One Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry by Willard Bohn

One Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry by Willard Bohn

Given that the Surrealists were initially met with widespread incomprehension, mercilessly ridiculed, and treated as madmen, it is remarkable that more than one hundred years on we still feel the vitality and continued popularity of the movement today. As Willard Bohn demonstrates, Surrealism was not just a French phenomenon but one that eventually encompassed much of the world. Concentrating on the movement’s theory and practice, this extraordinarily broad-ranging book documents the spread of Surrealism throughout the western hemisphere and examines keys texts, critical responses, and significant writers. The latter include three extraordinarily talented individuals who were eventually awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (Andre Breton, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz). Like their Surrealist colleagues, they strove to free human beings from their unconscious chains so that they could realize their true potential. One Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry explores not only the birth but also the ongoing life of a major literary movement.

One Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry is at once an anthology and a beautifully accessible handbook, providing guidance, insights and information on essential aspects of surrealist theory and practiseFrom automatic writing and objective chance to mad love and black humour, the topics explored are exemplified by astonishing poems and oneiric prose from French, Hispanic and Portuguese writers, all translated by Willard Bohn with characteristic flair and empathy. * Peter Read, Professor Emeritus of Modern French Literature and Visual Arts, University of Kent, UK and author of Picasso and Apollinaire The Persistence of Memory (2008) *
With his characteristic clarity, as well as formidable aesthetic and linguistic breadth, Bohn has produced a major work for serious students and scholars of Surrealism. Using important examples from many different cultural and theoretical sources, he offers new, wide-ranging perspectives on the origins and later history of the movement throughout the world. He also presents close readings of several key texts, many of which incorporate, and often surpass, analyses published by some of the most influential critics (Riffaterre, Bonnet, Balakian, Jenny, Caws, Murat ) who have worked on these often mysterious, enigmatic works. I highly recommend it, therefore, to anyone working in comparative literature, art history, even film studies, thanks to his explanations of surrealist images in a variety of art forms. * Stamos Metzidakis, Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature, Washington University in Saint Louis, USA *

Willard Bohn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Illinois State University, USA. He is the author of over 130 articles and 20 books on the early avant-garde, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Italian Futurism, and visual poetry, including The Early Avant-Garde in Twentieth-Century Literature and Art (2018) and Surrealist Poetry: An Anthology (edited, translated, and critical introduction, Bloomsbury, 2017).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781501393730
ISBN 10	1501393731
Title	One Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry
Author	Willard Bohn
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Year published	2022-12-01
Number of pages	296
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.