Subversive intent
Subtitle: gender, politics, and the avant-garde
By: Susan Rubin Suleiman.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1990
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 276
Subjects: French literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Literature, Experimental -- History and criticism.; Feminism and literature -- History -- 20th century.; Women and literature -- History -- 20th century.; Erotic literature -- History and criticism.; Postmodernism (Literature); Social norms in literature.; Sex role in literature.
Description: With this book, Susan Suleiman lays the foundation for a postmodern feminist poetics and theory of the avant-garde. She shows how the figure of Woman, as fantasy, myth, or metaphor, has functioned in the work of male avant-garde writers and artists of this century. Focusing also on women's avant-garde artistic practices, Suleiman demonstrates how to read difficult modern works in a way that reveals their political as well as their aesthetic impact. Suleiman directly addresses the subversive intent of avant-garde movements from Surrealism to postmodernism. Through her detailed readings of works by André Breton, Georges Bataille, Roland Barthes, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and others, Suleiman demonstrates the central role of the female body in the male erotic imagination and illuminates the extent to which masculinist assumptions have influenced modern art and theory. By examining the work of contemporary women avant garde artists and theorists--including Héléne Cixous, Marguerite Duras, Monique Wittig, Luce Irigaray, Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson, Leonora Carrington, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, and Cindy Sherman--Suleiman shows the political power of feminist critiques of patriarchal ideology, and especially emphasizes the power of feminist humor and parody.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-268) and index.