Translated from the French by Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane ••••••••• Ann Arbor Paperbacks The University of Michigan Press Andre Breton CONTENTS Preface for a Reprint of the Manifesto (1929) vii Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) 1 Soluble Fish (1924) 49 Preface for the New Edition of the Second Manifesto (1946) 111 Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1930) 117 A Letter to Seers (1925) 195 Political Position of Surrealism (extracts) 205 Preface (1935) 207 Political Position of Today's Art (1935) 212 Speech to the Congress of Writers (1935) 234 On the Time When the Surrealists Were Right (1935) 243 Surrealist Situation of the Object (1935) 255 Prolegomena to a Third Surrealist Manifesto or Not (1942) 279 On Surrealism in Its Living Works (1953) 295 . ; .i ( PREFACE FOR THE NEW EDITION OF THE SECOND MANIFESTO (1946) ~{; ~i In allowing the SECOND SURREALIST MANIFESTO to be re­ published today, I have talked myself into believing that time has accomplished for me the task of blunting its po­ lemical angles. I only hope that it has corrected on its own -even though it were to a certain extent at my expense­ the sometimes hasty judgments I made about various peo­ ple's behavior such as I tended to see it in those days. This aspect of the text will in fact be justifiable only to those who take the time and trouble to situate the SECOND MANI­ FESTO in the intellectual climate of the year it appeared. ~~· .. It was in fact around I930 that a few unfettered souls be­ I gan to perceive the imminent, ineluctable return of world I catastrophe. To the vague dismay and confusion which l'B'·' ,tp 3'1 I;;· resulted from this realization was added, for me, another i' concern: how were we to save, from this ever more com­ pelling current, the bark which a few of us had constructed with our own hands in order to move against this very current? I am fully aware that the following pages bear unfortunate traces Of nervousness. They bear witness to grievances of varying degrees of importance: it is obvious 113 L 1I4 Manifestoes of Surrealism Second Manifesto of Surrealism 1I5 that certain defections were deeply resented and, immedi­ differences" were predetermined by "personal differences." ately, in itself the attitude-however episodic it may have Matters relating to various individuals were discussed by been-taken with regard to Baudelaire, to Rimbaud, will us only a posteriori, and were made public only in those lead one to believe that the worst offenders might well be cases when it seemed that the basic principles on which those in whom one had placed one's greatest confidence our agreement had been founded had been breached in initially, those from whom one expected the most. Viewed the most flagrant manner, thus affecting the history of our in retrospect, most of them have in fact realized this as movement. It was then, and still is today, a question of well as I, and as a result certain reconciliations have been trying to maintain a platform flexible enough to cope with possible, whereas agreements which proved to be of a more the changing aspects of the problems of life and at the lasting nature were in turn denounced. A human asso­ same time remain stable enough to attest to the nonrup­ ciation such as the one which enabled Surrealism to be ture of a certain number of mutual-and public-com­ built-an association such as had not been seen, as far as mitments made at the time of our youth. The broadsides its goals and its enthusiasm were concerned, at least since which the Surrealists "unleashed with fire and brimstone," Saint-Simonism-cannot help but obey certain laws of fluc­ as people have been known to describe it, against one tuation about which it is probably all too human not to another on many occasions reveal) more than anything be able to know how, from within, to make up one's mind. else, how impossible it was for them to carryon the debate Recent events, which have found all those whom the on any lesser level. If the violence of expression in these SECOND MANIFESTO discusses allied on the same side, show pamphlets sometimes seems out of all proportion to the that their common background was healthy and, objec­ deviation, the error, or the "sin" they are claiming to cas­ tively, set reasonable limitations on their disputes. To the tigate, I believe that, aside from the ambivalence of feel­ extent that certain of them were the victims of these events ings to which I have already alluded, the blame for it mtlSt or, more generally, victims of life itself-I am thinking of be placed squarely upon the period itself and also upon Desnos, of Artaud-I hasten to say that the wrongs I have the formal influence of a good portion of revolutionary upon occasion ascribed to them fall by the wayside, as literature which allowed, side by side with the expression they do for Politzer, whose activity has constantly been de­ of far-reaching and well-disciplined ideas, a prOfusion of termined outside the framework of Surrealism and who, aggressive offshoots of mediocre importance, aimed at this therefore) had no accounting to make to Surrealism for or that specific group of our contemporaries.· that activity; I have no compunction whatsoever about admitting that I completely misjudged his character. Those things which, fifteen years after the fact, accen­ tuate the fallible aspect of some of my judgments about this or that person or group of persons does not prevent me from protesting against the allegation made recently· that within the inner sanctum of Surrealism "political *See, for example, Misere de La philosophie, Qllti-Diihring ma­ *See Jules Monnerot, La Poesie moderne et le sacre, p. 189. teriaLisme, et empiriocriticisme, etc. ANNALES MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGIQUES JOURNAL DE L'ALIENATION MENTALE ET DE LA MEDECINE LEGALE DES ALIENES Report Legitimate Defense In the last issue of the Annales medico-psychologiques Dr. A. Rodiet discussed, in the course of an interesting article, the professional risks run by a doctor working in a mental institu­ tion. He cited the recent attacks that had been made upon sev­ eral of our colleagues, and he sought the means of protecting us effectively against the danger which the constant contact between the psychiatrist on the one hand and the insane per­ son and his family on the other represents. But the insane person and his famify constitute a danger which I shall describe as "endogenous," it is part and parcel of our mission; it is the necessary corollary of it. We Simply accept it. The same does not hold true for a danger I shall this time describe as "exogenous," which deserves our closest attention. It seems that it should give rise to more extraordinary reactions on our part. Here is a particularly significant example: one of our patients, an especially dangerous and demanding madman with a persecution complex, suggested to me with gentle irony that I read a book that is being freely passed from hand to hand ll9 121 120 Manifestoes of Surrealism Second Manifesto of Surrealism among the inmates. This book, recently published by the working in an insane asylum can in all fairness demand the Nouvelle Revue Francaise, commends itself to our attention right to be protected without re~triction by the society that he by its origin and its proper and inoffensive presentation. The himself is defending . ... " work in question was Nadja, by Andre Breton. Surrealism flour­ But this society sometimes seems to forget the reciprocal ished within its covers, with its deliberate incoherence, its nature of its duties. It is up to us to remind it of these duties. cleverly disjointed chapters, that delicate art which consists Paul Abely. of pulling the reader's leg. In the midst of strangely symbolic drawings, one could make out the photograph of Professor Claude. In fact, one chapter was devoted especially to us. The poor maligned psychiatrists were generously reviled and in­ I' I' I' sulted, and one passage (underlined in blue pencil by the pa­ SOCIETE MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGIQUE tient who had so kindly lent us this book) especially caught our attention. It contained the following sentences: "I know M. AM/y having presented a paper concerning the tendencies that if I were mad and confined for several days, I would take of authors who call themselves Surrealists and concerning the advantage of any momentary period of lucidity to murder in attacks they are making upon mental specialists, this commu­ cold blood one of those, preferably the doctor, who happened nication gave rise to the .following discussion: to come my way. At least I would be put into a cell by myself, the way the violent patients are. Perhaps they would leave me DISCUSSION alone." ;' It this is not tantamount to inciting to murder, then noth­ DR. DE CLERAMBAULT: I would like to ask Professor Janet ing is. We can only react to it with complete disdain, or with what links he finds between the mental state of the subjects utter indifference. and the nature of their output. In such cases, to pass the problem on to higher authori­ ties strikes us as revealing a state of anxiety which is so un­ PROFESSOR JANET: The Surrealists' manifesto contains an warranted that we prefer not even to consider it. And yet every interesting philosophical introduction. The Surrealists main­ day brings new evidence of this kind of thing, in ever-increas­ tain that reality is by definition ugly; beauty exists only in that ing numbers.