Open Sesame: Dorothea Tanning’s Critical Writing
McAra, Catriona 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7680-4134
(2021)
Open Sesame: Dorothea Tanning’s Critical Writing.
In:
Surrealist Women’s Writing: A Critical Exploration.
Manchester University Press.
ISBN 9781526132024
Abstract
This book chapter repositions Dorothea Tanning's critical writing (her self-reflexive artist’s statements and letters to the editor) in the context of her broader œuvre as well as within the discursive framework of revisionary feminist perspectives on surrealism. I focus on two key texts by Tanning from the later twentieth century, ‘Some Parallels in Words and Pictures’ (1989) and ‘Statement’ (1991), as well as her experimental exhibition catalogue Ouvre-Toi (Open Sesame, 1971). These examples are revealing in terms of their author’s position on the text/image relationships, which recur throughout her practice. By realigning Tanning’s writings with her imagery, and by retrospectively drawing parallels with feminist theory and intellectual history, I argue for a re-reading of Tanning’s critical writings as a manifestation of the feminist cause in surrealism studies and beyond. This chapter was first delivered as a paper at the Modernist Studies Association conference in Amsterdam (August 2017) by invitation of the editor.
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit Item |