Includes bibliographical references (pages 222-223) and index.
Contents:
Introductory essays. Surrealism as radicalism / Abigail Susik and Elliott H. King ; Surrealism and revolutionary romanticism in May '68 / Michael Löwy -- Part 1: Surrealist solidarity. "Down with art, up with revolution" : protesting Dada and surrealism in 1968 / Sandra Zalman ; Ted Joans, the other Jones : jazz poet, black power missionary, and surrealist interpreter / Grégory Pierrot ; Angry, hopeful chaos and the great secret of surrealism : unraveling the tangled web of the 1970s / Penelope Rosemont -- Part 2: Against the liquidators. Passionate attraction : Fourier, feminism, free love, and L'Écart absolu / Claire Howard ; "To be a painter means to oppose" : exhibiting and politicizing Robert Rauschenberg, 1959-1965 / Gavin Parkinson ; A consciousness of being : Burn, baby, burn and the political art of Roberto Matta / Alyce Mahon -- Part 3: The right to insubordination. The fantasy of a powerful myth : the situationist international after surrealism / Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen ; Afrosurrealism as a counterculture of modernity / Jonathan P. Eburne ; 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. A useful bile : André Breton's Humor noir in 1960s America / Ryan Standfest ; Oz magazine and British counterculture : a case study in the reception of surrealism / David Hopkins ; Surrealism and punk : the case of COUM transmissions / Marie Arleth Skov.
Summary:
"A collection of essays examining surrealism's cultural adaptations and genealogical descendants from the 1960s through the late 1980s. Explores surrealism's interactions with radical politics, protest movements, the sexual revolution, psychedelic subcultures, and other engaged and subcultural trends around the globe"-- Provided by publisher. "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." -- Publisher's description
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.