The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

André Breton 1896–1966

tinchebray, france

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ublished in 1924, Breton’s ‘‘Manifesto of Surrealism’’ initiated the Sur-

realist movement and situated him as its undisputed leader. Despite

many arguments that would divide and change the movement over the

years, Breton remained, until his death, in the vanguard of the most talented and

gifted writers of his time. Long after Surrealist thought had been eclipsed by the

rising popularity of Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism in the 1940s, Breton

remained true to the original conception of the tenets of the movement, fre-

quently citing Rimbaud and Marx, who espoused the notion of changing hu-

mankind and the world by freeing the human spirit from the bounds of reason.

Born in northern France, Breton studied medicine and worked in psychiatric

hospitals during World War I. Through his studies he discovered Freud. He was

attracted initially to the Dadaists; Surrealism, however, enabled him to approach

more directly human desire and the unconscious. His work, philosophic, poetic,

and deeply allusive, approached the ‘‘marvelous’’ first through the automatic

process and subsequently through a mystical orientation. With his wife, Jac-

queline Lamba, and their daughter, Aube, he went into exile in New York during

World War II, returning after the war to a greatly changed Paris and the accusa-

tion of the irrelevance of Surrealist thinking and writing in the new climate. He

nonetheless continued to assemble around him in Paris and in the Lot, at Saint-

Cirq-la Popie, a group of enthusiastic followers. Principal works: Mont de piété,

1919; Champs magnétiques (automatic prose, with Philippe Soupault), 1920; Clair

de terre, 1923; Poisson soluble, 1924; Nadja, 1928; L’Union libre, 1931; Le Revolver à

cheveux blancs, 1932; L’Air de l’eau, 1934; Constellations, 1959.

The Mystery Corset

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