Symbolism, Dada, Surrealisms – Selected Writing of Mary Ann Caws
Symbolism, Dada, Surrealisms: Selected Writing of Mary Ann Caws / ISBN 9781789148572 / 384-page hardback published in 2024 by Reaktion Books
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‘I cannot overstate the gift and importance of these selected writings . . . Caws’s intellect is such a rare and precious variety.’ – Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts
‘These essays are not only an outstanding resource for scholars but a joy for everyone to discover or revisit, a cornucopia of insights and revelations.’ – Rosemary Lloyd, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
Over the course of her long, highly distinguished career writing about literature and art, Mary Ann Caws has excavated, illuminated and examined in depth the most intriguing works and personalities of Symbolism, Dada, Surrealism and beyond. In these concise but always colourful and insightful articles, Caws brings us fresh portraits of the most famous figures and introduces us to writers and artists who merit more attention than they have received, with a special focus on female writers and artists. The author’s sensitivity to the intersections of eccentric literature and eccentric life infuses each critical essay with the human passions that these essential modernists lived. From Dickinson and Mallarmé to Duchamp and Mina Loy, Caws applies the art of close looking to shrewdly framed slices of the modernist experience.
