Fire Smoulders in the Veins: Toyenʹs Queer Desire and Its Roots in Prague Surrealism

This essay explores Toyen’s development of queer themes and places it in the context of her Prague origins. It first looks at its place within the Prague group’s early erotica, then considers early Czech surrealism in relation to interwar Czech sex reformism, feminism, and homoerotic activism, and finally examines how Toyen’s production of artworks can be seen as enacting her queer desire in a tangible form. In closing, it relates Czech surrealist theory and practice to French surrealist ideas. The article also shows how inter-war Czechs participated in the struggle for sexual minority rights.