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Surrealist Subversions
Rants, Writings, and Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States
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Edited by Ron Sakolsky,
Foreword by Frankin Rosemont
Autonomedia/Semiotext(e)
Due/Published
September 2002, 784 pages,
paper
ISBN
1570271224
From its auspicious beginnings in the summer of 1966 to the present, the Chicago Surrealist Group -- and the Surrealist Movement in the United States, which grew out of it -- have continued to foment a whirlwind of revolt while "playfully igniting the sparks of Poetry, Freedom and Love in the crucible of the Unfettered Imagination." In so doing, it has brightly illuminated the pathways of absolute divergence that define the intrinsically anarchist trajectory of the surrealist adventure. Drawing on the full range of U.S. surrealist publications, from the original journal Arsenal/Surrealist Subversion to the very latest millennial communiques from the front lines of the ongoing battle against miserabilism, this volume contains over 200 texts (many appearing here for the first time) by more than fifty participants in the Surrealist Movement, making this the most comprehensive, diverse and lavishly illustrated compilation of American surrealist writings ever to be assembled. Sakolsky's introduction explores the historical development of "Chicago Idea" surrealism as well as its current actuality. Contributors include: Gale Ahrens, Jennifer Bean, Jen Besemer, Daniel C. Boyer, Paul Buhle, Ronnie Burk, Leonora Carrington, Laura Corsigilia, Jayne Cortez, Guy Ducornet, Rikki Ducornet, Schlechter Duvall, Alice Farley, J. Allen Fees, Beth Garon, Paul Garon, Eugenio F. Granell, Robert Green, Miriam Hansen, Diedra Harris-Kelley, Jan Hathaway, Corinna Jablonski, Joseph Jablonski, Ted Joans, Gerome Kamrowski, Robin D. G. Kelley, Don LaCoss, Philip Lamantia, Clarence John Laughlin, Mary Low, Herbert Marcuse, Tristan Meinecke, Casandra Stark Mele, Anne Olson, Nancy Joyce Peters, Charles Radcliffe, Myrna Bell Rochester, David Roediger, Franklin Rosemont, Penelope Rosemont, Ody Saban, Louise Simons, Martha Sonnenberg, Christopher Starr, Ivan Svitak, Cheikh Tidiane Sylla, Claude Tarnaud, Debra Taub, Dale Tomich, Patrick Turner, Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, Jordan West, Joel Williams, Marie Wilson, Haifa Zangana Abstracted Table of Contents: Foreword by Franklin Rosemont
Introduction by Ron Sakolsky
Part I. THE SURREALIST ADVENTURE: Total Nonconformism, Insubordination, & Revolution as the Way to a Non-Repressive Civilization
1. What Is Surrealism?
2. First Steps: Surrealism in the U.S. in the 1960s
3. Poetry, Freedom and Love
4. Surrealist Games: Play as the Collective Shaping of Reality
5. Dreaming Revolution: Surrealism Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Part II. THE SURREALIST CRITIQUE
1. Capitalist Civilization: The Global Prison
2. Against the Degradation of Language: Exposing the False Poets and the Miserabilist Media
3. Patriarchy and Sexual Oppression
4. Work: Terror and Boredom at the Point of Production
5. The Lie of Whiteness
6. Religion as Repression
7. The Destruction of Wilderness
8. Official Art: The Aesthetics of Repressive Desublimation
9. Critique of the Traditional Left
Part III. SURREALIST ACTION: Social Transformation as Festival
1. Realization of Poetry in Everyday Life
2. Defending the Marvelous
3. Subverting the Institutions of Unfreedom
4. The Savage Eye: Liberating the Visual Imagination
5. Outsiders
6. Images of Desire in Motion
7. From Horror to Humor: Surrealism's Popular Accomplices
8. Black Music: Sounds of the History of Freedom
9. Other Musics: Disturbing the "Peace"
10. Taking Chances and Raising the Stakes
11. Rebel Workers and Utopian Dreamers: Reclaiming the Past
12. Surrealist Inquiries: Questioning Everything
Appendices
Sources
Bibliography
Index |
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Review
This indispensable new volume collects some of the best writings of the Surrealist Movement. Started in 1966 in Chicago by Franklin Rosemont as the Chicago Surrealist Group, the Surrealist Movement drew on the artistic, literary, and philosophical legacy of its European originators (Breton, etc.), while also incorporating elements of the Wobblies and other Chicago countercultures. Taken as a whole, the Surrealist Movement’s impressive array of literary and artistic works along with imaginative and incisive political, social, and artistic commentaries represent a coherent and refreshing approach to critiquing conventional ways of looking at the world. The movement’s work while upending the real is also firmly committed to changing society and improving the lives of the oppressed. In its appreciation and celebration of working-class movements and other protest groups, the Surrealist Movement has avoided the obscuritanism or elitism sometimes associated with avant-garde movements. This consistently engaging collection includes writing from 1966 to the present and is taken from a variety of publications. The first half of Surrealist Subversions examines the meaning, aims, and hopes of the Surrealist Movement. In their writing on politics and society, included in the second half of this volume, the Surrealist Movement has explored the nature of capitalism, the mainstream media, racism, conditions of labor, patriarchy and sexual oppression, the notion of whiteness, religion, ecology, and the failings of the traditional left. This collection also includes a series of superb essays on the visual arts, music, dance, film, and literature. In particular, the contributors reveal the ways in which elements of avant-garde and popular works subvert and challenge the status quo. Ron Sakolsky fascinating description and history of the Surrealist Movement is also essential reading. Those who think creative, imaginative, and intelligent social and intellectual criticism is a relic of the past should look no further than this exceptional new collection, which is as inspiring as it is entertaining, passionate and intelligent. The impressive group of contributors includes Penelope Rosemont, Paul Garon, Robin D. G. Kelley, Ted Joans, Rikki Ducornet, Jayne Cortez, David Roediger, Herbert Marcuse, Philip Lamantia, Miriam Hansen, and Paul Buhle.
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