The past few decades have seen an expansion of interest in surrealist writers. Surrealism: Key Concepts is the first book in English to present an overview of surrealism through the central ideas motivating the popular movement. An international team of contributors provide an accessible examination of the key concepts, emphasising their relevance to current debates in social and cultural theory.

This book will be an invaluable guide for students studying a range of disciplines, including Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology and Cultural Studies, and anyone who wishes to engage critically with surrealism for the first time.

Krzysztof Fijalkowski is Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture, BA Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts, UK. He is the author of a number of articles on the subject of international surrealism, including contributions to the exhibition catalogues Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design (2007), Surreal House (2010) and Magritte A-Z (2011).

Michael Richardson is currently Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths University of London, UK. He is author of Otherness in Hollywood Cinema (2010), Surrealism and Cinema (2006), The Experience of Culture (2001) and Georges Bataille (1994). He has worked with Krzysztof Fijalkowski on a number of projects, including the books Refusal of the Shadow: Surrealism and the Caribbean (1996) and Surrealism against the Current (2001).

Notes on Contributors

Introduction (Krzysztof Fijalkowski and Michael Richardson)

PART I: CONTEXTS

1. Heraclitus, Hegel and dialectical understanding (Jonathan P. Eburne)
2. Hermeticism and the magical tradition (Guy Girard)
3. Freudian Origins (Jean-Michel Rabaté)
4. Utopia: the Revolution in Question (Georges Sebbag)
5. Sade and revolutionary violence (Michael Richardson)
6. 'The Speaking Flame': the Romantic Connection (Michael Löwy)
7. Dada (Krzysztof Fijalkowski)

PART 2: KEY CONCEPTS

8. Community at Play (Raymond Spiteri)
9. Otherness and Self-Identity (Michael Richardson)
10. Poetics (Michael Richardson)
11. Objective Chance (Raihan Kadri, Michael Richardson and Krzysztof Fijalkowski)
12. The Chance Encounter: Language and Madness (Michael Stone-Richards)
13. Dream: a Manifesto of the Manifest Dream (Georges Sebbag)
14. Mad Love (Dawn Ades and Michael Richardson)
15. Convulsive Beauty (Krzysztof Fijalkowski)
16. The Object (Krzysztof Fijalkowski)
17. Black Humour (Michael Richardson)
18. The Ecological Imperative (Donna Roberts)
19. Magic Art (Bertrand Schmitt)
20. The Marvellous (Joyce Suechun Cheng and Michael Richardson)
21. The Supreme Point (Krzysztof Fijalkowski and Michael Richardson)

Chronology of Surrealism

Bibliography

Index