The Routledge Companion to Surrealism (Routledge Art History and Visual Studies Companions)

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. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents List of Contributors List of Figures Introduction Part I Concepts and Practices Exploratory Themes 1 Dreams and Humour 2 Play, Games, and Chance 3 The Marvelous and the Uncanny 4 Convulsive Beauty and Mad Love 5 The Occult, Magic, and Alchemy 6 Toward a Total Animism: Surrealism and Nature Protestations 7 Capitalism and Colonialism 8 Limits Not Frontiers: Surrealist Resistance to Nationalism, Patriotism, and Militarism 9 Catholicism and Family Values Creative Applications 10 Verbal Techniques 11 Visual Methods 12 Buñuel and Dalí, Un Chien andalou Part II Lessons from Paris Tensions and Dissensions 13 “Anarchy” . . . or Anarchism?: Dada in Paris and the Shifting Politics of Irreverence 14 Georges Bataille, André Breton, and the Culture of Surrealism 15 Surrealism and the French Communist Party Public Interfaces 16 Surrealism’s Publics 17 Surrealism on Display: American Reception and Expansion Part III Situated Contexts: Adaptations and Translations 18 Surrealism in the Arab World 19 Surrealism and Australia 20 Surrealism in Belgium: A Never-Ending Story 21 Surrealism in the Caribbean in the 1940s: Transnational Encounters 22 Surrealism in Chicago 23 Surrealism in China 24 Surrealism in the Czech Lands 25 Surrealism in England 26 Surrealism in Greece 27 Surealis Yogya and Other Surrealist Moments in Indonesia in the Twentieth Century 28 Surrealism in Japan 29 Surrealism in Mexico 30 Romanian Surrealism 31 Scandinavian Surrealism 32 Surrealist Dialogues in South America 33 Surrealism and Spain 34 Surrealism and Postwar West Germany Part IV Critical Dialogues The Politics of Collecting 35 L’élan surréaliste: Surrealist Aspirations and the Power and Primacy of Oceanic Art 36 The Surrealist Experience of Indigenous North America: A Second “Discovery” of the Americas Gender and Sexuality 37 Feminist Encounters with Surrealism: Revisiting the Formative Critiques 38 Surrealist Visions of Androgyny 39 Radical Muses 40 Dismembered Muses and Mirrors That Bite: A Trans Perspective on Gender Variance in Surrealist Art Part V Further Reaches 41 The Intellectual Resonances of Surrealism 42 Surrealist Resonances in Contemporary Art 43 The Hybrid and Surreal Memoirs of Tameca Cole, Raymond Towler, Shay Youngblood, and Steve Cormany 44 Inquiry on Surrealism in 2024 Index