Peter Burger’s Theory Of The Institutions Of Art

Peter Burger is an important theorist of Frankfurt school, he is committed to introducing sociology research methods of literature and art research field, trying to make the development of literature and art more comprehensive and more accurate. The theory of the institutions of art he proposed not only provides a new angle of view to the study of the avant-garde, but also offers another possible to the construction of the history of European literature and art. The institution of art belongs to literary sociology, which is a subsystem of the whole social system, keeping relatively independent, as well as close contact with the society as a whole system. The internal institution of art can be roughly divided into two aspects:ideological level and material level. Ideological level refers to the prevailing aesthetic concepts in a period or a group, and the material level refers to the material involved in the art production and accepts. The changes of the elements inside the institution will be corresponding with the transformation of the institution. Changes of these elements are often closely connected with the whole social system changes, therefore, art institution’s important historical transition are often linked to the whole western society’s important social system replacement. At the same time, the institution of art is the determinant of the social function of art and literature. Therefore, Burger grasp several factors, which are the social function, production and accept conditions of literature and art as well as the aesthetic concepts, to describe the transformation tracks of art institution.Different with the traditional art history that is centered by authors and the works and mainly composed of theorists’critical analysis, Burger view the development of western literature and art as the process of institution historical transition. From the original attached to religion, to gradually form a relatively independent subsystem, art institution starts to form, and then to the institutions transformation during the feudal period to the authoritarian period, to the increasingly turn to autonomous art institution, which develops and matures, until the emergence of the avant-garde. In Burger’s opinion, the avant-garde is different. The avant-garde innovation is no longer limited in the interior of the art institution, but regards the art institution itself as the object of innovation, avant-garde try hard to combine art and life practice to rebel the autonomous art institution. But unfortunately, the practice of the avant-garde did not achieve the desired goal, from another point of view, autonomous art institution with its own powerful force resists the avant-garde, and makes it back into autonomous art institution. This paper focuses on the Burger’s theory of the institution of art, trying to follow the Burger’s literary sociology research methods, through the concrete interpretation of the concept of the art institution, to describe the history of art institution’s transformation process, to better grasp the development of the western literature art history. Through the discussion, this paper tries to deep our understanding of Burger’s theory, in the context of literary sociology, further clarify its value and shortcomings.