Angela Carter and Surrealism

In 1972, Angela Carter translated Xavière Gauthier’s feminist critique of the surrealist movement, Surréalisme et sexualité (1971). Though the translation was never published, the project confirmed and consolidated Carter’s interest in surrealism, representation, gender and desire and aided her formulation of a new surrealist-feminist aesthetic. Carter’s engagement with surrealist aesthetics, politics, and scholarship demonstrates what is at stake for feminism at the intersection of avant-garde aesthetics and the representation of women and female desire. Drawing on previously unexplored archival material, Watz is the first to trace how Carter was influenced by the surrealist movement.