After the Rain: Surrealism and the Post-World War II Avant-garde, 1940--1950

Shifting postwar definitions of 'real' and 'realism' are also analyzed, and the approach of Surrealist artists and writers---Georges Bataille, Victor Brauner, Charles Duits, Jindrich Heisler, and Toyen, among others---is compared with that of Socialist Realism (adopted as official P.C.F. policy in 1947) and the brute materialism of Jean Dubuffet. In the broadest terms, this dissertation explores to what extent artistic practice can be bound to social practice, and how the Surrealists modified yet maintained their carefully crafted revolutionary mantle.