The Manifesto Of Surrealism, And The Manifesto Of Surrealism

What is surrealism? Surrealism is not only a revolution, but also an “attack of conscience,” “pure psychic automatism,” and a “new mode of pure expression,” according to its founder André Breton. The term was originally coined by Guillaume Apollinaire but Breton and his colleague, Philippe Soupault gave it new meaning. In his declarative and comprehensive texts, Manifestoes of Surrealism, Breton defines for us surrealism and explains the phenomenon in detail so that more can become aware and utilize the technique. Drawing heavy influences from Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, Breton reveals to us the limitless opportunities of surrealism and how it allows us to achieve a perception of a higher reality, similar to how the exoteric texts challenged …show more content…
At the time of the publication of the manifesto, Europe was still reeling from World War I and art was very much political. Breton and other surrealists wanted to break free from the conventional art of the times and express the imagination as revealed in dreams. Thus, the Manifesto of Surrealism came about, in which Breton discusses the importance of merging dream and reality. Though at its inception the movement itself was not political in nature, Breton incorporated Sigmund Freud’s theories on dreams as well as the communist ideals of Karl Marx into his definition of surrealism. He so loved Freud’s psychoanalytic theory that he even presented a four part defense of dreams in his manifesto, asserting that although dreams and reality seem contradictory, the two can come together to form an “absolute reality,” or a …show more content…
One night, he had an apparition: the statement, “There is a man cut in two by the window," comes up right before he is about to fall asleep. Breton later reveals that this period between wakefulness and sleep is actually the optimal time for surrealist expression to occur. And he might be referring here to the period also known as “sleep start,” when one experiences a hypnic or hypnagogic jerk as they transition from wakefulness to sleep. It so happens that many people experience it but most do not dwell on it and just go to sleep afterwards. In his case, instead of drifting back to sleep after the incoherent statement pops up into his mind, he “traces” it out. As he states, “With a pencil and white sheet of paper to hand, I could easily trace their outlines. Here again it is not a matter of drawing, but simply of tracing. I could thus depict a tree, a wave, a musical instrument, all manner of things of which I am presently incapable of providing even the roughest sketch. I would plunge into it, convinced that I would find my way again, in a maze of lines which at first glance would seem to be going nowhere. And, upon opening my eyes, I would get the very strong impression of something ‘never seen.’” Consequently, by putting the apparitions he saw during that moment of ambiguity to paper, Breton was able to break free from the limits to his imagination. And even though he could not draw some of the