Salvador Dalí's Literary Self-Portrait

Approaches to a Surrealist Autobiography

Carmen García de la Rasilla - Translated by Fernando González de Léon

This book remedies decades of critical neglect that has deprived the fields of art and literary criticism of one of the most important autobiographical and surrealist works of the twentieth century. It reveals the origins of the text, its relation to and role within Dalí's corpus, as well as its reception, provocative power, and lasting popular success. The study examines the literary contexts and sources of the text as well as its structural and narrative devices, and reveals its complex parodic mechanics that caricaturize the Freudian self. In addition, the book illuminates the pictorial elements of Dalí's narrative and the major components of his fictional self-portrait. Finally, an interpretation within the Freudian and Surrealist contexts of the fascinating and intricate drawings and photo montages of The Secret Life illustrates the uniqueness of an autobiography designed to be read as much as to be contemplated.

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 196 • Trim: 6¾ x 9¾

978-1-61148-318-5 • Hardback • November 2009 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

Subjects: History / Reference, Psychology / Reference, Art / Criticism & Theory, Art / Individual Artists / General, Art / Reference

Salvador Dalí's Literary Self-Portrait

Approaches to a Surrealist Autobiography

Hardback

Summary

This book remedies decades of critical neglect that has deprived the fields of art and literary criticism of one of the most important autobiographical and surrealist works of the twentieth century. It reveals the origins of the text, its relation to and role within Dalí's corpus, as well as its reception, provocative power, and lasting popular success. The study examines the literary contexts and sources of the text as well as its structural and narrative devices, and reveals its complex parodic mechanics that caricaturize the Freudian self. In addition, the book illuminates the pictorial elements of Dalí's narrative and the major components of his fictional self-portrait. Finally, an interpretation within the Freudian and Surrealist contexts of the fascinating and intricate drawings and photo montages of The Secret Life illustrates the uniqueness of an autobiography designed to be read as much as to be contemplated.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 196 • Trim: 6¾ x 9¾

978-1-61148-318-5 • Hardback • November 2009 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

Subjects: History / Reference, Psychology / Reference, Art / Criticism & Theory, Art / Individual Artists / General, Art / Reference

Author

Carmen García de la Rasilla is associate professor of Spanish at the University of New Hampshire.

Fernando González de Léon is associate professor of History at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts.