Title: Subversive intent
First published: 1990
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.
Subjects: Feminism and literature, Social norms in literature, Postmodernism (Literature), French literature, History and criticism, Sex role in literature, Experimental Literature, Literature, Experimental, Erotic literature, Women and literature, History, New York Times reviewed, Littérature française, Histoire et critique, Littérature expérimentale, Femmes et littérature, Histoire, Littérature érotique, Postmodernisme (Littérature), Rôle selon le sexe dans la littérature, Féminisme et littérature, Letterkunde, Avant-garde, Postmodernisme, Erotiek, Vrouwen, Frans
Time periods: 20th century
LC classification: PQ307.E95 S85 1990