C. B. Morris – författare

One of the countries most directly affected by surrealism was Spain, and this book traces the processes by which this influence reached Spain and was taken up by Spanish writers and artists. Mr Morris concentrates firstly on the French works which influenced the Spaniards, and secondly on the themes, motifs, moods and techniques which appeared as a result in Spanish and Catalan - principally poetry and other literature, but also painting and film. An important feature of the book is the inclusion of a substantial collection of documentary materials on surrealism in Spain, poems, lectures and other writings, in French, Spanish and Catalan. This material, much of it not easily available elsewhere, is essential to a full understanding of the effects of the movement in Spain. Spanish and Catalan verse quotations appear in the original language with a prose gloss at the foot of the page, whilst prose is given in translation.

This critical study of the group of remarkably talented poets who flourished in Spain between the First World War and the Spanish Civil War includes copious quotations accompanied by English prose translations. Mr Morris treats his poets as a group, showing how they shared certain themes and attitudes. He begins with a general study of the generation as a whole and then examines the use of tradition; the zest and levity of the Jazz Age; the exaltation of life as a shared attitude; then its converse; the escape from life; and finally the expression in complex imagery of personal tensions and disturbances. These are often 'difficult' poets, but become less so when they are sympathetically examined in this way and in relation to earlier literary traditions. Mr Morris enables the reader to take bearings and establish relationships which are enhanced by reproductions of photographs of the poets.