epicenter in Moscow, embracing surrealist ideals to forge a truly liberated society. Yet, disillusionment soon set in, as the surrealists, witnessing the brutal acts of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, began withdrawing from the Communist fold five years later.

Davies chronicles these grim events as integral to Stalin’s political machinations: "Innocent victims were rounded up in their homes and villages; others were charged with imaginary offences of ‘sabotage,’ ‘treason,’ or ‘espionage,’ and tortured into confession." Such terror tactics sought to quash dissent, leading Breton and his compatriots to vehemently denounce these show trials.

The eruption of World War II in 1939 saw a new tyrant, Adolf Hitler, unleashing his fury upon Europe. As the Nazi forces swept into France, the surrealist collective dispersed, fleeing to the sanctuary of other lands or foreign shores.

Automatic Writing

In his visionary Manifesto of Surrealism, Breton outlined the enigmatic practices of aspiring surrealists, among which shines a method known as automatic writing. This technique was cherished by surrealists as a gateway to the untainted purity of thought, unchained from the shackles of reason. Breton urged practitioners to cultivate a state of mental openness, advising, "Put yourself in as passive, or receptive, a state of mind as you can." He encouraged swift, uninhibited expression, "write quickly" about whatever flits through the mind, "fast enough so that you will not remember what you’re writing and be tempted to reread what you have written." Among the surrealists, Desnos stood out, celebrated as the group’s most adept in this art, with Breton asserting, "Desnos speaks surrealist at will."

Imagery

Poets wield language as a brush to paint vivid images, whether literal or metaphorical. An image can embody tangible objects, emotions, ethereal concepts, or anything perceivable through the senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing, or taste. A straightforward image is conveyed with directness, offering no hidden depths. Consider Paul Eluard’s poem, “What the Laborer Says Is Always Beside the Point,” where the second line states, "A man on a bench in a street who avoids the crowd." The clarity of this image leaves no room for ambiguity, as each word solidifies the vision in the reader’s mind.

Conversely, surrealist poetry thrives on figurative imagery—crafted through metaphors, similes, and other figurative expressions, these words are transformed to unveil new meanings. Eluard’s poem offers a striking example:

There are demolitions sadder than a penny
Indescribable and yet the sun moves away from them singing
While the sky dances and makes its honey.

Eluard’s choice of words resonates deeply when understood contextually. Here, "demolitions" wrought by war eclipse the worthlessness of a penny, the smallest denomination, mirroring the devastation’s profound insignificance. Despite the buildings’ "indescribable" ruin, the sun remains unaffected, continuing its celestial dance, "singing" as it rises and sets, indifferent to the destruction. Similarly, the sky, personified with joy and purpose, "dances and makes its honey," symbolizing rain, maintaining its natural cycle. Through figurative language, Eluard breathes life into the inanimate, encapsulating the relentless, unaffected march of the natural world amid human folly.

Juxtaposition

Beyond imagery, the surrealists deftly employed the art of juxtaposition, arranging their words to conjure the desired effects. Poets often placed disparate, sometimes contradictory elements side by side, weaving a tapestry where dreams and reality merged. This creative gamble birthed bewildering, yet captivating images. In Robert Desnos’s poem “Meeting,” the unexpected pairing unfolds:

A very learned doctor sews the hands of the praying woman assuring her she will sleep. A very skillful cook mixes poisons in my plate and assures me I will laugh.

These lines deliberately clash, creating a paradox. Doctors, normally healers, here bind hands, an act likely to bring agony rather than peace. Similarly, poison in a plate is more apt to bring demise than laughter. Yet, these discordant images etch themselves into the reader’s mind, evoking a palpable sense of treachery. The speaker finds themselves deceived by figures of authority, much like those misled during World War I, the "learned doctors" cloaked in logic, promising solace in swift victories while the truth is a bitter poison.

Surrealist Art

Surrealist painters and writers drew from a tapestry of inspirations, with Dadaism prominently in the mix. Yet, among the most profound influences was the pioneering artistry of Giorgio de Chirico. This Italian painter carved a niche with his metaphysical canvases, portraying stark, uninhabited urban scenes that he began crafting in 1910. De Chirico wielded light and shadow as his palette, setting objects in stark contrast to evoke an eerie, enigmatic menace lurking in the void.

André Breton championed surrealism in both art and prose. Within the pages of his magazine, La Révolution Surréaliste, he frequently showcased the works of Max Ernst and André Masson. However, the surrealists' grandest platform was the exhibition stage. In 1925, they orchestrated their inaugural collective exhibition in Paris, spotlighting the creations of Ernst, Masson, Joan Miró, and Man Ray, all pioneers of the surrealist cadre. De Chirico's early metaphysical pieces were also featured. Surrealism celebrated each artist's distinct vision, inviting diverse and thrilling interpretations of its core concepts. The exhibition's triumph heralded a series of subsequent showcases.

The Surrealist Gallery, debuting in 1926, offered a lasting haven for surrealist expression. French artists like Ernst, Masson, and Miró found a home there, drawing international eyes to their innovative work. Salvador Dalí, influenced by Freud like his poetic French counterparts, sought to unlock his subconscious by inducing self-hallucinations. Between 1929 and 1937, he conjured a series of fantastical, dream-infused landscapes, where familiar objects twisted into surreal forms. "The Persistence of Memory," his iconic piece, depicts clocks draped languidly over barren branches. Though these desolate scenes gained renown, Dalí's shift in the 1930s to more traditional art led to his ousting by Breton, who demanded unwavering loyalty to surrealist principles.

Surrealist painting blossomed until the dawn of World War II. The 1960s and 1970s saw sporadic exhibitions, as retrospectives honored the original masters who had since passed. Today, surrealist art remains a vibrant force, its legacy casting an enduring shadow across contemporary expression.

Surrealist Film

The surrealist wave first surged into cinema in the 1920s, mirroring its literary kin with films that juxtaposed and contradicted, often with unsettling imagery. The period's standout cinematic piece, Un Chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog), emerged in 1928 from the minds of first-time director Luis Buñuel and painter Dalí. Notoriously, it features a haunting scene of a woman's eye being sliced by a razor. As English surrealist poet David Gascoyne described in his Short Survey of Surrealism, the film "provoked scandal and sensation at its debut." It marked the beginning of surrealist cinema's critical acclaim, remaining a timeless classic.

For half a century, Buñuel continued to weave surrealist imagery into film, culminating in the 1977 masterpiece That Obscure Object of Desire. The surrealist vision of Buñuel and his peers thrives into the modern era. Cameron Crowe's 2001 film Vanilla Sky revisits these ideas, where Tom Cruise's character, a magazine magnate, spirals into surreal visions and ultimately discovers he inhabits a self-crafted virtual dreamscape.

Surrealist Drama

While some surrealists penned plays, their profound legacy lay in influencing the theatre of the absurd, a post-World War II dramatic movement during the 1950s and early 1960s. This school, a mosaic of foreign playwrights in Paris, arose as a rebuttal to wartime horrors. Like surrealists, absurdists cherished the illogical dreamscape over reason. Yet unlike their predecessors, who sought a hopeful counter to chaos, absurdists embraced life's intrinsic futility, portraying humanity as absurd and powerless. Their plays articulated these sentiments with unpredictable scenarios and nonsensical imagery. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, first staged in 1953, stands among the pantheon of world literature, alongside works by Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee.

England

In England, poet and novelist David Gascoyne played a pivotal role akin to Breton's in France, promoting surrealism in the 1930s. Beyond translating French surrealist poetry, he penned A Short Survey of Surrealism in 1935, dissecting the movement's evolution, critiquing Breton's manifestos, and exploring the oeuvre of major surrealist poets.

Gascoyne further championed the movement through his own poetry. His 1936 collection, Man’s Life Is This Meat, was a landmark of English surrealism. Unlike Breton, Gascoyne's focus veered towards mysticism rather than the subconscious. His late 1930s and early 1940s work reflected a growing spiritual preoccupation that later dominated his poetry.

1910s: Under the banner of revolution, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who would forever be immortalized as Lenin, orchestrates the seismic upheaval of the Russian state. The czar is toppled, and in its place rises a dictatorship championing the common people, steered by Lenin himself. In the years that follow, Lenin fervently dedicates himself to transforming the Communist Party into a formidable force poised to ignite revolution across the globe. He urges disparate communist factions to unite under the Soviet banner.

Today: In a striking twist of history, numerous nations once encased in the grip of communism, including the vast expanse of the former Soviet Union, now embrace the principles of democracy.

1910s: Amidst the roar of World War I, nations embroiled in the conflict turn to the power of persuasion. Through printed propaganda and shrewd psychological tactics, they paint their adversaries as villains, seeking to rally their citizens to the cause.

Today: Following the harrowing attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a wave of patriotism sweeps across America. Hollywood seizes this fervor, churning out a series of films steeped in themes of war, reflecting the nation’s collective mood.

1910s: The American poet John Masefield finds himself amidst the chaos of war, joining the United States volunteer ambulance service in France. In poignant letters sent to his wife, he chronicles the stark realities of combat, his vivid accounts later immortalized in The Old Front Line (1917) and other writings.

Today: As battles rage in Afghanistan, the world is kept on the edge of their seats with real-time updates. Journalists on the frontlines broadcast gripping video footage and insightful commentary, reaching the masses through radio waves, satellite television, and the boundless realm of the Internet.

Capital of Sorrow

Much like the celebrated Aragon, Paul Eluard's most profound creations emerged before he veered into the realm of politically charged prose. Capital of Sorrow, which made its debut in 1926, stands as a shining example of this period. Although Eluard had previously ventured into poetic volumes, this collection marked one of his earliest forays into surrealism, cementing his status as a luminary poet and drawing the spotlight to the surrealist movement. In Capital of Sorrow, Eluard delves into the stark dichotomy of love and solitude, unraveling each with the fervor and intensity that would become his hallmark. Through evocative imagery that speaks to both the individual soul and the collective consciousness, Capital of Sorrow was a pivotal milestone in his artistic journey. Among the pantheon of French surrealists, critics hailed Eluard as the most gifted, with works like Capital of Sorrow continuing to garner acclaim through the decades.

Liberty or Love!

Liberty or Love!, the surrealist narrative penned by Desnos, faced the sharp edge of censorship from a French court due to its vivid portrayals and inherent eroticism. Published in the year 1927, this novel, like many of its surrealist counterparts, unfolds with a fluid, dreamlike architecture. The tale unfurls a kaleidoscope of nebulous events as lovers Corsair Sanglot and Louise Lame weave in and out of each other's existence. Characters flit through the narrative like fleeting dream apparitions. The novel is celebrated for its richly detailed descriptions and its ethereal, oneiric essence. Its inaugural translation into English came in 1994, receiving a warm reception from critics who lauded its unique qualities.

The Magnetic Fields

The inception of The Magnetic Fields is a testament to an unwavering, almost fanatical devotion to a cause. In 1919, Breton and Soupault embarked on a series of experimental journeys, seeking to unlock the mysteries of their subconscious through techniques such as automatic writing. In a bold move, they induced a hypnotic trance, diving into an eight-day writing odyssey. The result was a collection of prose poems first unveiled to the world in their journal, Litterature. The Magnetic Fields, hailed by many as the inaugural surrealist text, played a crucial role in shaping the movement's trajectory.

Manifesto of Surrealism

When Breton released his pioneering Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924, it ignited a storm of controversy. The manifesto launched with a scathing critique of contemporary literary forms, such as the novel, using abrasive and unflattering language. It is little wonder that it faced resistance. Although the term "Surrealism" was first coined by his late friend Guillaume Apollinaire, Breton boldly claimed the mantle for his movement, offering an official definition:

Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express—verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner—the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.

The manifesto also presented an eclectic assortment of elements, including a roster of individuals Breton deemed surrealists, an elaborate guide to the technique of automatic writing, and numerous examples illustrating the essence of Surrealism. Breton expanded upon this foundational work with two subsequent manifestos and a suite of writings that further refined the aims and principles of the surrealist movement.

Paris Peasant

Louis Aragon's Paris Peasant, first published in 1926, stands as a distinctive surrealist novel that draws inspiration from two iconic Parisian locales: a passageway at the Paris Opera and the Buttes-Chaumont park. The novel received enthusiastic acclaim from critics who lauded its skillful fusion of the tangible realism of Parisian settings with the surrealistic elements of Aragon's imagined world. Critics were particularly impressed, as they were accustomed to surrealists who typically avoided anchoring their prose in real-world locations—a challenge for automatic writing. Thus, Aragon's novel was a refreshing deviation. Within its pages, Aragon also presented his personal interpretation of Surrealism, offering a perspective that diverged from Breton's definition in the Manifesto of Surrealism. Aragon emphasized the spontaneous and passionate use of imagery, believing each image compelled him "to revise the Universe."

Sources

Balakian, Anna, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 65: French Novelists, 1900–1930, Gale Research, 1988. pp. 20–28.

Breton, André, Manifestoes of Surrealism, University of Michigan Press, 1972, pp. 7, 11, 14, 26, 29–30, 33, 38.

—, “My Wife with Her Wood-Fire Hair,” in Modern French Poets, edited by Wallace Fowlie, Dover, 1992, p. 153.

Brown, Frederick, “Creation versus Literature: Breton and the Surrealist Movement,” in Modern French Criticism: From Proust and Valéry to Structuralism, edited by John K. Simon, University of Chicago Press, 1972, p. 136.

Caws, Mary Ann, The Poetry of Dada and Surrealism, Princeton University Press, 1970, p. 5.

Davies, Norman, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 877, 901, 903, 962.

Desnos, Robert, “From Deuil pour Deuil,” in Modern French Poets, edited by Wallace Fowlie, Dover, 1992, pp. 202–03.

—, “Meeting,” in Modern French Poets, edited by Wallace Fowlie, Dover, 1992, p. 207.

Eluard, Paul, “First in the World,” in Modern French Poets, edited by Wallace Fowlie, Dover, 1992, p. 177.

—, “What the Laborer Says Is Always beside the Point,” in Modern French Poets, edited by Wallace Fowlie, Dover, 1992, pp. 179, 181.

—, “You Rise Up,” in Modern French Poets, edited by Wallace Fowlie, Dover, 1992, p. 183.

Gascoyne, David, A Short Survey of Surrealism, City Lights Books, 1982, pp. 57, 91.

La Charité, Virginia A., Twentieth-Century French Avant- Garde Poetry, 1907–1990, French Forum Publishers, Incorporated, 1992, p. 83.

Lemaitre, Georges, From Cubism to Surrealism in French Literature, Harvard University Press, 1947, pp. 212–13.

Matthews, J. H., Surrealist Poetry in France, Syracuse University Press, 1969, p. 17.

Further Reading

Caws, Mary Ann, ed., Surrealist Painters and Poets, MIT Press, 2001. This book offers a large selection of reprinted texts from surrealist painters and poets, including some rare letters and essays that are hard to find elsewhere.

Levitt, Annette Shandler, The Genres and Genders of Surrealism, St. Martin’s Press, 1999. Levitt places Surrealism at the center of modernism and explores the philosophical stance of Surrealism, the creative rebellion that was more than a new way of looking at things.

Rose, Alan, Surrealism and Communism: The Early Years, Peter Lang Publishing, 1991. At one point, Surrealism was linked with communism. Rose explores this link between the two ideologies and how it was established and broken.

Walz, Robin, Pulp Surrealism: Insolent Popular Culture in Early Twentieth-Century France, University of California Press, 2000. Walz focuses on the little-known influences of French Surrealism, which include fantastic popular fiction, and sensationalistic journalism—part of the darker, more rebellious, side of mass culture.