We invite proposals for 20 minute papers from post-graduate students whose research engages with Surrealism and/or its contemporary legacies.

The Centre currently has a three-year AHRC-funded project on Surrealism and non-normative sexuality; hence we especially welcome submissions that engage with this neglected subject. Surrealism, despite Breton’s intolerance, did attract a formidable array of queer artists and writers, photographers, and filmmakers. These ‘other’ Surrealists were crucial to Surrealism’s reception outside of France. They also laid the groundwork for creative negotiations of the body, gender, and sexuality by more recent generations of artists.

Proposals may address individual case studies or broader historiographical or theoretical issues, such as the relationship of Surrealism to feminism, psychoanalysis and queer theory. Also ripe for investigation from this angle are: Surrealist precursors, e.g., Sade and Rimbaud; the child in the Surrealist imaginary; queering the uncanny, the Gothic; queer legacies in experimental film, photography, and literature.

We wish to encourage students from all disciplines working on aspects of Surrealism to contribute.

Please send proposals of no more than 500 words by 9th October 2009 to:
Kimberley Marwood kmarwo@essex.ac.uk
Majella Munro mmunro@essex.ac.uk