Surrealist women: an international anthology

Penelope Rosemont

University of TEXAS Press, 1998 - Art - 516 pages

Beginning in Paris in the 1920s, women poets, essayists, painters, and artists in other media have actively collaborated in defining and refining surrealism's basic project—achieving a higher, open, and dynamic consciousness, from which no aspect of the real or the imaginary is rejected. Indeed, few artistic or social movements can boast as many women forebears, founders, and participants—perhaps only feminism itself. Yet outside the movement, women's contributions to surrealism have been largely ignored or simply unknown.

This anthology, the first of its kind in any language, displays the range and significance of women's contributions to surrealism. Letting surrealist women speak for themselves, Penelope Rosemont has assembled nearly three hundred texts by ninety-six women from twenty-eight countries. She opens the book with a succinct summary of surrealism's basic aims and principles, followed by a discussion of the place of gender in the movement's origins. She then organizes the book into historical periods ranging from the 1920s to the present, with introductions that describe trends in the movement during each period. Rosemont also prefaces each surrealist's work with a brief biographical statement.

What people are saying

Review: Surrealist Women: An International Anthology (Surrealist Revolution)

User Review  - Nate D - Goodreads

Massively comprehensive anthology of oft-overlooked female surrealist writers (prior favorites included here: Leornora Carrington and Ithel Colquhoun), not just in the interwar Paris of surrealism's ...

Review: Surrealist Women: An International Anthology (Surrealist Revolution)

User Review  - Ldtingle - Goodreads

This book introduced me to the poet/revolutionary Mary Low. Worth it for that alone. Buy, beg, or steal her Black Swan poetry-collage book "Where the Wolf Sings." She's a stunning talent.

About the author

Penelope Rosemont is a co-founder of the Chicago Surrealist group and the author of Dreams and Everyday Life. Her works have been published by City Lights Journa; Analogon; an L'Archibras. She is editor of Surrealist Women: An International Anthology.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Surrealist women: an international anthology; The Surrealist revolution series
• Editor: Penelope Rosemont
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of TEXAS Press, 1998
• ISBN: 029277088X, 9780292770881
• Length: 516 pages
• Subjects: Art / History / General; Literary Criticism / Women Authors