The Early Avant-Garde in Twentieth-Century Literature and Art

Willard Bohn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature at Illinois State University. He received his Ph. D. in French from the University of California at Berkeley and has been a visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, the University of Cambridge,and Durham University among others. In 2005 he was elected Oliver Smithies Lecturer, Balliol College, Oxford University. An active scholar, Professor Bohn has published 158 scholarly articles and seventeen books including The Aesthetics of Visual Poetry, The Rise of Surrealism, and The Avant-Garde Imperative.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Inventing Cubism

Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, and Guillaume Apollinaire

Pierre Reverdy and the Ascetic Muse

2. Initiating Futurism

F. T. Marinetti

Other Futurist Poets

3. The Metaphysical Imagination

Giorgio de Chirico’s French Poetry

Giorgio de Chirico’s Italian Poetry

4. Dada Gambits 0

Visualizing Women in Creating Dada Poetry

5. Conceiving Surrealism Magnetic Fields

Two Surrealist Heroes

Three Surrealist Women

6. Mannequins and Faceless Mannequins

Birth of the Faceless Mannequin

Metaphysical Mannequins

Dada Mannequins

Surrealist Mannequins

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index