ISSS reading list - Manchester University Press

ISSS surrealism conference 2023 artwork banner.

The International Society for the Study of Surrealism (ISSS) proposes to integrate the field of surrealism studies worldwide by organizing events and managing channels of information that facilitate cross-disciplinary and inter-regional communication and exchange. This will be accomplished through the organization of international symposia and state-of-the-field workshops; the curation or support of museum exhibitions; and the publication of research findings in a scholarly journal and book series.

To celebrate this year’s ISSS conference, MUP is sharing a bespoke reading list exploring the strange and wonderful world of surrealism. From Leonora Carrington to film modernism, we have titles that expand our understanding of art history and surrealism.

Looking to discuss surrealism commissioning with our editorial team? Discuss proposals and anything else regarding the editoral processes with Editoral Director Emma Brennan via email: [email protected].

Use code ISSS30 for 30% off any of the below books included in our ISSS reading list.

The medium of Leonora Carrington

$29.95

Catriona McAra

A critical survey of Leonora Carrington's legacies in contemporary creative practice. The medium of Leonora Carrington explores why creative people, especially women, are preoccupied with making work in her legacy today.

The traumatic surreal

$36.95

Patricia Allmer

The traumatic surreal is the first major study to examine the leading role Germanophone women artists have played in deploying surrealism to respond to the traumatic events and legacies of the Second World War.

The invisible painting

$18.95

Gabriel Weisz Carrington, Jonathan P. Eburne

In this memoir, Gabriel Weisz Carrington, son of the renowned Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, draws on remembered conversations and events to demythologise his mother and declare her not an icon or a goddess but, first and foremost, an artist.

Surrealism and film after 1945

$140.00

Kristoffer Noheden, Abigail Susik

Surrealism and Film after 1945 is the first collection devoted to the vibrant culture of transnational surrealist cinema since the Second World War. Eleven chapters by leading and emerging scholars of surrealism and film studies establish the parameters of this history and situate surrealism as a major force in postwar cinema.

Surrealist women's writing

$21.95

Anna Watz

Featuring essays by leading scholars of surrealism, this book offers the first sustained critical inquiry into the multifaceted writing of women associated with surrealism, and highlights howthis oeuvre intersects with and contributes to contemporary debates on gender, sexuality, subjectivity, otherness, anthropocentrism, and the environment.

Nietzsche and Irish modernism

$130.00

Patrick Bixby

Nietzsche and Irish Modernism deftly traces the circulation of the German philosopher's ideas in Irish culture during the early years of the twentieth century. In doing so, the book demonstrates how Nietzsche's thought inspired new, disruptive modes of writing, which spoke to local historical circumstances and the predicaments of modernity at large

1913: The year of French modernism

$130.00

Effie Rentzou, André Benhaïm

This book takes its cue from the annus miabilis for French culture to outline French modernism and to situate it on the map of global modernism. Essays on specific works in various media present the first narrative of French modernism as a critical category and establish its position in the thriving field of modernist studies.

Leonora Carrington and the international avant-garde

$45.95

Jonathan P. Eburne, Catriona McAra

The first comprehensive examination of Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), a major twentieth-century writer and multi-media artist. It offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the intellectual, literary, and artistic currents that animate her relationships with avant-garde movements throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Fragmenting modernism

$29.95

Sara Haslam

Fragmenting modernism' is about Ford Madox Ford, a hero of the modernist literary revolution.

Film modernism

$29.95

Sam Rohdie

An original and provocative study. Theoretically lucid and engaging, it will be an essential text for any student of film.

Surrealist sabotage and the war on work

$36.95

Abigail Susik

Surrealist sabotage and the war on work is an art historical study devoted to international surrealism's critique of wage labour between 1920 and 1980. Topics such as automatism, artworks across media, radical publications and social interventions are examined in relation to the movement's ongoing demand for non-alienated work.

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