Surrealist Sorcery: Objects, Theories and Practices of Magic in the Surrealist Movement

Surrealism was an artistic movement of interwar Paris that aimed to change the conditions of life itself. This book highlights the international dimensions of the Surrealist Movement, and how it approached magic as a means of bypassing, discrediting, and combatting rationalism, capitalism, and other institutionalized systems and values. It surveys this important quality of the movement and how it has remained an important element in the surrealist project and its ongoing legacy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 07 September 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Often considered an artistic movement of interwar Paris, Surrealism was a global community of artists, writers, and intellectuals who sought to transform the very fabric of life over the past century. Comprising a diverse array of dedicated case studies spanning from the 1920s to the 1970s, this book showcases the international dimensions of the Surrealist Movement, as well as the radical chains of thought that bound its followers across the globe. From France to Romania, and from Canada to the former Czechoslovakia, the surrealists approached magic as a means of bypassing, discrediting, and combating rationalism, capitalism, and other institutionalized systems and values that they perceived as limiting influences upon modern life.

Surrealist Sorcery delves into how this fascination with magic evolved into a central area of Surrealist research, leading to not only theoretical but also practical explorations of the subject. With an international perspective, Atkin surveys this significant aspect of the movement and its enduring influence on the Surrealist project and its ongoing legacy.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350227484