A History of the Surrealist Novel

The book offers a rich, long, and elastic historiography of the surrealist novel, exploring texts often left out of previous critical accounts.

Covering the history of the surrealist novel from its emergence in the 1920s to its contemporary iterations, this book provides pioneering research by major academics in the field. The volume will appeal both to scholars and students of surrealism and its legacies, modernist literature, and the history of the novel.A History of the Surrealist Novel offers a rich, long, and elastic historiography of the surrealist novel, taking into consideration an abundance of texts previously left out of critical accounts. Its twenty thematically organized chapters examine surrealist prose texts written in French, English, Spanish, German, Greek, and Japanese, from the emergence of the surrealist movement in the 1920s and 1930s, through the post-war and postmodern periods, and up to the contemporary moment. This approach extends received narratives regarding surrealism's geographical locations and considers its transnational movement and modes of circulation. Moreover, it challenges critical biases that have defined surrealism in predominantly masculine terms, and which tie the movement to the interwar or early post-war years. This book will appeal both to scholars and students of surrealism and its legacies, modernist literature, and the history of the novel.