Hannah Stone
hannahstone@g.harvard.edu
Surrealism is the most significant historical international avant-garde movement, both in theoretical terms and in its literary and artistic production, not least because of its remarkable longevity, from 1924 to 1969. Its impact on international (mainly European) cultural politics was immense. Initially devoted to the liberation of the individual through the discovery of the unconscious, particularly by means of automatic writing, the movement acquired a political dimension as early as 1925, when it actively opposed a French colonial war. In retrospect, André Breton asked, “Comment la poésie se désintéresserait-elle de la révolution sociale?,” thereby suggesting that artistic and political engagement should be joined in a productive synthesis.
This ambition soon gave rise to tensions between the literary-artistic avant-garde and the political avant-garde, most notably during the interwar years, with the Communist Party, which claimed ideological authority. This lecture will examine the Surrealists’ efforts to preserve the unity of artistic and political avant-garde practices while, at the same time, pursuing their broader project of liberation by reintegrating art into everyday life.
LOCATION: STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20260917T183000Z DTEND:20260917T193000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR