3

1931–1945:

Prewar and War Poetry

Claude de Burine, Aimé Césaire, René Char, Andrée Chédid, Léon-

Gontran Damas, René Daumal, Michel Deguy, René Depestre,

Mohammed Dib, Louis-René des Forêts, André Frénaud, Jean

Grosjean, Eugène Guillevic, Anne Hébert, Radovan Ivsic, Edmond

Jabès, Pierre-Albert Jourdan, Gherasim Luca, Dora Maar, Joyce

Mansour, Meret Oppenheim, Valentine Penrose, Gisèle Prassinos,

Boris Vian

E

ven as the dark years of World War II approached, Surreal-
ism continued, in a more established, less revolutionary
mode. It was during this time, that is, after its initial phase,
that women were increasingly included in its ranks. The young poet
Gisèle Prassinos, well known for her ‘‘automatic writing,’’ was a favorite of
the Surrealists when she was only fourteen. Her stories have a particular
twist, as do her poems, one of which is included here. Another poet, Dora
Maar, was known only as a photographer and painter, particularly for
some of her photographs, such as the very Surrealist Father Ubu (a mon-
strous animal with tiny paws, presumably an armadillo fetus) and Rue
d’Astorg (a strange statue of a small-headed woman seated on a tiny bench
before a background of doors and warped arches). These photographs of
1933–1934 were used as postcards by the Surrealists. During this period,
Maar was linked with Georges Bataille and then, from 1936 to 1942, was
the companion of Pablo Picasso, whose great painting Guernica she pho-
tographed in its many stages of composition. Valentine Penrose, through
her husband, Roland Penrose, was associated with members of the inner
circle of Surrealists and was closely connected with Alice Rahon, later the
wife of the painter Wolfgang Paalen: bisexual relations had a certain