The legendary poet and boxer Arthur Cravan, a fleeting figure on the periphery of early twentieth-century European avant-gardism, is frequently invoked as proto-Dada and Surrealist exemplar. Yet he remains an insubstantial phenomenon, not seen since 1918, lost through historical interstices, clouded in drifting untruths. This study processes philosophical positions into a practical recovery - from nineteenth-century Nietzsche to twentieth-century Deleuze - with thoughts on subjectivity, metaphor, representation and multiplicity. From fresh readings and new approaches - of Cravan's first published work as a manifesto of simulation; of contributors to his Paris review Maintenant as impostures for the Delaunays; and of the conjuring of Cravan in Picabia's elegiac film Entr'acte - The fictions of Arthur Cravan concludes with the absent poet-boxer's eventual casting off into a Surrealist legacy, and his becoming what metaphor is: a means to represent the world.

About the Author
Dafydd W. Jones lectured in fine art and art history at Cardiff School of Art (1995-2012), and is currently the Editor of the University of Wales Press. He is the author of Dada 1916 in Theory: Practices of Critical Resistance and editor of the research volume Dada Culture: Critical Texts on the Avant-Garde.


Book Information
ISBN 9781526133236
Author Dafydd Jones
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Weight(grams) 649g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 19mm