Subversive Uses of Nerve Psychology in Dada and Surrealism presents wholly innovative research that significantly reinterprets the Dada and Surrealist movements. Peter Mowris refutes the long-held belief that artists in the Dada and Surrealist movements were interested only in psychoanalysis, and considers the response by artists to nerve psychology, which held that changes in the nervous system formed the bases of consciousness. Since the 1880s, nerve or physiological psychology had a considerable presence in connected movements of social regeneration and rhythmic motion including Emile...

Taking as its point of departure the complex question about whether Surrealist theatre exists, this book re-examines the much misunderstood artistic medium of theatre within Surrealism, especially when compared to poetry and painting. This study reconsiders Surrealist theatre specifically from the perspective of ludics-a poetics of play and games-an ideal approach to the Surrealists, whose games blur the boundaries between the 'playful' and the 'serious.' Vassiliki Rapti's aims are threefold: first, to demystify André Breton's controversial attitude toward theatre; second, to do justice to...

Having been mistakenly perceived as a follower of Salvador Dalí, Catalan surrealist painter and writer Àngel Planells (1901–1989) has passed through the history of art practically unnoticed. Yet his work suggests an influence on a number of works by Dalí, proving that a fairer way to define their relationship is as an artistic dialogue. His participation in the groundbreaking International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936 is in itself a marker of his quality as an artist, but Planells’ contribution to surrealism is remarkable for his use of astronomy, fantastic scenes redolent...