Historical Dictionary of Surrealism
By (author) Keith Aspley
Publication date:
17 October 2010Length of book:
574 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressISBN-13: 9780810858473
Surrealism was a broad movement, which attracted many adherents. It was organized and quite strictly disciplined, at least until the death of its leader, André Breton, in 1966. As a consequence, its membership was in a constant state of flux: persons were constantly being admitted and excluded, and often the latter continued to regard themselves as Surrealists. The wide-ranging nature of the Surrealist movement was spread over many countries and many different art forms, including painting, sculpture, cinema, photography, music, theater, and literature, most notably poetry.
The Historical Dictionary of Surrealism relates the history of this movement through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on persons, circles, and groups who participated in the movement; a global entry on some of the journals and reviews they produced; and a sampling of major works of art, cinema, and literature.
The Historical Dictionary of Surrealism relates the history of this movement through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on persons, circles, and groups who participated in the movement; a global entry on some of the journals and reviews they produced; and a sampling of major works of art, cinema, and literature.
This introduction to an intriguing artistic worldview is number 43 in the Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts series. The front matter includes a list of acronyms and abbreviations and a detailed chronology, beginning with those artists considered precursors of surrealism. The introduction gives a detailed, engrossing, comprehensive overview of the surrealist movement and sets the reader or researcher up soundly for the informative entries in the body of the dictionary. Entries include information on artists, writers, organizations, publications, and countries in which significant surrealists lived and worked. Non-English texts referenced within the dictionary are cited in the original language, followed with the English title in parentheses (in italics if a translation exists; in roman if the translation is the author's own rendering of the title). Cross-referencing is indicated by boldface within entries. See and see also references also add alternate points of entry, in some cases voluminously so. For example, the entry for Image gives about 40 see also references. A detailed, 37-page bibliography concludes an informative and interesting work, suitable for academic and large public libraries with strong art programs.