J.G. Ballard's Surrealist Imagination: Spectacular Authorship

256 Pages·2009·6.019 MB·English

by  Jeannette Baxter

J. G. BALLARD’S
SURREALIST IMAGINATION
For Kate, with love
J. G. Ballard’s
Surrealist Imagination
Spectacular Authorship
JEANNETTE BAXTER
Anglia Ruskin University, UK
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(cid:38)(cid:82)(cid:83)(cid:92)(cid:85)(cid:76)(cid:74)(cid:75)(cid:87)(cid:3)© Jeannette Baxter 2009
Jeannette Baxter has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Baxter, Jeannette
J. G. Ballard’s surrealist imagination : spectacular authorship
1.Ballard, J. G., 1930– – Criticism and interpretation 2. Surrealism (Literature)
I. Title
823.9’14
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baxter, Jeannette.
J. G. Ballard’s surrealist imagination : spectacular authorship / by Dr. Jeannette Baxter.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6267-9 (alk. paper)
1. Ballard, J. G., 1930– —Criticism and interpretation. 2. Science fiction, English—
History and criticism. 3. Surrealism (Literature) I. Title.
PR6052.A46Z57 2008
823.914—dc22
2008018472
ISBN(cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:22): 978-0-7546-6267-9 (cid:11)(cid:75)(cid:69)(cid:78)(cid:12)
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
List of Illustrations vii
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
1 Mapping a Surrealist Historiography: Recontextualising
The Drowned World and The Crystal World 17
2 Reading The Atrocity Exhibition: A History of Forms 59
3 Radical Surrealism: Performance, Photography and History
in Crash 99
4 Convulsive Autobiography: Negotiating History, Memory
and Fiction in Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women 135
5 The Surrealist Fait Divers: Uncovering Violent Histories in
Running Wild, Cocaine Nights, Super-Cannes and
Millennium People 171
Conclusion 219
Bibliography 223
Index 239
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to many colleagues and friends. I would like to thank Victor Sage,
a brilliant teacher and generous colleague, from whom I have learned so much.
Special thanks to Patricia Waugh, Dawn Ades and Clive Scott for their invaluable
advice and support; and to Roger Luckhurst for his kind and perceptive comments.
I would also like to acknowledge my gratitude to Lorna Sage. Her unfailing energy
and enthusiasm were invaluable in the nascent phases of this project, and I hope
she would have liked the way it turned out.
The process of acquiring the images for this book has been long and often
complex. I am indebted to many public and private institutions and private
collectors worldwide for their kind assistance. I am also extremely grateful to The
British Academy for supporting this project so generously.
Enormous thanks to J. G. Ballard, who has kindly allowed me to reproduce
sections of ‘The Summer Cannibals’ and Project for a New Novel; to Michael
Moorcock, who has permitted me to reprint materials from New Worlds; and to
Martin Bax for letting me spend time rummaging through the Ambit archives.
I would like to warmly thank my editor at Ashgate, Anne Donahue, who has
provided vital guidance at every step along the way. My biggest debt is to Kate
Lee, who has put up with me and this project in all of its manifestations.
This book was written over a period of six years (2000–2006) and sections
of it have been published elsewhere. Part of Chapter Three appeared in Textual
Practice as ‘Radical Surrealism: Rereading Photography and History in J. G.
Ballard’s Crash’, Volume 22, Issue 3. September 2008, pp. 507–28. The first
section of Chapter Five was published in Papers of Surrealism as ‘The Surrealist
Fait Divers: Uncovering Violent Histories in J. G. Ballard’s Running Wild’, Papers
of Surrealism, eds., Dawn Ades, David Lomas, Jennifer Mundy. April 2007.
I gratefully acknowledge the editors and publishers of these journals for allowing
me to reprint material.
List of Illustrations
1.1. Max Ernst, Europe after the Rain I, 1933. Oil and gypsum on
plywood, 101 x 149cm. Private Collection, Switzerland. Image
courtesy of Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UK. © ADAGP,
Paris and DACS, London 2007 19
1.2. Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory (Persistance de la
memoire), 1931. Oil on canvas, 9 1/2 x 13 inches (24.1 x 33 cm).
New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Given
anonymously. 162.1934. © Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador
Dali Foundation, DACS, London 2007. © 2007. Digital image,
The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. 25
1.3. André Masson, The Cemetery, 1924. Oil on canvas,
115, 5 x 89 cm. Donation by André Lèfevre, 1960. Musée de
Grenoble, France. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007 26
1.4. Paul Delvaux, The Worried City, 1941. Oil on canvas,
205 x 250 cm. Private Collection, Brussels. Image courtesy of
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UK. © DACS 2007 31
1.5. Max Ernst, The Large Forest, 1927. Oil on canvas,
114.5 x 146.5 cm. Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland.
© DACS/ Giraudon/ The Bridgeman Art Library.
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007 34
1.6. Max Ernst, Forest and Sun, 1927. Oil on canvas,
112.5 x 146.5 cm. © Private Collection/ Photo © Held
Collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library. © ADAGP,
Paris and DACS, London 2007 35
1.7. Max Ernst, Petrified Forest (Charcoal on Paper), 1927.
© Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou,
Paris, France/ The Bridgeman Art Library. © ADAGP,
Paris and DACS, London 2007 36
1.8. The World in the Time of the Surrealists , from ‘Le Surréalisme
en 1929’, special issue of Variété, no. 5, May 1929 40
viii J. G. Ballard’s Surrealist Imagination
1.9. Max Ernst, The Entire City, 1935–36. Oil on canvas,
60 x 81 cm. Kunsthaus, Zürich. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS,
London 2007 42
1.10. Alfred Böcklin, The Island of the Dead (1st version) 1880.
Oil on canvas, 111 x 155 cm. Kunstmuseum, Basel,
Switzerland. Permanent loan of the Gottfried Keller
Foundation 1920. Photo Kunst Museum Basel, Martin Bühler 44
2.1. J. G. Ballard, Project for a New Novel. Published in Ambit
c.1957. © J. G. Ballard. Reproduced by permission of Ambit,
and by permission of the author c/o Margaret Hanbury,
27 Walcot Square, London SE11 4UB 64
2.2. J. G. Ballard, Project for a New Novel. Published in Ambit
c. 1957. © J. G. Ballard. Reproduced by permission of Ambit,
and by permission of the author c/o Margaret Hanbury,
27 Walcot Square, London SE11 4UB 65
2.3. J. G. Ballard, ‘Advert’. Published in Ambit c. 1957.
© J. G. Ballard. Reproduced by permission of Ambit,
and by permission of the author c/o Margaret Hanbury,
27 Walcot Square, London SE11 4UB 68
2.4. J. G. Ballard, ‘The Summer Cannibals’. Published in New Worlds,
no. 186, 1969. © J. G. Ballard. Reproduced by permission of
New Worlds, and by permission of the author c/o
Margaret Hanbury, 27 Walcot Square, London SE11 4UB 70
2.5. J. G. Ballard, ‘The Summer Cannibals’. Published in New Worlds,
no. 186, 1969. © J. G. Ballard. Reproduced by permission of
New Worlds and by permission of the author c/o Margaret Hanbury,
27 Walcot Square, London SE11 4UB 71
2.6. Hans Bellmer, Doll (La Poupeé), 1935–1938. Hand-coloured
vintage gelatin silver contact print, 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 inches
(5.7 x 5.4 cm). Ubu Gallery, New York & Galerie Berinson,
Berlin. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007 75
2.7. Max Ernst, Garden Aeroplane Trap, 1935. Oil on canvas,
59.7 x 73 cm. © Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice,
Italy/ The Bridgeman Art Library. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS,
London 2007 84
List of Illustrations ix
3.1. Eduardo Paolozzi, Head Looking Up, 1980. Bronze sculpture,
24 x 16.50 x 38 cm. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
© Trustees of the Paolozzi Foundation, Licensed by DACS 2007 107
3.2. Eduardo Paolozzi, Head, 1978. Print; counterproof of linoleum
gravure, 44.50 x 29.00 cm (sheet: 60.50 x 44.50 cm).
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. © Trustees of the
Paolozzi Foundation, Licensed by DACS 2007 108
3.3. Eduardo Paolozzi, Yukio Mishima, 1984. Bronze sculpture,
37.30 x 42.30 x 25.20 cm. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
© Trustees of the Paolozzi Foundation, Licensed by DACS 2007 109
3.4. Andy Warhol, Optical Car Crash, 1962. Silkscreen paint on
canvas, 208 x 208.5 cm. Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland.
Photo Kunstmuseum, Basel, Martin Bühler. © Licensed by
the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc/ARS,
New York and DACS, London 2007 117
3.5. Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920. India ink, colour chalks and
brown wash paper. Gift of Fania and Gershom Scholem.
John and Paul Herring, Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder.
Collection, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Photograph ©
Collection The Israel Muesum/ by David Harris. © DACS 2007 121
3.6. Man Ray, Anatomies, Paris 1929. New York, Museum of
Modern Art (MoMA). Gelatin silver print, 8 7/8 x 6 ¾ inches
(22, 6 x 17, 2 cm). Gift of James Thrall Soby. 151. 1941.
© 2007. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art,
New York/Scala, Florence. © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP,
Paris and DACS, London 2007 124
3.7. Eli Lotar, La Villette Abatoir (Aux Abatoirs de la Vilette), 1929.
Gelatin silver print. Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée National
d’Art Moderne. © M. et Mme Jean-Pierre Marchand.
Photos : CNAN/MNAM Dist. RMN/ © Jacques Faujour 127
3.8. Eli Lotar, La Villette Abatoir (Aux Abatoirs de la Vilette), 1929.
Gelatin silver print. Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée National
d’Art Moderne. © M. et Mme Jean-Pierre Marchand. Photos :
CNAN/MNAM Dist. RMN/ © Jacques Faujour 128