essed in different ways by artists in different fields. In painting, it was seen in the abstractions of artists as widely varied as Duchamps, Picasso, Klee, and many others. In the theater, playwrights such as Pirandello and Brecht delved into abstract structures and borrowed from the abstractions of other cultures--notably Oriental forms such as the Japanese Noh drama--to escape from the realism of the theater of the nineteenth century. In music, Schoenberg experimented with a 12-tone scale that was different from the traditional octaval structure, and Stravinsky and others made an abstract art even more abstract by challenging accepted notions of harmony, counterpoint, and tonality. In literature, writers developed new structures as a way of casting a new light on such accepted elements as character, setting, and plot.
Contemporary culture has made the experimental into something of an institution in itself and often pursues it for its own sake. This is based more on a desire to be d
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