Title: Futures of surrealism : myth, science fiction, and fantastic art in France, 1936-1969 /
Authors: Parkinson, Gavin,
Year: 2015
Subjects: Surrealism France; Arts, French; Arts, French.; Surrealism; France
Abstract: Although Surrealism is usually associated with the 1920s and 1930s, it remained a vital force in Paris throughout the postwar period. This important book offers the first detailed account in English of the trajectory of the French Surrealists in the 1950s and 1960s, giving particular emphasis to the significance of myth for the group in its reception of science fiction and its engagement with fantastic art. Offering new readings of the art and writings of the later generation of Surrealists, Gavin Parkinson demonstrates how they were connected to the larger cultural and political debates of the time. Whereas earlier Surrealist art and writing drew on psychoanalytic practices, younger Surrealists engaged with contemporary issues, ideas, and themes of the period of the Cold War and Algerian War (1954-62), such as parapsychology, space travel, fantastic art, increasing consumerism in Europe, emerging avant-gardes such as Nouveau Realisme, and the rise of the whole genre of conspiracy theory, from Nazi occultism to flying saucers. Futures of Surrealism offers a unique perspective on this brave new world.
Contents: Introduction: Fantastic futures -- Science fiction and myth. Future present: prehistoric astronauts, Earth owners and 'the great invisibles' -- No time like the future: Surrealism, the Nouveau Roman and the arrival of Anglo-American science fiction in France -- Myths of the near future: science fiction and UFOs, prehistoric civilisations and lost worlds -- Fantastic realism and futurity. Surrealism and everyday magic in the 1950s: between the paranormal and fantastic realism -- Contemporaries of the future: protesting the politics and 'poetics' of The morning of the magicians and Planète -- Jailers of the future: contesting the 'poetics' of Nouveau Réalisme and Planète -- Conclusions, beginnings: The end of Planète and the futures of Surrealism.