Authoring the unconscious: Freudian structures in the art of Max Ernst.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Kavky, Samantha Beth.

Contributor:

Poggi, Christine, 1953- advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art--History.

Art.

History.

0377.

Penn dissertations--History of art.

History of art--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--History of art.

History of art--Penn dissertations.

0377.

Physical Description:

488 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 62-02A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

This study analyses the adaptation of Freudian theory by the Surrealist artist Max Ernst (1891--1976) as a unifying paradigm that subtends the theoretical, technical, textual and visual components of his art. While Ernst's indebtedness to Freud's theory of the unconscious has achieved general recognition, the extent and nature of his involvement has been subject to continuing debate. This study illustrates how specific texts such as Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams provide Ernst with a structural model for the production of imagery and how Freud's unconscious mechanisms such as condensation and displacement equip him with an associative system for the generation of meaning. By placing emphasis on Ernst's conscious appropriation of Freudian theory, I privilege the authorial intentions of the artist. Yet, Ernst's stated intention is to sacrifice his own conscious authority. This study explores the contradictions and ambiguities of authorship in an art of the unconscious.

The first chapter focuses on Ernst's discovery and implementation of Freudian theory, and Cubist forms, as vehicles for a personal, political and artistic Oedipal rebellion. In chapter two, I interpret Ernst's created persona Loplop as a totem as defined by Freud in Totem and Taboo . Loplop functions as both psychic amalgam and allegory of artistic production. Freud's predication of the creation of the totem on the primal crimes of incest and patricide allows Ernst to interpret these crimes as metaphors for his desire to enter his unconscious and repress his conscious authority.

The next three chapters explore Ernst's identification with the mind of the insane, the child, and the "primitive" as defined by Freud. Ernst celebrates the female hysteric as the primary signifier of insane mentality capable of subverting both medical and religious authority. After the second World War he relocates to America where he constructs his own mythology and a new identity as a Native American Shaman. In conclusion, I place his interpretation of Freud in relation to that of Levi-Strauss regarding personal and universal structures of the unconscious and of myth.

Notes:

Thesis (Ph.D. in History of Art) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2001.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 62-02, Section: A, page: 0367.

Supervisor: Christine Poggi.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

ISBN:

9780493129693

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.