<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> Readings of the avant-garde have frequently sought to identify utopian moments coded in its works and activities as optimistic signs of a possible future social life or as the attempt to preserve hope against the closure of an emergent dystopian present. This volume casts light on the history, theory and actuality of the utopian and dystopian strands which run through European modernism and the avant-garde from the late 19th to the 21st century.