HomeThe Functions of Surrealism

The Functions of Surrealism

Fonctions du surréalisme

Funzioni del surrealismo

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Published on Friday, April 12, 2024

Abstract

As part of the celebrations for the centenary of Breton’s first Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), the Conference will explore the functions of Surrealism in aesthetic, poetic, ethical, and political terms, examining the Movement’s impact on several fields of knowledge. Going beyond the divisive approach either praising or criticising the Movement, the conference intends to explore Surrealism with a pragmatic approach, focussing on the variety of its effects. The focus will thus be on Surrealism as a cultural object, in the perspective of tracing a history of the narratives of the Movement with the aim less of assessing their “truth” but rather of understanding their scopes and assumptions. The approach will allow to reconsider the several forms of reception of Surrealism with a novel and interdisciplinary methodology, thus suggesting new reconsideration of the legacy of the Movement.

Announcement

Argument

As part of the celebrations for the centenary of Breton’s first Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), the Conference will explore the functions of Surrealism in aesthetic, poetic, ethical, and political terms, examining the Movement’s impact on several fields of knowledge. Going beyond the divisive approach either praising or criticising the Movement, the conference intends to explore Surrealism with a pragmatic approach, focussing on the variety of its effects. The focus will thus be on Surrealism as a cultural object, in the perspective of tracing a history of the narratives of the Movement with the aim less of assessing their “truth” but rather of understanding their scopes and assumptions. The approach will allow to reconsider the several forms of reception of Surrealism with a novel and interdisciplinary methodology, thus suggesting new reconsideration of the legacy of the Movement.

In this sense, the conference will examine the selection operated by the reception of Surrealism: stress on specific traits of the movement is itself an act of interpretation which elides the variety of Surrealist authors as well as the plurality of Surrealisms underlined by Jacqueline Chéniex-Gendron. A broader approach, going beyond the features that have become stereotypical, allows to single out the impact of Surrealism by taking into account several forms of exploration of subconscious states, as well as varied formal strategies ranging from the creative use of metaphor to montage, dissonance and automatic writing (Peter Stockwell).  From the thematic point of view, the Surrealist poetics may come to include the idea of mystical love (Alquié), while also challenging the role of women as passive muses (Simone de Beauvoir, Xavière Gauthier). In political terms, Surrealism critically reinterprets the idea of revolution and redefines the relationship between literature and engagement (Camus, Bataille, Breton), while also developing a specific rhetoric for the form of the manifesto. It also configures a heuristic method, as in the case of Walter Benjamin’s and Claude Lévi-Strauss’s employment of montage techniques, as well as serving as a prototype for children literature (Rodari).

Such wide legacy of Surrealism always implies a selection which emphasises specific features of the Movement while overlooking others, a process that will be inquired in the conference by examining Surrealism in its historical context as well as by tackling the discursive practices developed around it. The conditions favouring such selection will be examined with focus on the history of the reception of Surrealism in the literary field, as well as in the Human and Social Sciences. Special attention will be paid to the transdisciplinary nature of Surrealism, for the way the Movement has borrowed from other disciplines while also influencing their conceptual development, as in the case of disciplines like psychology, philosophy, anthropology, or political philosophy like Marxism. The conference will also consider the global impact and legacy of Surrealism, with focus on how the reception in extra-European cultures can be connected to instances of subversion of established and oppressive categories.

The Organizing Committee invites proposals for papers addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • The reception of Surrealism as a process of selection 
  • Surrealism and the history of literature
  • The mutual relationship between Surrealism and the Human and Social sciences
  • Surrealist play and its uses
  • Surrealism and political or apolitical stances
  • Surrealism and the canon: subversion and redefinition
  • The legacy of the Surrealist practice of questionnaires and journalistic inquiries
  • Surrealism and Nonsense, Literature of the Absurd, English Gothic, dark humour
  • The legacy of Surrealism in American Counterculture (from 1968 on)
  • Surrealism and Postmodern culture
  • Surrealism and extra-European cultures

Submission guidelines

250-word abstracts for 20-minute papers must be sent to: centrostudiartimodernita@gmail.com

by 30 May 2024

Together with a short bio-bibliographical profile. Proposals will be read and evaluated by 30 June. Registration fee for Participants: 90 euros; Graduate students and PhDs: 40 euros. The Conference languages will be French, English, Spanish, Italian.

A selection of papers will be published in Cosmo: Comparative Studies in Modernism ( ISSN 2281-6658, the international peer-reviewed digital journal of the Centro Studi Arti della Modernità https://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/COSMO,https://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/COSMO/issue/archive. Accepted contributions will be published in the December 2025 issue.

Scientific Committee

  • Franca Bruera (University of Turin)
  • Elena Galtzova (Russian Academy of Sciences, University Lomonosov)
  • Roberto Gilodi (University of Turin)
  • Giuliana Ferreccio (Centro Studi “Arti della Modernità”)
  • Luigi Marfé (University of Padua)
  • Valeria Marino (University of Turin)
  • Benoît Monginot (University of Turin)
  • Olivier Penot-Lacassagne (Sorbonne Nouvelle University)
  • Luca Pietromarchi (Roma Tre University)
  • Peter Read (University of Kent, UK)
  • Hubert Roland (University of Louvain La Neuve)
  • Emmanuel Rubio (Paris Nanterre University)
  • Laura Santone (Roma Tre University)

Organizing Committee

  • Franca Bruera (University of Turin)
  • Frédéric Canovas (Arizona State University)
  • Davide Dalmas (University of Turin)
  • Giuliana Ferreccio (Centro Studi “Arti della Modernità”)
  • Roberto Gilodi (University of Turin)
  • Luigi Marfè (University of Padua)
  • Valeria Marino (University of Turin)
  • Benoît Monginot (University of Turin)
  • Emilia Perassi (University of Turin)
  • Luca Pietromarchi (Roma Tre University)
  • Teresa Prudente (University of Turin)
  • Laura Santone (Roma Tre University)
  • Stefania Stafutti (University of Turin)
  • Lorenza Valsania (University of Turin)

Keynote Speakers

  • Corrado Bologna (Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa)
  • Luisa Campuzano (Universidad de la Habana)
  • Frédéric Canovas (Arizona State University)
  • Davide Dalmas  (University of Turin)
  • Valeria Marino (University of Turin)
  • Olivier Penot-Lacassagne (Sorbonne Nouvelle University)
  • Beatrice Sica (University College London)
  • Peter Stockwell (University of Nottingham)
  • Paolo Tamassia (University of Trento)

References

Dawn Ades, Rita Eder e Graciela Speranza, Surrealism in Latin America: Vivísimo Muerto, Los Angeles Getty Research Institute, 2012.

Ferdinand Alquié, Philosophie du Surréalisme, Paris, Flammarion, 1955.

Anna Balakian, Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute, New York, University of Chicago Press, 1959.

Sara Bangert, Entgrenzte Ähnlichkeit im Milieu des Surrealismus: Konturen, Vorgeschichte und Konjunktur eines ästhetischen Konzepts, Berlin, Boston, De Gruyter, 2023.

Marie Bonnot, En rêvant, en écrivant: Le récit de rêve des surréalistes à nos jours, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2023.

Cristina Casero, Lara Conte, Luca Pietro Nicoletti (ed.), Echi del Surrealismo nell'arte italiana del Dopoguerra. Luoghi, Pratiche, Protagonisti, in "Predella", 23, 2021.

Mary Ann Caws, Surrealism, London, Phaidon, 2010.

Jacqueline Chénieux-Gendron, Surréalismes. L’esprit et l’histoire, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2014.

Silvana Cirillo, Nei dintorni del surrealismo. Da Alvaro a Zavattini, Roma, Editori Riuniti 2006.

Catharine Conley, Automatic Woman, The Representation of Women in Surrealism, Lincoln, Nebraska University Press, 2008.

Donna Conwell e Annette Leddy, Farewell to Surrealism. The DYN Circle in Mexico, London, Tate Publishing, 2012.

Fausto Curi, La modernità letteraria e la poesia italiana d'avanguardia, Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2019.

Paola Decina Lombardi, Surrealismo 1919-1969. Ribellione e immaginazione, Roma, Editori Riuniti 2006.

Luigi Fontanella, Il surrealismo italiano. Ricerche e letture, Roma, Bulzoni 1983.

Anne Foucault, Histoire du surréalisme ignoré (1945-1969). Du déshonneur des poètes au "surréalisme éternel", Paris, Hermann, 2022.

Emilie Fremond, Le surréalisme au grand air, tomo 1 e tomo 2, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2016.

Xavière Gauthier, Surréalisme et sexualité, Paris, Gallimard, 1971.

Merle Goldman (ed.), Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1977.

Domingo-Luis Hernàndez (ed.), Surrealismo Siglo 21, Tenerife, Gobierno de Canarias, 2006.

Raphaëlle Hérout, Surréalisme : résister, réinventer la langue,  La Fresnaie-Fayel, Otrante, 2021.

David Hopkins (ed.), A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, Chichester, Wiley Balckwell, 2016.

Jean-Jacques Lecercle, The Philosophy of Nonsense, London, Routledge, 1994.

Matteo Moca, Figure del surrealismo italiano. Savinio, Delfini, Landolfi, Lanciano, Carabba, 2020.

Desmond Morris, The British Surrealists, London, Thames and Hudson 2022.

Michel Murat, Le surréalisme, Paris, LGF/Le Livre de Poche, 2013.

Melanie Nicholson, Surrealism in Latin American Literature. Searching for Breton’s Ghost, New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.

Andrea Oberhuber, À belles mains, livre surréaliste - livre d’artiste, Lausanne, L’Âge d’Homme, Mélusine 32, 2012.

Olivier Penot-Lacassagne (ed.), (In)actualité du surréalisme (1940-2020), Dijon, Les Presses du réel, 2022.

Olivier Penot-Lacassagne e Emmanuel Rubio (ed.), Lesurréalisme en héritage : les avant-gardes après 1945, atti del convegno di Cérisy-la-Salle (2-12 agosto 2006), Lausanne, L’Âge d’Homme,  2008.

Maria Emanuela Raffi, André Breton e il surrealismo nella cultura italiana (1925-1950), Padova, CLEUP 1986.

Paul C. Ray, The Surrealist Movement in England, Ithaca, Cornell University Press 1971.

Michel Rémy (ed.), On the Thirteenth Stroke of Midnight : Surrealist Poetry in Britain, Oxford, Carcanet 2013.

Michel Rémy, Surrealism in Britain, London, Routledge, 2019.

Nanette Rißler-Pipka, Michael Lommel e Justyna Cempel (ed.), Der Surrealismus in der Mediengesellschaft - zwischen Kunst und Kommerz, Bielefeld, Transcript Verlag, 2010.

Emanuel Rubio, Les Philosophies d'André Breton(1924-1941), Parigi, L'Âge d'homme, 2009.

Georges Sebbag, Potence avec paratonnerre. Surréalisme et philosophie, Paris, Hermann, 2012.

Georges Sebbag, Foucault Deleuze. Nouvelles impressions du surréalisme, Paris, Hermann, 2015.

Peter Stockwell, The Language of Surrealism. New York, Red Globe Press, 2016.

Kirsten Strom (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Surrealism, London, Routledge, 2023.

Beatrice Sica, Poesia surrealista italiana, Genova, San Marco dei Giustiniani, 2008.

Pierre Taminiaux, Du surréalisme à la photographie contemporaine, Paris, Honoré Champion, XXème-XXIème siècle", 2016.

Lauren Walden, Le surréalisme de Paris à Shanghai, trad. da Emilie Noteris, Lione, Fage, 2022.

Lauren Walden, “Surrealism in Chinese Periodicals: Hedonism, Horror, and Shanghai’s Former French Concession”, in Dada7Suppealism, n. 4, 2023, pp. 1-38.

Chinghsin Wu, “Reality Within and Without: Surrealism in Japan and China in the Early 1930s”, in Review of Japanese Culture and Society, December 2014, Vol. 26, pp. 189-208.

Subjects

Places

  • Turin, Italian Republic

Date(s)

  • Thursday, May 30, 2024

Keywords

  • surréalisme, réception, sélection

Contact(s)

  • Lorenza Valsania
    courriel : lorenza [dot] valsania [at] unito [dot] it

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Lorenza Valsania
    courriel : lorenza [dot] valsania [at] unito [dot] it

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« The Functions of Surrealism », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, April 12, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/w79d

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