Technische Universität Dresden
Die Erfindung der Moderne: Das Manifest Refus global und die identitätsstiftende Rezeption von Surrealismus und Automatismus in Québec
Abstract
dc:description.abstractThe manifesto of the Quebecer art movement Automatism, the Refus global (Montreal, 1948), is today one of the best known socio-political writings of Quebec. It is considered to have been the beginning of Quebec's cultural modernity and an early sign of its political modernity. In the early 1940's the manifesto's author Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960) had already been praised for his art later named "Automatism". It was seen by the automatists as the evolution of Surrealism (like Abstract Expressionism). Many art critics called this the first Canadian painting that followed the modern aesthetics of the time. According to the surrealist program the automatists aspired to create a new Quebec society. In 1948, the fact that their manifesto differed greatly from the conservative political and social ideas of Maurice Duplessis (Prime Minister of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and from 1944 to 1959) made Borduas and the manifesto famous. It was considered to be an attack against the traditionalistic institutions because it not only required pictorial but also general liberty. Maurice Duplessis' death in 1959 was the beginning of the Quiet Revolution. During this eventful time the Quebecois began officially to identify with the modern state they were creating. The end of the old regime was also the beginning of a new Quebec nationalism which is important for the new reception of Automatism. The intellectuals discovered the Refus global and saw in Borduas their spiritual father in their claim for an original Quebec culture and a greater political autonomy. In the former condemnation of the manifesto they found the proof that the old political system in Quebec prevented modernity. This thesis traces the reception of Surrealism, Automatism and the Refus global in Quebec throughout the period from the 1940's to the turn of the century. It shows how modern (cultural and national) identity has been established, which groups have been interested in its construction and how the commemoration of the manifesto still helps today to support the nationalist project in Quebec.
Degree
thesis:*- Level thesis:degree_level
- thesis.doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Technische Universität Dresden
- Year
- 2002
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Grzonka, Sabine Alice
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- Kolboom, Ingo
- Reichel, Edward
- Kempf, Udo