Exquisite Corpse (Robert Irwin novel)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Exquisite corpse is a historical novel by Robert Irwin. It is a novel, a survey of World War II history, and a commentary on surrealist art, all in one.
Caspar, the narrator of Exquisite Corpse, is one of a strange bunch of friends known as the Serapion Brotherhood—a group of artists, painters, and writers who are experimenting, expanding, and developing the then—nascent concept of surrealism. While the real-life figures André Breton, Salvador Dali, and Henry Moore-among others-move in and out of the narrative, Caspar details his and his friends' investigations into sex, surrealism, hypnagogic imagery, waxworks, mesmerism, and madness. But when Caspar meets Caroline—a beautiful and naïve young typist—he is completely entranced. Strangely, she seems to fit in extremely well with the surrealists. Is all as it seems? Where does she disappear to? Caspar, himself, is unsure what is real—and his therapist is no help at all—but the tale he has woven is, as Ian Critchley wrote in the Sunday Times, "Superb!"
