Looking at both his art (many of the works she discusses are reproduced in the book) and his writings, she reveals how thoroughly alchemical philosophy and symbolism pervade his early Dadaist experiments, his foundational work in surrealism ...
The book is structured in three themes: "Tradition and Authority", about the relations between the author and the tradition in post-modern literature; "Narrative Technique", about the role of the author; and "Textuality and Hypertext", ...
Max Ernst used the word "frottage" to describe a medium invented by him in 1925, which proved to be his most original contribution to automatism in art.
Originally published as a special issue of Critical Inquiry, the present collection includes two new contributions by Max Black and Nelson Goodman, along with a comprehensive index to the work.