Journal of Surrealism and the Americas (JSA)
The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas focuses on the subject of modern European and American intellectuals’ obsession with the “New World.” This obsession—the very heart of Surrealism—extended not only to North American sites, but also to Latin America, the Caribbean, and to the numerous indigenous cultures located there. The journal invites essays that examine aspects of the actual and fantasized travel of these European and American intellectuals throughout the Americas, and their creative response to indigenous art and culture, including their anthropological and collecting activities, and their interpretations of the various geographic, political, and cultural landscapes of the Americas. We furthermore intend to investigate the interventions / negotiations / repudiations of European/American or other Surrealisms, by indigenous as well as other artists, writers and filmmakers. Original publication is available at: Journal of Surrealism and the Americas
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- Creators: List, Larry
- Creators: Monahan, Laurie J.
The Journal of Surrealism and the Americas: Vol. 7 No. 1 (2013) - Table of Contents
“Introduction to the Issue and Special Section on Native American Surrealisms” by Claudia Mesch, p. i-iv.
“George Morrison’s Surrealism” by W. Jackson Rushing III, p. 1-18.
“César Moro’s Transnational Surrealism” by Michele Greet, p. 19-51.
“A Modernist Moment: Native Art and Surrealism at the University of Oklahoma” by Mark A. White, p. 52-70.
“The Opposite of Snake: Surrealism and the Art of Jimmie Durham” by Mary Modeen, p. 71-95.
“‘My World is Surreal,’ or ‘The Northwest Coast’ is Surreal” by Charlotte Townsend-Gault, p. 96-107.
“Complexity and Contradiction in Native American Surrealism” by Robert Silberman, p. 108-130.
“Review of ‘Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy’ & Kay Sage, ‘The Biographical Chronology and Four Surrealist One Act Plays’” by Larry List, p. 131-134.
Photographer and war correspondent Lee Miller incongruously appeared bathing in Hitler’s bathtub in Vogue in 1945. Part of a series of articles and photographs Miller produced for Vogue during WWII, the photograph has recently been interpreted as Miller’s way to mark the Allied victory over the Nazis, registering her defiance and literal occupation of Hitler’s most personal of spaces. Laurie Monahan argues against such certainty, noting that the power of the images Miller produces from this period lies not in victory or defeat but in the absolutely disturbing contradictions that appear in the encounter. Present at the liberation of Dachau and subsequently lodging in Hitler’s Munich headquarters, Miller is forced to ask whether these traumas can be contained or managed through victory. Can we so easily condemn our enemies while assuring ourselves that we are entirely unlike them? Central to those assurances is the need to convince ourselves of the superiority of our values, our actions, and our ethics in the face of events that reveal death, fear, and the most sinister elements of human behavior – in short, to classify what constitutes the good and the bad. Miller’s images, with their sustained ambiguity, force us to ask these questions anew as we realize that even the terms of victory are not adequate for the purpose.