Overview

Surrealism is widely thought of as an artistic movement that flourished in Europe between the two world wars. However, during the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, diverse radical affinity groups, underground subcultures, and student protest movements proclaimed their connections to surrealism. Radical Dreams argues that surrealism was more than an avant-garde art movement; it was a living current of anti-authoritarian resistance. Featuring perspectives from scholars across the humanities and, distinctively, from contemporary surrealist practitioners, this volume examines surrealism’s role in postwar oppositional cultures. It demonstrates how surrealism’s committed engagement extends beyond the parameters of an artistic style or historical period, with chapters devoted to Afrosurrealism, Ted Joans, punk, the Situationist International, the student protests of May ’68, and other topics. Privileging interdisciplinary, transhistorical, and material culture approaches, contributors address surrealism’s interaction with New Left politics, protest movements, the sexual revolution, psychedelia, and other subcultural trends around the globe. A revelatory work, Radical Dreams definitively shows that the surrealist movement was synonymous with cultural and political radicalism. It will be especially valuable to those interested in the avant-garde, contemporary art, and radical social movements. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Jonathan P. Eburne, David Hopkins, Claire Howard, Michael Löwy, Alyce Mahon, Gavin Parkinson, Grégory Pierrot, Penelope Rosemont, Ron Sakolsky, Marie Arleth Skov, Ryan Standfest, and Sandra Zalman.

Full Product Details

Author:   Elliott H. King (Washington and Lee University) ,  Abigail Susik (Willamette University)
Publisher:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Imprint:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 17.80cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 24.10cm
Weight:   0.680kg
ISBN:  

9780271091358

ISBN 10:   0271091355
Pages:   270
Publication Date:   08 March 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introductory Essays Surrealism as Radicalism Abigail Susik and Elliot H. King Surrealism and Revolutionary Romanticism in May ’68 Michael Löwy Part 1: Surrealist Solidarity 1. “Down with Art, Up with Revolution”: Protesting Dada and Surrealism in 1968 Sandra Zalman 2. Ted Joans, the Other Jones: Jazz Poet, Black Power Missionary, and Surrealist Interpreter Grégory Pierrot 3. Angry, Hopeful Chaos an the Great Secret of Surrealism: Unraveling the Tangled Web of the 1970s Penelope Rosemont Part 2: Against the Liquidators 4. Passionate Attraction: Fourier, Feminism, Free Love, and L’Écart absolu Claire Howard 5. “To Be a Painter Means to Oppose”: Exhibiting and Politicizing Robert Rauschenberg, 1959-1965 Gavin Parkinson 6. A Consciousness of Being: Burn, Baby, Burn and the Political Art of Roberto Matta Alyce Mahon Part 3: The Right to Insubordination 7. The Fantasy of a Powerful Myth: The Situationist International After Surrealism Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen 8. Afrosurrealism as a Counterculture of Modernity Jonathan P. Eburne 9. The Surrealist Adventure and the Poetry of Direct Action: Passionate Encounters Between the Chicago Surrealist Group, the Wobblies, and Earth First! Ron Sakolsky Part 4: Passional Attractions 10. A Useful Bile: André Breton’s Humour Noir in 1960s America Ryan Standfest 11. Oz Magazine and British Counterculture: A Case Study in the Reception of Surrealism David Hopkins 12. Surrealism and Punk: The Case of COUM Transmissions Marie Arleth Skov List of Contributors Index

Reviews

“Radical Dreams . . . conveys a sense of the [surrealist] movement as a global network, reclaiming its original radicalism in alternative political contexts.” —Ela Bittencourt Frieze “This well-organized and evocatively illustrated volume exposes contemporary surrealist scholarship and has the potential to lead to new lines of inquiry connecting surrealism to contemporary realism.” —S. Schumacher Choice “[T]he chapters in Radical Dreams complement each other to outline the ways surrealism manifested in the postwar decades. King and Susik happily conclude that the volume is “incomplete” and Radical Dreams certainly lays the groundwork for ongoing research.” —Emily Wieder Dada/Surrealism “Radical Dreams reignites Surrealism’s revolutionary appeal from the 1960s and 1970s and rewrites an often forgotten chapter of the movement.” —Stephanie D’Alessandro,Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Radical Dreams reignites Surrealism’s revolutionary appeal from the 1960s and 1970s and rewrites an often forgotten chapter of the movement.” —Stephanie D’Alessandro,Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Radical Dreams reignites Surrealism’s revolutionary appeal from the 1960s and 1970s and rewrites an often forgotten chapter of the movement.” —Stephanie D’Alessandro, Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Radical Dreams . . . conveys a sense of the [surrealist] movement as a global network, reclaiming its original radicalism in alternative political contexts.” —Ela Bittencourt Frieze “This well-organized and evocatively illustrated volume exposes contemporary surrealist scholarship and has the potential to lead to new lines of inquiry connecting surrealism to contemporary realism.” —S. Schumacher Choice “[T]he chapters in Radical Dreams complement each other to outline the ways surrealism manifested in the postwar decades. King and Susik happily conclude that the volume is “incomplete” and Radical Dreams certainly lays the groundwork for ongoing research.” —Emily Wieder Dada/Surrealism “Radical Dreams reignites Surrealism’s revolutionary appeal from the 1960s and 1970s and rewrites an often forgotten chapter of the movement.” —Stephanie D’Alessandro, Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Radical Dreams reignites Surrealism's revolutionary appeal from the 1960s and 1970s and rewrites an often forgotten chapter of the movement. -Stephanie D'Alessandro, Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Author Information

Elliott H. King is Associate Professor of Art History at Washington and Lee University and the author of Salvador Dalí: The Late Work and Dalí, Surrealism, and Cinema. He is a founding board member of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism. Abigail Susik is Associate Professor of Art History at Willamette University and the author of Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work. She co-edited the volume Surrealism and Film After 1945: Absolutely Modern Mysteries.

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