Fantomas (Penguin Classics) by Marcel Allain  (10)
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Editorial Reviews
Product Description
In addition to its more well known literary and artistic origins, the French surrealist movement drew inspiration from currents of psychological anxiety and rebellion running through a shadowy side of mass culture, specifically in fantastic popular fiction and sensationalistic journalism. The provocative nature of this insolent mass culture resonated with the intellectual and political preoccupations of the surrealists, as Robin Walz demonstrates in this fascinating study. Pulp Surrealism weaves an interpretative history of the intersection between mass print culture and surrealism, re-evaluating both our understanding of mass culture in early twentieth-century Paris and the revolutionary aims of the surrealist movement.
Pulp Surrealism presents four case studies, each exploring the out-of the-way and impertinent elements which inspired the surrealists. Walz discusses Louis Aragon's Le paysan de Paris, one of the great surrealist novels of Paris. He goes on to consider the popular series of Fantômes crime novels; the Parisan press coverage of the arrest, trial, and execution of mass-murderer Landru; and the surrealist inquiry "Is Suicide a Solution?", which Walz juxtaposes with reprints of actual suicide faits divers (sensationalist newspaper blurbs).
Although surrealist interest in sensationalist popular culture eventually waned, this exploration of mass print culture as one of the cultural milieux from which surrealism emerged ultimately calls into question assumptions about the avant-garde origins of modernism itself.
From the Inside Flap
"A 'wonder cabinet' of a book that brings to vivid life again the ephemeral pleasures of flânerie in Paris. Walz is a marvelous guide to the pulp fiction, newspaper sensationalism, and 'disreputable,' fast-disappearing neighborhoods of Paris that the surrealists not only loved but drew on for inspiration in their revolutionary effort to reconfigure human consciousness in early twentieth-century France." Richard Abel, author of The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914 and The Red Rooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900-1910
"Robin Walz's Pulp Surrealism represents an original and creative approach to the cultural history of the French interwar avant-garde. He shifts our focus away from surrealist texts themselves to the conditions of their production and in the process illuminates in fascinating ways the relationship between surrealism and popular culture." Carolyn Dean, author of The Frail Social Body: Pornography, Homosexuality, and Other Fantasies in Interwar France
"Pulp Surrealism is the vibrant story of the interplay between avant-garde intellectuals and emerging mass culture in the early years of the twentieth century. In this stimulating history Robin Walz lays bare the many contradictory connections between high and popular culture, and in the process restores to life the brilliant effrontery and joy of the surrealist movement." Tyler Stovall, author of The Rise of the Paris Red Belt and Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light
See all Editorial Reviews
In addition to its more well known literary and artistic origins, the French surrealist movement drew inspiration from currents of psychological anxiety and rebellion running through a shadowy side of mass culture, specifically in fantastic popular fiction and sensationalistic journalism. The provocative nature of this insolent mass culture resonated with the intellectual and political preoccupations of the surrealists, as Robin Walz demonstrates in this fascinating study. Pulp Surrealism weaves an interpretative history of the intersection between mass print culture and surrealism, re-evaluating both our understanding of mass culture in early twentieth-century Paris and the revolutionary aims of the surrealist movement.
Pulp Surrealism presents four case studies, each exploring the out-of the-way and impertinent elements which inspired the surrealists. Walz discusses Louis Aragon's Le paysan de Paris, one of the great surrealist novels of Paris. He goes on to consider the popular series of Fantômes crime novels; the Parisan press coverage of the arrest, trial, and execution of mass-murderer Landru; and the surrealist inquiry "Is Suicide a Solution?", which Walz juxtaposes with reprints of actual suicide faits divers (sensationalist newspaper blurbs).
Although surrealist interest in sensationalist popular culture eventually waned, this exploration of mass print culture as one of the cultural milieux from which surrealism emerged ultimately calls into question assumptions about the avant-garde origins of modernism itself.
From the Inside Flap
"A 'wonder cabinet' of a book that brings to vivid life again the ephemeral pleasures of flânerie in Paris. Walz is a marvelous guide to the pulp fiction, newspaper sensationalism, and 'disreputable,' fast-disappearing neighborhoods of Paris that the surrealists not only loved but drew on for inspiration in their revolutionary effort to reconfigure human consciousness in early twentieth-century France." Richard Abel, author of The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914 and The Red Rooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900-1910
"Robin Walz's Pulp Surrealism represents an original and creative approach to the cultural history of the French interwar avant-garde. He shifts our focus away from surrealist texts themselves to the conditions of their production and in the process illuminates in fascinating ways the relationship between surrealism and popular culture." Carolyn Dean, author of The Frail Social Body: Pornography, Homosexuality, and Other Fantasies in Interwar France
"Pulp Surrealism is the vibrant story of the interplay between avant-garde intellectuals and emerging mass culture in the early years of the twentieth century. In this stimulating history Robin Walz lays bare the many contradictory connections between high and popular culture, and in the process restores to life the brilliant effrontery and joy of the surrealist movement." Tyler Stovall, author of The Rise of the Paris Red Belt and Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book Citations: This book cites 86 books | 4 books that cite this book Explore: Citations | Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Key Phrases - SIPs: suicide faits, criminal anthropologists, livre populaire, surrealist revolution, anxious visions (more) Key Phrases - CAPs: Moreau de Tours, Bluebeard of Gambais, Nick Carter, Lady Beltham, Lord of Terror (more) Browse Sample Pages: Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me! |
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Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Toward the end of the first half of Le Paysan de Paris-that portion dedicated to the Opera Passageway-some of the owners of the arcade's shops got a peek at what surrealist Louis Aragon had been writing about them since the summer of 1924. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
suicide faits, criminal anthropologists, livre populaire, surrealist revolution, anxious visions, criminal anthropology, roman populaire, quatre grands, profane illumination, fait divers, roman policier, des passages, surreal visions, missing women, surrealist movement, surrealist art, sensationalist press, des rues Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Moreau de Tours, Bluebeard of Gambais, Nick Carter, Lady Beltham, Lord of Terror, Petit Parisien, Philippe Soupault, Inspector Juve, Etienne Rambert, Livre Populaire, Lord Beltham, Tom Bob, Great War, Mac Orlan, Popular Book, Robert Desnos, Alphonse Bertillon, Blaise Cendrars, Fernande Segret, Genius of Crime, Guide de Poche, Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Feuillade, Mademoiselle Jeanne, Mercure de France New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Toward the end of the first half of Le Paysan de Paris-that portion dedicated to the Opera Passageway-some of the owners of the arcade's shops got a peek at what surrealist Louis Aragon had been writing about them since the summer of 1924. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
suicide faits, criminal anthropologists, livre populaire, surrealist revolution, anxious visions, criminal anthropology, roman populaire, quatre grands, profane illumination, fait divers, roman policier, des passages, surreal visions, missing women, surrealist movement, surrealist art, sensationalist press, des rues Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Moreau de Tours, Bluebeard of Gambais, Nick Carter, Lady Beltham, Lord of Terror, Petit Parisien, Philippe Soupault, Inspector Juve, Etienne Rambert, Livre Populaire, Lord Beltham, Tom Bob, Great War, Mac Orlan, Popular Book, Robert Desnos, Alphonse Bertillon, Blaise Cendrars, Fernande Segret, Genius of Crime, Guide de Poche, Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Feuillade, Mademoiselle Jeanne, Mercure de France New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 86
books:
See all 86 books this book cites
4
books
cite this book:
- The History of Surrealism (Paperbacks in Art History) by Maurice Nadeau on 5 pages
- What Is Surrealism? by André Breton on 5 pages
- What Is Surrealism?: Selected Writings by Andre Breton on 5 pages
- Anxious Visions: Surrealist Art by Sidra Stich on 5 pages
- Popular Culture by Anne C. Francis on 4 pages
See all 86 books this book cites
- Chanteuse in the City: The Realist Singer in French Film by Kelley Conway in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Secrets beyond the Door: The Story of Bluebeard and His Wives by Maria Tatar in Back Matter
- Mob Culture: Hidden Histories Of The American Gangster Film by Esther Sonnet on page 183
- Virtual Americas: Transnational Fictions and the Transatlantic Imaginary (New Americanists) by Paul Giles in Back Matter