Chapter 31 French Surrealism

Surrealism, noun.Pure spiritual automatism, the attempt to use this automatism to express the real thought process, spoken or written or in any other way.It is a transcript of thought, free from any control of reason, independent of any aesthetic or moral bias. ——Breton Surrealism is a "spiritual revolution" that emerged in France after the First World War.It set off a rebellious movement against capitalist traditional cultural thought in the fields of literature, art and other cultures, and its influence spread to other countries in Europe and America.Its content goes beyond literature to art fields such as painting and music.It tries to be unique in issues such as the source of creation, the method of creation, and the purpose of creation, and social issues such as the capitalist social system and people's living conditions have also entered its attention.

This movement was initiated by a group of French youths who participated in the First World War. They witnessed the absurdity and destruction of the war, and had deep doubts about the traditional ideals, culture, and morality centered on rationality.The old belief loses its charm and they try to explore a new ideal to replace it.Surrealism is their attempt at new ideals. The young poet and doctor Breton was the standard-bearer of surrealism. He served in a mental hospital during the war, came into contact with Freud's psychoanalysis theory, and was later influenced by his contemporary poet Apollinaire. The exploration of the subconscious is applied to the art of poetry.In 1919, he formed a group with Aragon and Subo, and founded the magazine "Literature".They acted under the guidance of "trying to express the principles that are contrary to common sense". Breton cooperated with Su Bo to create the collection of poems "Magnetic Field" (1920) with "automatic writing method"; verses were recited.They often exchange their experience in exploring subconscious activities in the cafe, carry out collective creation, and carry out the trial of Bares, the representative of capitalist civilization, etc. In 1924, Breton published the "Surrealism Manifesto", established the Surrealism Group, and issued the publication "Surrealism Revolution", which marked the climax of the Surrealism movement.Breton, Eluard and René Xia are the three pillars of surrealism.

"Manifesto of Surrealism" raised the banner of surrealism on the basis of denying realism and traditional novels.The surrealism it advocates is hostile to all moral traditions, and it is regarded as the root of mediocrity and hatred. The reason why the novel becomes the darling of literature is that it adapts to the reader's pursuit of a logical reflection of life.It is precisely this that Surrealism seeks to break through, pursuing "the automatic response of the pure mind, by which it seeks to express, verbally, in writing, or in any other form, the actual function of the mind. Any aesthetic or moral consequences, record this thought".In order to achieve a purely spiritual automatic response, they emphasized the use of subconsciousness in writing, emphasized dreams, and wrote "coincidence of things".In their view, sober, rational, and logical thinking activities are spirits poisoned by capitalist civilization, and only thinking activities in the subconscious, sleep state or coincidence are pure spirits that have not been disturbed by the outside world.Therefore, poets should follow the call of the subconscious, and return to the pure spiritual realm in the coincidence of dreams and things, and they propose a corresponding creative method-automatic writing method.They search for and collect the original state of people's thinking in public places such as cafes and movie theaters, and use this to create. Breton's novel Nadya in 1928 epitomizes Surrealism's use of this principle.

In the progress of the movement a new question arose: "Can spiritual emancipation be carried out alone, or must the bourgeois material conditions of life have to be abolished first?" Disagreements surrounding this question led to a split within the movement. Pierre Navier, editor-in-chief of Surrealist Revolution, advocated that the movement should serve the revolution.Breton believed that the movement itself contained revolution, and the movement should maintain absolute freedom and not accept any external interference, including from Marxism.So the movement split, and Naville left the Surrealist movement. In 1930, Breton published the Second Manifesto of Surrealism, reaffirming the principles of the Surrealist movement: the absoluteness of resistance, the thoroughness of disobedience, and the destructiveness of rules and regulations.

In the 1930s, the international situation developed rapidly, and the rise of fascist forces brought about another split in the surrealist movement.Some radical surrealists began to devote themselves to actual struggles. Aragon and Éluard left surrealism to join the French Communist Party, Perret went to Spain to fight, and Crewell committed suicide.The backbone of the movement's founding period disappeared, and Breton was almost the only one who was still struggling to support Surrealism.During World War II, Breton joined forces with Marcel Duchamp in the United States to promote Surrealism.Later, after he returned to France, he continued to advocate for surrealism.Surrealism has the potential to make a comeback, and there are a group of colleagues in the literary and art circles in other European countries, North America, Central America, and South America.

Surrealism opened up a new way for modernist literature.As a literary genre, surrealism lasted for a short time, but as a literary trend of thought, its influence far reaches the world.