A Consideration of The Ideas and Works of C.G Jung and English Surrealist Artist Leonora Carrington by Allan Storer

A Consideration of The Ideas and Works of C.G Jung and English Surrealist Artist Leonora Carrington by Allan Storer

A Consideration of The Ideas and Works of C.G Jung and EnglishSurrealist Artist Leonora Carrington.

Introduction

In rethinking and expanding our conception of Surrealist movement I shall, take into consideration the ideas and works of C.G Jung and English artist Leonora Carrington.

Pertinent to my argument is the question whether or not we accept a Surrealist discourse arising out of female experience or do we accept as Surrealist only that discourse in which women Surrealists must always function secondarily to their male counterparts.

I shall argue that Andre Breton's initial adherence to Sigmund Freud in the First Manifesto (1924) was paradoxical to his ultimate aims and objectives. The very fact that Freudian psychology is rooted in the individuals personal past I believe created several problems for Andre Breton.

In Chapter One I shall examine some of these problems, and begin by looking at the highly subjective nature of automatic writing and the Surrealists failure to free themselves upfrom the personality.

Breton's Second Manifesto addresses more metaphysical issues. Breton embraces Hegel's dialectics and Objective Chance, but ironically fails to address the obvious contradiction between male and female.I shall make comparison between Freud, Jung and Breton and argue that the deterministic and phallic centred ideas of Freud are unhelpful on both counts and Breton would have found a more suitable mentor in Jung.

Breton's adventure with Nadja 1928 highlights his objectification of woman. As such I shall argue that Nadja is a failed adventure' in his quest for self identity.

By contrast in Chapter Two I will argue that Carrington constructs an assertive female subject out of woman's own mythology and values. In this context her early writings and her two paintings Inn of Dawn Horses: Self Portrait 1937 (Fig.1) and Portrait of Ernst c. 1939 (Fig.2) can be interpreted as articulating a Jungian perspective of the collective unconscious, and her conscious involvement in her search for self; a process Jung terms as individuation. It is at this point that the distinctions between external reality and inner self image, notably the Surrealist marvellous!

Central to my argument will be Carrington's relationship with artist Max Ernst who as symbolic and real man responds to her unconscious needs and liberates her from a claustrophobic and bourgeois environment and as her archetypal animus or hero figure from the symbolic forces of the Great Mother.

In Chapter Three I will introduce English Surrealist and theoretician Herbert Read. Read's English contribution' acknowledges English Romanticism as its precursor. This alternative viewpoint is one I believe Carrington's works obviously address. It is within Read's discourse that Carrington's contribution can be more readily assessed for its Surrealist value.

Allan Storer.

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