A quick heads-up: really worth checking out Housman’s ‘London’s Burning‘ series of events, with various walks and talks ranging from Blake to Michael X, and covering Notting Hill to Whitechapel.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Andre Breton, Charles Madge, David Gascoyne, English Surrealism, Graduate Conference, Herbert Read, Humanities, humphrey jennings, International Surrealist Bulletin, Michel Remy, Surrealist Group in England, sussex, Transitions
The lack of substantial posts recently is due to Real Life having rather overtaken me, but yesterday I did present my first conference paper to the Sussex Humanities Grad Conference, which despite overwhelming nervousness on my part seemed to go pretty well. I’ve included the paper below. Its a very pared down version of a section of the first chapter of my DPhil, using the movement of Surrealism across the channel as a prolepsis to the eventual migration of Situationist practice from mainland Europe to England.
‘Why the English have no taste’: The Dialectics of English Surrealism
In June 1935, in the French Surrealist journal Minotaure, there appeared the provocatively titled essay ‘Why the English have no taste’, by the Englishman Herbert Read. The essay attempted to explain why Surrealism as both artistic and philosophical practice had existed in mainland Europe for over a decade, yet in England there was neither a dedicated Surrealist Group nor much evidence of popular attention to the movement. Read began by qualifying his title, saying, ‘I do not say that the English have bad taste – that, perhaps, might be said of other nations – but simply that they do not exercise those faculties of sensibility and selection which make for good taste. Our condition is neutral – an immense indifference to questions of art.’[i]
