The Surrealist Look: An Erotics of Encounter by Mary Ann Caws

Caws, Mary Ann. The Surrealist Look: An Erotics of Encounter. Cambridge & London: MIT Press, 1997. Pp. xxi-344.

Mary Ann Caws explores the connection between surrealism and the baroque in her impressive new book, in terms of each movement’s vision. Her perceptions, based on surrealist models include René Char, Dorothea Tanning, André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Claude Cahun, Robert Desnos, Antonin Artaud, Man Ray, and Joseph Cornell, move expertly back and forth in time, showing convincingly how consistently the surrealist “look” doubles that of the baroque. Inspired by examples that include Duchamp’s self-portrayal as Rrose Sélavy in Man Ray’s photographs, Tanning’s multiple doors, and Cahun’s numerous self-portraits, Caws states: “Through such a love of doubling, of enigma, and of contraries as is displayed here, the baroque spirit and its techniques of repetition, anaphora, chiasmic and reversible structures enter into the very heart of surrealist vision” (159).