Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto

William Magrino (Rutgers University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1967

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Pamphlets/ Tracts/ Chapbooks

Resources

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Valerie Solanas’s elusive text,

SCUM Manifesto

, first circulated by her on the streets of New York in 1967, has been intrinsically connected to what has been largely interpreted as an assault on our cultural consciousness. For the past five decades, this essay, and by extension Solanas’s identity, has been firmly linked to her attempted assassination of Andy Warhol, as well as art critic Mario Amaya, in 1968 at Warhol’s Factory in New York City. In turn, this act resulted in the vilification of Solanas and the subsequent condemnation and ghettoization of her text as merely a rant from a fringe voice. Upon closer examination, however, there are apparently two Valerie Solanases. One is the would-be assassin of the famed artist and the other is the author of an important, and equally…

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1172 words

Citation: Magrino, William. "SCUM Manifesto". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 June 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=37163, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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