“Manifestos of Surrealism”, by André Breton, preface by Philippe Forest, Gallimard, “Bibliotheque de la Pléiade”, 1,138 p., 65 euros.
of the two Manifestos of surrealism Published in 1924 and 1930 in Sagittarius (there is a third, but reduced to a few pages of prolegomena), and today republished in “La Pléiade”, the most famous is the first, whose centenary is celebrated. Although it is the preface to a collection of poetry, soluble fishAndré Breton (1896-1966) provided a theoretical basis for the group’s activity, eventually disengaging from the overly anarchic Dadaist movement. However, it is in the second when Breton’s prose becomes the most sovereign (also the most controversial, with respect to former accomplices now reviled) and at the same time the most poetic.
There, in the midst of programmatic statements and anathemas, Breton appeals to his troops. His allies of course, within a literary environment in the midst of political restructuring. But, more broadly, to all those animated by the spirit of rebellion, because he still finds himself, he writes, “ At this moment all over the world, in secondary schools, even in workshops, on the street, in seminaries and in barracks, young, pure beings, who refuse fold ». It is to them above all that the author of Second manifesto is addressed, today as in 1930.
To manifest is above all to define surrealism. In 1924, Breton did it like in a dictionary: “Pure psychic automatism through which we propose to express (…) the real functioning of thought. » It all started in 1919 with a game – serious, like all the games of the surrealists – with Philippe Soupault (1897-1990): writing in turns what came to mind, fast enough to lose control, in a “ laudable contempt for what might follow literature ».
This experience of automatic writing suddenly revealed to them a psychic continent free from the limitations of reason or morality and accessible through various means, particularly dreams and hypnotic states. Once achieved, a new form of inspiration emerges, freed from all “ literature » in the traditional sense: repeated themes, rhetorical effects, poetic recipes…: everything old. Is it irony, defiance or ambition? The surrealists titled their first review. Literature.
A kind of magic formula
You have 53.71% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
