Featuring essays by leading scholars of surrealism, this book offers the first sustained critical inquiry into the multifaceted writing of women associated with surrealism, and highlights howthis oeuvre intersects with and contributes to contemporary debates on gender, sexuality, subjectivity, otherness, anthropocentrism, and the environment.
Surrealist women's writing: A critical exploration is the first sustained critical inquiry into the writing of women associated with surrealism. Featuring original essays by leading scholars of surrealism, the volume demonstrates the extent and the historical, linguistic, and culturally contextual breadth of this writing. It also highlights how the specifically surrealist poetics and politics of these writers' work intersect with and contribute to contemporary debates on, for example, gender, sexuality, subjectivity, otherness, anthropocentrism, and the environment.
Drawing on a variety of innovative theoretical approaches, the essays in the volume focus on the writing of numerous women surrealists, many of whom have hitherto mainly been known for their visual rather than their literary production. These include Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Kay Sage, Colette Peignot, Suzanne Csaire, Unica Zrn, Ithell Colquhoun, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, and Rikki Ducornet.
Edited by:
Anna Watz
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 16mm
ISBN: 9781526132024
ISBN 10: 1526132028
Series: Manchester University Press
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 05 January 2021
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Anna Watz 1 ‘The dung beetle’s snowball’: the philosophic narcissism of Claude Cahun’s essay-poetry Felicity Gee 2 Identity convulsed: Leonora Carrington’s The House of Fear and The Oval Lady Anna Watz 3 Recasting the human: Leonora Carrington’s dark exilic imagination Jeannette Baxter 4 Colette Peignot: the purity of revolt Michael Richardson 5 Suzanne Césaire’s surrealism: tightrope of hope Kara M. Rabbitt 6 Kay Sage alive in the world Katharine Conley 7 Outside-in: translating Unica Zürn Patricia Allmer 8 Ithell Colquhoun’s experimental poetry: surrealism, occultism, and postwar poetry Mark S. Morrisson 9 Leonor Fini’s abhuman family Jonathan P. Eburne 10 ‘Open sesame’: Dorothea Tanning’s critical writing Catriona McAra 11 Magic language, esoteric nature: Rikki Ducornet’s surrealist ecology Kristoffer Noheden Bibliography Index -- .
Anna Watz is Senior Lecturer in English at Linkping University, Sweden
Reviews for Surrealist Women's Writing: A Critical Exploration
'This book does not attempt to impose a harmonious, all-encompassing feminist perspective that would gloss over the complexities of being a ‘woman writer’ within the grand scheme of surrealism, but looks, rather, to highlight differences and ambivalences, enriching the discourse surrounding this literature. An enthralling and intensely intellectual investigation into surrealist women’s writing, this study is of critical importance for literary scholars and admirers of surrealism as it offers a profound reconsideration of these ten authors.' French Studies 'The 11 essays in the collection look at the work of Claude Cahun, Lenora Carrington, Ithell Colquhoun, Colette Peignot, Kay Sage, and Unica Zürn, among others. Beyond examining the women’s literary work, the essays show how these writers’ work informs contemporary discussion of gender, sexuality, ecocriticism, the Other, and the Anthropocene. Wetz’s excellent introduction frames the questions and concerns surrealist women writers explored in their work.' CHOICE (Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association.) -- .
