Bibliografía General del Surrealismo en Castellano; Surrealistas y preursores; Recepción en Europa y América Latina
(General Bibliography of Surrealism in Spanish; Surrealists and precursors; reception in Europe and Latin America)
By Juan Carlos Otaño
Seriemusidora, Argentina: 2021.
Contact: jcotano@archivosurrealista.com for any inquiries
Of note, a major new reference work on surrealist and pre-surrealist texts in Spanish by Juan Carlos Otaño. A thick but beautiful handheld volume, it contains bibliographic details on books by surrealists, translations, and books of surrealist interest. This latter category importantly includes pre-surrealist writers, famous books by authors that surrealists have liked or that are otherwise implicated as surrealist precursors including for example the classic gothic authors like Ann Radcliffe, Horace Walpole, and many other, sometimes obscure, and always beautiful finds. A simple reference work at first glance, organized by alphabetical author name, and covering European and Latin American publications, it is easy to navigate or flip through by chance to discover new things. As one does, one quickly realizes the scope: an attempt to circumscribe the entire surrealist galaxy as it has been manifested in Spanish language publications. The author has spent considerable time and years of effort carefully curating texts and authors and has as a result been able to present a map of surrealism in bibliographic form. It is a major achievement beyond just the immediate uses of Spanish-language readers and provides a real pleasure of discovery as one finds new items that are sure to be of interest. Not insignificantly, this book is trustworthy and represents a surrealist’s active selection, and not that filtered by disconnected or misinformed academic or art historical “experts”, whose extrapolations, ignorance and omissions can often be very suspicious. And he throws down the gauntlet for similar efforts globally.