experimentation, public communication, and student-centred teaching.