The Art of the Project

Book excerpt: The idea of the ‘project’ crosses generic, disciplinary and cultural frontiers. At a time when writers and artists are increasingly describing their practices as ‘projects’, remarkably little critical attention has been paid to the actual idea of the ‘project’. This collection of essays responds to an urgent need by suggesting a framework for evaluating the notion of the project in the light of various modernist and postmodernist cultural practices, drawn mainly but not exclusively from the French-speaking domain. The overview offered by this volume promises to makes an original and thought-provoking contribution to contemporary literary, artistic and cultural criticism.