In addition to its more well known literary and artistic origins,   the French surrealist movement drew inspiration from currents of psychological   anxiety and rebellion running through a shadowy side of mass culture,   specifically in fantastic popular fiction and sensationalistic journalism. The   provocative nature of this insolent mass culture resonated with the intellectual   and political preoccupations of the surrealists, as Robin Walz demonstrates in   this fascinating study. Pulp Surrealism  weaves an interpretative history of the   intersection between mass print culture and surrealism, re-evaluating both our   understanding of mass culture in early twentieth-century Paris and the   revolutionary aims of the surrealist movement.     Pulp Surrealism presents four case studies, each exploring the out-of the-way   and impertinent elements which inspired the surrealists. Walz discusses Aragon's   Le paysan de Paris, one of the great surrealist novels of Paris. He considers   the popular series of Fantmes crime novels; the Parisan press coverage of the   arrest, trial, and execution of mass-murderer Landru; and the surrealist inquiry   "Is Suicide a Solution?", which Walz juxtaposes with reprints of actual suicide   faits divers (sensationalist newspaper blurbs).      Although surrealist interest in sensationalist popular culture eventually   waned, this exploration of mass print culture as one of the cultural milieux   from which surrealism emerged ultimately calls into question assumptions about   the avant-garde origins of modernism itself.

Pulp Surrealism: Insolent Popular Culture in Early Twentieth-Century Paris PDF

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