Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Van Tuyl, Jocelyn

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

This thesis examines how two women, Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning, negotiated power for themselves as authors and artists while involved with the patriarchal artistic movement of Surrealism. I argue that Carrington and Tanning reclaimed power through their artwork and writings by establishing their own highly specific and individual imagery. The first chapter demonstrates how Carrington resisted the patriarchy by employing animals as symbolic figures in her art and literature. The second chapter explores how Tanning subverted domestic spaces to reject domesticity as her social role and challenged the Surrealist trope of the femme-enfant by creating young, magical females. The thesis concludes by considering how the historically biased representation of Surrealism has affected and continues to affect the artistic legacies of women artists involved with the Surrealist movement.

Download

Share

COinS