"Surrealist Masculinities" offers a fresh exploration of how surrealist visual production was shaped by constructions of gender and sexuality, particularly masculinity, in the 1920s and early 1930s. Amy Lyford builds on feminist critical approaches to surrealism, which have viewed the female body in surrealism as symptomatic of male misogyny; yet she also departs from such work by arguing that representations of an anxious, ambivalent, or perverse masculinity were integral to the movement's critique of France's "return to order" in the years following World War I. This book analyzes surrealist work in relation to the history of surrealism and investigates how surrealist artists and writers appropriated contemporary medical science, advertising, and sexology in their quest to undermine the status quo.

About the Author
Amy Lyford is Associate Professor of Art History at Occidental College.

Reviews
"Lyford demonstrates the subtle interpretation needed to navigate the complexities raised by issues of masculinity within Surrealism." -- Robert Radford Burlington Magazine "Tight, richly documented, and does an excellent job of interweaving image, text, and context, no easy task... Lyford has done a remarkable job of demonstrating how complicated surrealism's relationship was to all forms of normative masculinity." -- Carolyn J. Dean H-France Reviews



Book Information
ISBN 9780520246409
Author Amy Lyford
Format Hardback
Page Count 252
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 953g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 178mm * 28mm