A Cavalier History of Surrealism (1977/1999)

A down-and-dirty survey of the surrealist movement written by leading situationist theorist Raoul Vaneigem. Vaneigem's sketch bars no holds, blistering on surrealism's artistic and political aporias, and packed with telling quotations, it gives respect where respect is due, shedding a great deal of light on situationist attitudes, negative and positive, towards their surrealist predecessors. AUTHOR'S NOTE TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. HISTORY AND SURREALISM THE CRISIS OF CULTURE DADA AND CULTURE IN QUESTION THE BREAK FROM DADA THE SPECIFICITY OF SURREALISM IN THE SHADOW OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY THE BREAK WITH THE SO-CALLED COMMUNIST PARTY POST-WAR YEARS CHAPTER 2. CHANGING LIFE THE REFUSAL OF SURVIVAL FRAGMENTS OF A PROJECT OF HUMAN EMANCIPATION KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN AND ITS EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION FREUD AND AUTOMATIC WRITING THE UNDERWORLD OF DREAMS AND PARESTHAESIAS CHAPTER 3. TRANSFORMING THE WORLD REVOLUTIONARY IDEOLOGY AN INFORMAL ORGANIZATION CHAPTER 4. PROMOTING THE IMAGE AS OBJECT LANGUAGE AND ITS SUBVERSION THE SAVAGE EYE AND THE CIVILIZATION OF THE IMAGE CHAPTER 5. CONVERTING TO MYSTICISM RECONSECRATION AN ANTI-CHRISTIAN ECUMENISM CHAPTER 6. NOW TRANSLATOR'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Surrealism belongs to one of the terminal phases in the crisis of culture.