Items related to The Man of Jasmine/& Other Texts
Synopsis
In 1970, Unica Zurn, the companion and lover of the Surrealist artist Hans Bellmer, threw herself from the sixth floor window of their apartment in Paris. Her suicide was the culmination of thirteen years of mental crises which are described with disarming lucidity in The Man Of Jasmine, subtitled Impressions from a Mental Illness.
Zurn's mental collapse was initiated when she encountered in the real world her childhood fantasy figure "the man of jasmine": he was the writer Henri Michaux, and her meeting him plunged her into a world of hallucination in which visions of her desires, anxieties and events from her unresolved past overwhelmed her present life. Her return to "reality" was constantly interrupted by alternate visionary and depressive periods. Zurn's compelling narrative also reveals her uneasy relationship with words and language, which she attempted to resolve by the compulsive writing of anagrams. Anagrams allowed her to dissect the language of everyday, to personalise it, and to make it reveal hidden at its core astonishing messages, threats and evocations. They formed the basis of her interpretation of the split between her inner & outer lives and underpin the texts included in this selection.
The Man of Jasmine is certainly one of the greatest descriptions of mental collapse, but it is much more. Zurn's familiarity with Surrealist conceptions of the psyche, and her extraordinary self-possession during the most alarming experiences are allied to vivid descriptive powers which make this a literary as well as a psychological masterpiece.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherAtlas Pr
- Publication date1994
- ISBN 10 0947757805
- ISBN 13 9780947757809
- BindingPaperback
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number1
- Number of pages202
- Rating
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The Man of Jasmine & Other Texts
Seller: Moe's Books, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Good. No jacket. Cover edges are worn. Lower corner of front cover is lightly creased. Upper and lower edges of spine are worn, with some chipping along lower front hinge, not cutting off any text. Text block is tanned, visible on page margins, but pages are otherwise unmarked. Seller Inventory # 1146628
Quantity: 1 available
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The Man of Jasmine/& Other Texts
Seller: Book Deals, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Good condition. This is the average used book, that has all pages or leaves present, but may include writing. Book may be ex-library with stamps and stickers. 0.45. Seller Inventory # 353-0947757805-gdd
Quantity: 1 available
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The Man of Jasmine & Other Texts
Seller: Chequamegon Books, Washburn, WI, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Fine. 199 pages plus notes and publisher ads. ".currently one of the greatest descriptions of mental collapse, but it is much more. Zurn's familiarity with Surrealist conceptions of the psyche, and her extraordinary self-possession during the most alarming experiences are allied to vivid descriptive powers which make this a literary as well as a psychological masterpiece."; 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 ". Seller Inventory # 103618
Quantity: 1 available