ABSTRACT

This book provides a conceptual and global overview of the field of Surrealist studies. Methodologically, the companion considers Surrealism’s many achievements, but also its historical shortcomings, to illuminate its connections to the historical and cultural moment(s) from which it originated and to assess both the ways in which it still shapes our world in inspiring ways and the ways in which it might appear problematic as we look back at it from a twenty-first-century vantage point. Contributions from experienced scholars will enable professors to teach the subject more broadly, by opening their eyes to aspects of the field that are on the margins of their expertise, and it will enable scholars to identify new areas of study in their own work, by indicating lines of research at a tangent to their own.

The companion will reflect the interdisciplinarity of Surrealism by incorporating discussions pertaining to the visual arts, as well as literature, film, and political and intellectual history.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

part I|108 pages

Concepts and Practices

section |52 pages

Exploratory Themes

chapter 1|9 pages

Dreams and Humour

chapter 2|8 pages

Play, Games, and Chance

chapter 4|9 pages

Convulsive Beauty and Mad Love

chapter 5|7 pages

The Occult, Magic, and Alchemy

chapter 6|9 pages

Toward a Total Animism

Surrealism and Nature

section |27 pages

Protestations

chapter 7|8 pages

Capitalism and Colonialism

chapter 8|8 pages

Limits Not Frontiers

Surrealist Resistance to Nationalism, Patriotism, and Militarism

chapter 9|10 pages

Catholicism and Family Values

section |28 pages

Creative Applications

chapter 10|8 pages

Verbal Techniques

chapter 11|11 pages

Visual Methods

part II|46 pages

Lessons from Paris

section |27 pages

Tensions and Dissensions

chapter 13|8 pages

“Anarchy” … or Anarchism?

Dada in Paris and the Shifting Politics of Irreverence

section |18 pages

Public Interfaces

chapter 16|9 pages

Surrealism's Publics

chapter 17|8 pages

Surrealism on Display

American Reception and Expansion

part III|153 pages

Situated Contexts

chapter 18|10 pages

Surrealism in the Arab World

chapter 19|8 pages

Surrealism and Australia

chapter 20|8 pages

Surrealism in Belgium

A Never-Ending Story

chapter 21|8 pages

Surrealism in the Caribbean in the 1940s

Transnational Encounters

chapter 22|9 pages

Surrealism in Chicago

chapter 23|9 pages

Surrealism in China

chapter 24|9 pages

Surrealism in the Czech Lands

chapter 25|8 pages

Surrealism in England

chapter 26|9 pages

Surrealism in Greece

chapter 28|9 pages

Surrealism in Japan

chapter 29|10 pages

Surrealism in Mexico

chapter 30|8 pages

Romanian Surrealism

chapter 31|9 pages

Scandinavian Surrealism

chapter 33|9 pages

Surrealism and Spain

part IV|60 pages

Critical Dialogues

section |20 pages

The Politics of Collecting

chapter 35|10 pages

L'élan surréaliste

Surrealist Aspirations and the Power and Primacy of Oceanic Art

chapter 36|9 pages

The Surrealist Experience of Indigenous North America

A Second “Discovery” of the Americas

section |39 pages

Gender and Sexuality

chapter 37|9 pages

Feminist Encounters with Surrealism

Revisiting the Formative Critiques

chapter 38|10 pages

Surrealist Visions of Androgyny

chapter 39|9 pages

Radical Muses

chapter 40|10 pages

Dismembered Muses and Mirrors That Bite

A Trans Perspective on Gender Variance in Surrealist Art