Frame from the movie La Coquille et le Clergyman (1928)

Surrealism in Cinema, 100 Years On

A century after the publication of the first Surrealist manifesto, the role played by film in the movement is still unfolding.
The cover of Lost Literacies: Experiments in the Nineteenth-Century US Comic Strip

Lost Literacies Strips Down the Dawn of Comics

In his new book, literary historian Alex Beringer demonstrates how the birth of the genre of printed comic long preceded the Sunday Funny Pages.
Surrealist artists at the first Surrealist Exhibition to be held in London. Back row, from left, are Rupert Lee, Ruthven Todd, Salvador Dali, Paul Eluard, Roland Penrose, Herbert Read, E LT Mesens, George Reavey and Hugh Sykes-Davies. Front row, from left, Diana Lee, Nusch Eluard, Eileen Agar, Sheila Legge and unknown.

Surrealism at 100: A Reading List

On the centennial of the founding of Surrealism, this reading list examines its radical beginnings, its mass popularity, and its continued evolution.
Paul Borduas

The “Refus Global”

Published in 1948 by the artist group Les Automatistes, the Refus Global manifesto challenged Québécois political, religious, and social traditions.
Albert Camus in the garden of his Paris studio, 1952.

The Existentialism of Style vs. Substance

Camus, Sartre, and Beauvoir were misread, misunderstood, and misperceived by English-speaking readers due to interventions of publishers and editors.
Isabelle Eberhardt, 1895

Isabelle Eberhardt: Travel’s Rebel with a Cause

A hash-smoking, cross-dressing woman traveling the Sahara in the early 1900s, Eberhardt unpicked the fabric of society just by being herself.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Personal #Brand

Napoleon didn't like sitting for portraits, and yet artists and mass market prints helped cement his legendary status.
Judith Butler

Judith Butler: The Early Years

Before Judith Butler’s 1990 book Gender Trouble, the influential gender theorist wrote a series of essays that offer easier access to their ideas.
Oil painting of the Battle of Waterloo

Waterloo at 200

John Houston takes a less melodic look at the transformation of the Battle of Waterloo from "fact to myth," from history to literature.