andrebretonlegacyofsurrealism

[andrebretonlegacyofsurrealism]

Description of Key Works

Nadia:

Andre Breton’s 1928 novel, Nadja, follows the life of Breton and his brief encounter with a woman in France. In the novel Breton is both the narrator and the main character. The novel is known to be autobiographical however because of it’s surrealist influence it feels very dreamlike and partially fictional. The novel relates to surrealism in two distinct ways. One Breton directly writes about artist and ideas of the surrealist movement. He mentions artist such as Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst. He also mentions Sigmund Freud and his studies related to dreams and psychoanalysis. Breton writes “Since the production of dream images always depends on at least this double play of mirrors, there is, here, the indication of the highly special… in the Freudian sense of the word... in the dream, and, subsequently, in what we quite arbitrarily oppose to dream under the name of reality” (51). The second way it relates to surrealism is because of Bretons writing style. He writes in what is known as “stream of consciousness”. This style was very popular among the surrealist because it took away formal thought and let the subconscious mind surface.

In the first half of the novel Breton simply talks about his life in Paris and his own ideas. This part of the book feels the most “real” and autobiographical, compared to the part of the book that Nadja is in. The section of the book that she is in feel like a dream, especially because he only was with her for little over a week, but her presence stayed in his life for much longer.   Nadja is the one of the key figures in the novel (the book is named after her), along with Breton. However, there is also another key figure(s) in the novel which is the photographs that Breton includes. These photos begin to take on a life of their own and become central characters in the book. Sometimes they’re photos of actual people, sometimes they’re of places, or drawings. The purpose of these are to take the reader to a specific place and time. To not only give verbal communication but visual as well. The one curious thing is that there are no photos of Nadja which makes her feel even more dreamlike. She is like a spirit that just exist within the book.

In the first part of the novel there is no clear passage of time, but once Breton writes about his time with Nadja he begins to narrates day by day. He writes what seems like diary entries of each day with her. Throughout the book Breton continually tries to understand who Nadja is. When he originally meets her, he ask who she is and she replies she “ is the soul in limbo”. Her character is essentially a dream, her existence in Breton’s life isn’t long and she even describes herself as this person who floats between reality and somewhere else. Breton tries to decipher who she really was “Who is the real nadja-- the one who told me she had wandered all night long… I mean, is the real Nadja this always inspired and inspiring creature who enjoyed being nowhere in the street” (113).  She both fascinated him and haunted him, especially after he found out she was “mad” and went to an asylum. Overall, the novel is a surrealist novel, but the book was not about Nadja it was more about Breton and how she affected him, and his ideologies.

Surrealist Manifesto:

Andre Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto acts as a manual for the Surrealist movement as a whole. The Manifesto is divided into two parts. The first manifesto was written in 1924, and the second in 1929. The first manifesto expresses both the application of surrealism to art and literature as well as to everyday life. Breton stresses the importance of the dream and the subconscious. He expresses a heavy interest and inspiration from the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. He also mentions other previous people he embodied surrealism before there was “surrealism”, such as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Dante. Breton concludes that there is no set plan or conventional thought to surrealism and essentially surrealism was a response to the atrocities of WWI and strived to not conform . Surrealist were also inspired by the Dadaist who also followed similar sentiments. In this first manifesto Breton also describes the idea of ascending a higher reality. He explains one can free themselves from this current reality if they liberate their psyche from tradition, work and bourgeois culture. The purpose of this first manifesto was to defy “rationalism” and conventional thought, and to identify surrealism as a movement.

The purpose of the Breton’s second manifesto is to further critique and respond to his ideas of surrealism in general. From the beginning of this manifesto Breton seems relatively bitter on how surrealism is being perceived and who was previously representing it. He name drops a few previous members who were once Surrealist and explains why they are no longer a part of the group. He then explains clearly what the surrealist are and what their purpose should be. He states “Everything remains to be done, every means must be worth trying, in order to lay waste to the ideas of family, country and religion. No matter how well known the Surrealist position may be with respect to this matter, still it must be stressed that on this point there is no room for compromise. Those who make their duty to maintain this position persist in advancing negation, in belittling any other criterion of value” (128). Breton seems to imply there are strict rules to being a true Surrealist and this is expressed further that the group is so exclusive. I find this quite hypocritical because he once expressed surrealism as being an “anarchy” and to go against societal norms, but he then contradicts himself by stresses the importance of rules and conformity within the surrealist group.

Egg and the Church or the Snake:

Breton is mostly known for his writing but he also experimented with drawing and photography.. He created the piece “Egg and the Church or the Snake” which is a photographic collage. Photo collage was popular amongst surrealist for its distortion and manipulation of reality. The photo depicts a woman sitting in a chair gazing up but not at anything in particular. In the background there is another woman’s head. The combination of these images and the background give the photo a dreamlike feeling. Surrealist often exploited the female form and used it in their artwork. The image also references religion by having the woman wear what seems like a pope hat. The photo is known to symbolize “sexual repression and desire under the church”. This collage is a lesser known work but still highlights important aspects of surrealism.

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Andre Breton

Bibliography

 Balakian, Anna. "André Breton and His Admirers." Books Abroad 25, no. 3 (1951): 237-38.

Balakian, Anna. "André Breton as Philosopher." Yale French Studies, no. 31 (1964): 37-44.

Beaujour, Michel. "André Breton: The Stone Age." Yale French Studies, no. 31 (1964): 61-65.

———"André Breton". 2017. Biography. http://www.biography.com/people/andré-breton-37471.

Cardinal, Roger. "André Breton: The Surrealist Sensibility." Mosaic: A Journal for the  Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 1, no. 2 (1968): 112-26.

Conley, Katharine. "Surrealism and Outsider Art: From the "Automatic Message" to André       Breton's Collection." Yale French Studies, no. 109 (2006): 129-43.

Herheck, Mariah Devereux. "André Breton's Nadja: A Vagabonde in a Femme Fatale's             Narrative." Dalhousie French Studies 82 (2008): 163-71.

Hodin, J. P. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 127, no. 5280 (1979): 807-08.

Hopkins, David. "André Breton. Paris, Musée Nationale D'art Moderne." The Burlington          Magazine 133, no. 1060 (1991): 479-80.

Ladimer, Bethany. "Madness and the Irrational in the Work of Andre Breton: A Feminist         Perspective." Feminist Studies 6, no. 1 (1980): 175-95.

Llosa, Mario Vargas, and Thilo Ullmann. "Nadja as Fiction." Salmagundi, no. 126/127           (2000):             53-59.

Matthews, J. H. "Fifty Years Later: The Manifesto of Surrealism." Twentieth Century Literature             21, no. 1 (1975): 1-9.

———"Moma | Surrealism". 2017. Moma.Org.

           https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/surrealism.

 Polizzotti , Mark. "In Search of André Breton." Agni, no. 40 (1994): 77-83.

Pierre Taminiaux. "Breton and Trotsky: The Revolutionary Memory of Surrealism." Yale French         Studies, no. 109 (2006): 52-66.

Schoenfeld, Jean Snitzer. "André Breton, Alchemist." The French Review 57, no. 4 (1984): 493-          502.

Schulte, Rainer. Books Abroad 46, no. 3 (1972): 444.

Ward, Geoff. "André Breton and Surrealism's Double Vision." The Cambridge Quarterly 28, no.          3 (1999): 252-61.

———"André Breton Biography, Art, And Analysis Of Works". 2017. The Art Story. http://www.theartstory.org/artist-breton-andre.htm.

Witkovsky, Matthew S. "Dada Breton." October 105 (2003): 125-36.

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Key Works: Andre Breton, “Le Manifeste du Surréalisme (The Manifesto of Surrealism)”, 1924

Andre Breton, “Egg in the church or The Snake”, Collage on Paper, Musee d'Ixelles

Andre Breton, “Nadja”, 1928

[andrebretonlegacyofsurrealism]

Andre Breton born on February 19th, 1896 and died on September 28th, 1966, was a French writer and artist.