The words "surreal" and "surrealism" are now part of our everyday vocabulary and are used to qualify all sorts of things, from situations to quotes and artworks. Despite this sense of familiarity, surrealism is often misunderstood. I thus wish to "resurrect" Andre Breton's seminal Manifestoes of Surrealism (1924-1930) as part of msmorvay's Resurrecting the Oldies W/O.

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From dadaism to surrealism

French-born Andre Breton (1896-1966) was the leader of the surrealist movement, which originated as the natural successor of dadaism. Dadaism had been the forceful revolt of artists who rebelled against mainstream Western culture, life and art. Their revolt often took the form of public manifestations and provocative exhibitions. They questioned the traditional means of artistic expression, and reached their peak with Hans Arp's sculptures, Max Ernst's collages and Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades (a manufactured object is elevated to art). But dadaism was essentially a destructive movement, and did not quite satisfy the needs of those who still had hope in these troubled, post-WW1 times.

These needs were fulfilled by surrealism, whose birth is generally traced back to the publication of Andre Breton's and Philippe Soupault's Les champs magnetiques (1919). But the movement's turnaround year came in 1924: a periodical was founded (La revolution surrealiste), and Breton published his first Manifesto. Key surrealist poets included Breton himself, Aragon, Eluard and Desnos; the best-known visual artists among surrealists were Dali, Ernst, Magritte, Miro, Lam, and Tanguy. Breton eventually published a Second Manifesto (1930), which was more polemical and even brutal sometimes - maybe too much so, according to Breton's own 1946 foreword. Surrealism migrated elsewhere around the globe, notably in Belgium, Swiss, England and Czechoslovakia. It also made a strong impression in Montreal (my hometown): in 1948, Paul-Emile Borduas and his friends released the powerful Refus global, whose debt to surrealism is enormous. Breton came here in the 1940s, and even wrote about one of his visits in the mysterious Arcane 17 (1944).

What is surrealism?

Any description of surrealism is bound to be deceiving. Surrealism is not a doctrine or a technique, but a way of life that must be experienced to be truly understood. Thus, the following paragraphs are in no way exhaustive. Still, I will do my best to paint a broad picture of the movement, drawing most of my information from Breton's two Manifestoes. One should note that this particular edition also includes texts such as Soluble Fish (1924), A Letter to the Seers (1925) and the magnificent On Surrealism in its Living Works (1953).

+ Towards modern man's transcendence. Like most avant-garde movements of the 20th century, surrealism laments modern man's routine, ordinary life. Such a lack of ambition results from the ignorance of what could transfigure man's existence. The means of his freedom lie dormant and must be awakened; only then will man be able to reach his full potential. This awakening happens when man finds a way to recover the powers he has lost. In that vein, surrealism does not postulate straight progress or evolution (despite its flirt with Marx in the late 1920s and early 1930s), but envisions knowledge as recollection (shades of Platonism).

+ Influences. Breton's influences are extremely wide. Proto-romantic, romantic and post-romantic poets/writers such as Sade, Poe, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Lautreamont and Roussel; thinkers such as Heraclitus, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx and Freud. But he also evokes other sources: Plato, occultism and alchemy.

+ Contradictions reconciled. These influences might seem contradictory at first, but one should not forget that Breton's aim is to resorb all opposites - immanence and transcendence, body and soul, matter and spirit, the rational and the irrational, materialism and esotericism, disintegration and reintegration, the individual and society, darkness and light, etc. As he suggests in the Second Manifesto, surrealism aims at the supreme point wherein all contradictions are reconciled. This is a key theme in esotericism.

+ Dreams. Dreams are a key component of surrealism. Breton was of course influenced by Freud, but he goes beyond Freud's limited grid (which usually reduces symbolic implications to libido). For Breton, dreams are just as important as 'reality': he does not wish to forsake everyday life altogether, but to fuse dream and 'reality' in a single, superior state, which he names surrealite (surreality).

+ Automatism. Automatism is arguably the armature of surrealism. It is not a technique but an anti-technique, an experience in which man surrenders himself to his inner voice. Through automatic writing, the poet transcribes what comes to him with no interference from his reason. Breton contends that the poet becomes a living oracle as he writes something on which his intelligence has no bearing. This re-enacts the view of poetry expressed by Plato in his dialogue Ion: the poet is not a technician, his works are not the result of knowledge but of inspiration. Breton's evocative description of automatic writing in the First Manifesto brings it close to a ritual.

+ The rational and irrational coexist. Once the automatic text has been written, reason must play its role and decipher the message. For Breton, studying these apparently arbitrary works shows that they are not arbitrary at all and have strong symbolic meanings. In other words, automatism is not a total abyss of reason, as some have suggested: the rational and the irrational coexist in it. Both surrealism's detractors and some of its admirers have used a famous Rimbaud quote to describe the movement: a derangement of the senses. The complete and correct Rimbaud quote is this: a reasoned derangement of the senses. This is a crucial difference! A good example of this interplay between the rational and the irrational can be found in Salvador Dali's infamous paranoiac-critical method, wherein he rationally interprets the results of symbols which emerged from his unconscious.

+ Man and the cosmos. Initially an individual, solitary quest, surrealism also encompasses society (this is emphasized by Breton's passing interest in Marx, especially in the Second Manifesto) but also the cosmos itself. This can be seen in what Breton deems hasards objectifs ('objective accidents') - Jung called this synchronicity. It is possible to note curious connexions between one's inner self and worldly events; this implies a natural sympathy between beings, but also between beings and the world.

In closing: surrealism as a provocative renewal of ancient thought

As someone who is fascinated by both ancient philosophy and modern art, I'm naturally drawn to Breton's Manifestoes of Surrealism. I find that Breton's subversive use of ancient sources is far more fruitful than the conservative, sterile traditionalism expressed by many classicists. Such conservatives usually consider surrealism as anti-traditional or nihilistic. But while these classicists are merely interested in the texts of the tradition, Breton seeks to re-enact the actual experiences of ancient thinkers; the distance between his surrealism and the ancients is thus smaller than that between the ancients and the self-proclaimed classicists.

As I have noted earlier, Breton's consideration of the poet as an oracle is extremely close to Plato's views. It does not matter if Breton attributes the poet's inspiration to his unconscious rather than to the divine: the key is Breton's willingness to adapt the ancient concept of inspiration/revelation to the modern, secular world. He thus gives modern man a renewed opportunity to experience wonder and the sacred not only in art, but in himself and the cosmos.

How many conservative, anti-modern classicists can boast this?

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