[Call for Papers]
Cadernos de Literatura Comparada #49 | Surrealism and Intermediality

Deadline: june 30, 2023
Publication: december, 2023

 
As we approach the centenary of André Breton’s Manifest of Surrealism (1924), a re-evaluation of this movement – which crossed all the arts, reached a global scale, and irreversibly changed the way we understand reality – seems increasingly urgent. Regulated by an inexhaustible desire for experimentation and profound technical, thematic and philosophical innovations, surrealism has called to itself, from early on, artistic objects and practices «sans frontières», based on interdisciplinarity and the multiplication of languages to reach the «point d’esprit» or «point sublime» (Alexandrian, 1974).
Indeed, the gnosiological scope of Breton’s principles continued to resonate and inspire artistic projects from the 1920s to the present day, defying geopolitical and disciplinary limitations. Therefore, it is pertinent to establish an interrogation of this movement that harbours a variety of disciplines, approaches, languages and anchorages. The radiations projected by surrealism throughout the 20th century, as a prominently collaborative practice, have always attracted approaches from a variety of fields: history of art, literary studies, philosophy, poetry, cinema, photography, painting, performance. This collaborative impetus, crossing several temporal and thematic frames (but also often constrained by political, critical and socio-cultural obstacles), has also nurtured individual artistic projects: at this level, it is important to revisit the surrealist generation of the 1940s in Portugal, including names like Mário Cesariny – whose centenary is being celebrated throughout the present year -, Alexandre O’Neill and António Maria Lisboa. We should also mention, among many others, António Dacosta, António Pedro, Cruzeiro Seixas, Fernando Lemos, Henrique Risques Pereira, Isabel Meyrelles, Manuel de Castro, Mário-Henrique Leiria – who also celebrates his centenary in 2023 –, Natália Correia, Pedro Oom…
The iconoclastic and irreverent spirit of this movement allows today the emergence of new questions about avant-garde poetics, both in artistic creation and teaching. Thus, will there be new directions for surrealism in contemporary times? As an artistic practice and research medium, in what ways does surrealism continue to reverberate in today’s arts? What is its didactic and avant-vanguardist potential in the literary and artistic education of new generations, as an utopian reinvention of the world? And will there be new means of exploring surrealism within the world of the internet, of social media, of ChatGPT?
The presence of surrealism in academic studies extends to different departments linked to the arts, curatorship and the humanities, having as its main principle the remarkable crossing of frontiers promoted by these artists. Having this said, we invite researchers to contribute, from a comparative approach, to a reflection on the plurality of resonances that surrealism has produced in the last hundred years and continues to produce today. Thematic axes proposed:

1. surrealism in Portugal and around the world;
2. surrealism, intermedialities, hybridism;
3. surrealism and visual and sound arts;
4. surrealism in the feminine;
5. surrealism and parody;
6. surrealism: from tradition to digital humanities;
7. surrealism as a school;
8. the utopia of surrealism.

All papers should be sent, by e-mail, to cadernosreviewdecember@gmail.com until june 30, 2023. Submitted articles must comply with the publication norms of the Cadernos de Literatura Comparada, available at: https://ilc-cadernos.com/index.php/cadernos/about/submissions . Articles that are not adapted to these publishing norms will be rejected.
Unpublished essays in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French will be accepted.

 
This issue of the Cadernos de Literatura Comparada is organized by
Ana Cristina Joaquim (UFF / NEPA)
Ana Isabel Santos (Univ. Porto / ILC)
Pedro Eiras (Univ. Porto / ILC)
Sandra Guerreiro Dias (IPBeja / CLP – UC / ILC).

The call for papers is available in Portuguese, english and french.