Editing Surrealism (section)

==Founding of the movement==
[[File:The Elephant Celebes.jpg|thumb|[[Max Ernst]], ''The Elephant Celebes'', 1921|left]]

The word ''surrealism'' was first coined in March 1917 by [[Guillaume Apollinaire]].<ref>Hargrove, Nancy (1998). "The Great Parade: Cocteau, Picasso, Satie, Massine, Diaghilev—and T.S. Eliot". Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 31 (1).</ref> He wrote in a letter to [[Paul Dermée]]: "All things considered, I think in fact it is better to adopt surrealism than supernaturalism, which I first used" [''Tout bien examiné, je crois en effet qu'il vaut mieux adopter surréalisme que surnaturalisme que j'avais d'abord employé''].<ref>Jean-Paul Clébert, ''Dictionnaire du surréalisme'', A.T.P. & Le Seuil, Chamalières, p. 17, 1996.</ref>

Apollinaire used the term in his program notes for [[Sergei Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]], ''[[Parade (ballet)|Parade]]'', which premiered 18 May 1917. ''Parade'' had a one-act scenario by [[Jean Cocteau]] and was performed with music by [[Erik Satie]]. Cocteau described the ballet as "realistic". Apollinaire went further, describing ''Parade'' as "surrealistic":<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150922015316/http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07112005-201540/unrestricted/Doyle_dis.pdf Tracy A. Doyle, ''Erik Satie's ballet Parade: an arrangement for woodwind quintet and percussion with Historical Summary''], University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1998, Louisiana State University, August 2005, pp. 51–66.</ref>

<blockquote>This new alliance—I say new, because until now scenery and costumes were linked only by factitious bonds—has given rise, in ''Parade'', to a kind of surrealism, which I consider to be the point of departure for a whole series of manifestations of the New Spirit that is making itself felt today and that will certainly appeal to our best minds. We may expect it to bring about profound changes in our arts and manners through universal joyfulness, for it is only natural, after all, that they keep pace with scientific and industrial progress. (Apollinaire, 1917)<ref>Vassiliki Kolocotroni, Jane Goldman, and Olga Taxidou, ''Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents'', University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. 211.</ref></blockquote>

The term was taken up again by Apollinaire, both as subtitle and in the preface to his play ''[[The Breasts of Tiresias|Les Mamelles de Tirésias: Drame surréaliste]]'',<ref>Gascoyne, p. 39.</ref> which was written in 1903 and first performed in 1917.<ref>Sams, p. 282.</ref>

[[World War I]] scattered the writers and artists who had been based in Paris, and in the interim, many became involved with Dada, believing that excessive rational thought and [[bourgeois]] values had brought the conflict of the war upon the world. The Dadaists protested with [[anti-art]] gatherings, performances, writings and art works. After the war, when they returned to Paris, the Dada activities continued.

During the war, [[André Breton]], who had trained in medicine and psychiatry, served in a [[Neurology|neurological]] hospital where he used [[Sigmund Freud]]'s psychoanalytic methods with soldiers suffering from [[shell-shock]]. Meeting the young writer [[Jacques Vaché]], Breton felt that Vaché was the spiritual son of writer and [[pataphysics]] founder [[Alfred Jarry]].  He admired the young writer's anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition. Later Breton wrote, "In literature, I was successively taken with [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]], with Jarry, with Apollinaire, with [[Germain Nouveau|Nouveau]], with [[Comte de Lautréamont|Lautréamont]], but it is Jacques Vaché to whom I owe the most."<ref>Breton, "Vaché is surrealist in me", in ''[[Surrealist Manifesto]]''.</ref>

Back in Paris, Breton joined in Dada activities and started the literary journal ''[[Littérature (magazine)|Littérature]]'' along with [[Louis Aragon]] and [[Philippe Soupault]]. They began experimenting with [[Surrealist automatism|automatic writing]]—spontaneously writing without censoring their thoughts—and published the writings, as well as accounts of dreams, in the magazine. Breton and Soupault continued writing evolving their techniques of automatism and published ''[[Les Champs Magnétiques|The Magnetic Fields]]'' (1920).

By October 1924, two rival Surrealist groups had formed to publish a [[Surrealist Manifesto]]. Each claimed to be successors of a revolution launched by Appolinaire. One group, led by [[Yvan Goll]] consisted of [[Pierre Albert-Birot]], [[Paul Dermée]], [[Céline Arnauld]], [[Francis Picabia]], [[Tristan Tzara]], [[Giuseppe Ungaretti]], [[Pierre Reverdy]], [[Marcel Arland]], [[Joseph Delteil]], [[Jean Painlevé]] and [[Robert Delaunay]], among others.<ref>Gérard Durozoi, An excerpt from History of the Surrealist Movement, Chapter Two, 1924–1929, Salvation for Us Is Nowhere, translation by Alison Anderson, U of Chicago Press, pp. 63–74, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-226-17411-2}}.</ref> The group led by André Breton claimed that [[Surrealist automatism|automatism]] was a better tactic for societal change than those of Dada, as led by Tzara, who was now among their rivals. Breton's group grew to include writers and artists from various [[Media (arts)|media]] such as [[Paul Éluard]], [[Benjamin Péret]], [[René Crevel]], [[Robert Desnos]], [[Jacques Baron]], [[Max Morise]],<ref name="Diary of a Genius">[[Salvador Dalí|Dalí, Salvador]], ''[http://www.bartleby.com/66/82/15682.html Diary of a Genius]'' quoted in ''The Columbia World of Quotations'' (1996) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090406060625/http://www.bartleby.com/66/82/15682.html |date=April 6, 2009 }}</ref> [[Pierre Naville]], [[Roger Vitrac]], [[Gala Éluard]], [[Max Ernst]], [[Salvador Dalí]], [[Luis Buñuel]], [[Man Ray]], [[Hans Arp]], [[Georges Malkine]], [[Michel Leiris]], [[Georges Limbour]], [[Antonin Artaud]], [[Raymond Queneau]], [[André Masson]], [[Joan Miró]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], [[Jacques Prévert]], and [[Yves Tanguy]], [[Dora Maar]]<ref name=grove>Dawn Ades, with Matthew Gale: "Surrealism", ''The Oxford Companion to Western Art''. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford University Press, 2001. Grove Art Online. [[Oxford University Press]], 2007. Accessed March 15, 2007, [http://www.groveart.com/ GroveArt.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516052642/http://www.groveart.com/ |date=2008-05-16 }}</ref><ref name="sadoul mon ami bunuel">{{cite journal|last=Sadoul|first=Georges|title=Mon ami Buñuel|journal=L'Écran Française|date=12–18 December 1951|volume=335|pages=12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tate |title=Dora Maar |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/dora-maar/exhibition-guide |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=Tate |language=en-GB}}</ref>
[[File:La Revolution Surrealiste cover.jpg|thumb|Cover of the first issue of ''[[La Révolution surréaliste]]'', December 1924|left]]
As they developed their philosophy, they believed that Surrealism would advocate the idea that ordinary and depictive expressions are vital and important, but that the sense of their arrangement must be open to the full range of imagination according to the [[Hegelian Dialectics|Hegelian Dialectic]]. They also looked to the [[Dialectical#Marxist dialectic|Marxist dialectic]] and the work of such theorists as [[Walter Benjamin]] and [[Herbert Marcuse]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marcuse |first=Herbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_OEAgAAQBAJ&q=surrealism++&pg=PP1 |title=Art and Liberation: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse |date=2007-01-24 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-77452-4 |language=en}}</ref>

Freud's concepts of free association, dream analysis and accessing the unconscious were of crucial importance to the Surrealists in advancing their project to liberate the imagination. They embraced [[idiosyncrasy]], while rejecting the idea of an underlying madness. As Dalí later proclaimed, "There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad."<ref name="Diary of a Genius"/>

Beside the use of dream analysis, they emphasized that "one could combine inside the same frame, elements not normally found together to produce illogical and startling effects."<ref name="PynchonSurralism"/> Breton included the idea of the startling juxtapositions in his 1924 manifesto, taking it in turn from a 1918 essay by poet [[Pierre Reverdy]], which said: "a juxtaposition of two more or less distant realities. The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be−the greater its emotional power and poetic reality."<ref name="Breton (1924)">Breton (1924) ''[http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm Manifesto of Surrealism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209063222/http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm |date=2010-02-09 }}.'' [[Pierre Reverdy]]'s comment was published in his journal ''Nord-Sud'', March 1918</ref>

The group aimed to revolutionize human experience, in its personal, cultural, social, and political aspects.  They wanted to free people from false rationality, and restrictive customs and structures. Breton proclaimed that the true aim of Surrealism was "long live the social revolution, and it alone!" To this goal, at various times Surrealists aligned with [[communism]] and [[anarchism]].

In 1924, two Surrealist factions declared their philosophy in two separate Surrealist Manifestos. That same year the [[Bureau of Surrealist Research]] was established and began publishing the journal ''[[La Révolution surréaliste]]''.

===Surrealist Manifestos===
[[File:Yvan Goll, Surréalisme, Manifeste du surréalisme, Volume 1, Number 1, October 1, 1924, cover by Robert Delaunay.jpg|thumb|[[Yvan Goll]], ''Surréalisme'', ''Manifeste du surréalisme'',<ref name="Surréalisme">{{Cite web|url=https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/cgi-bin/bluemtn?a=d&d=bmtnaaj19241001-01&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|title=Surréalisme 1 October 1924 — Princeton Blue Mountain collection|website=bluemountain.princeton.edu}}</ref> Volume 1, Number 1, October 1, 1924, cover by [[Robert Delaunay]]]]
{{main|Surrealist Manifesto}}
Leading up to 1924, two rival surrealist groups had formed. Each group claimed to be successors of a revolution launched by Apollinaire. One group, led by [[Yvan Goll]], consisted of [[Pierre Albert-Birot]], [[Paul Dermée]], [[Céline Arnauld]], [[Francis Picabia]], [[Tristan Tzara]], [[Giuseppe Ungaretti]], [[Pierre Reverdy]], [[Marcel Arland]], [[Joseph Delteil]], [[Jean Painlevé]] and [[Robert Delaunay]], among others.<ref name="Durozoi">{{Cite web|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/174115.html|title=Durozoi, History of the Surrealist Movement, excerpt|website=press.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

The other group, led by Breton, included Aragon, Desnos, Éluard, Baron, Crevel, Malkine, [[Jacques-André Boiffard]] and Jean Carrive, among others.<ref>André Breton, ''Manifestoes of Surrealism'', transl. Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane (Ann Arbor, 1971), p. 26.</ref>

Yvan Goll published the ''Manifeste du surréalisme'', 1 October 1924, in his first and only issue of ''Surréalisme''<ref name="Surréalisme" /> two weeks prior to the release of Breton's ''Manifeste du surréalisme'', published by Éditions du Sagittaire, 15 October 1924.

Goll and Breton clashed openly, at one point literally fighting, at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées,<ref name="Durozoi" /> over the rights to the term Surrealism. In the end, Breton won the battle through tactical and numerical superiority.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/projects/the-ahrb-centre-for-studies-of-surrealism-and-its-legacies-project(9182d222-4cfe-489b-a944-4998933b322c).html|title=The AHRB Centre for Studies of Surrealism and its Legacies. &#124; Research Explorer &#124; The University of Manchester|website=www.research.manchester.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERMoAyKPKqsC&q=the+first+surrealist+manifesto%2C+Yvan+goll&pg=PA8|title=Yvan Goll—Claire Goll: Texts and Contexts|first1=Eric|last1=Robertson|first2=Robert|last2=Vilain|date=April 6, 1997|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=0854571833|via=Google Books}}</ref> Though the quarrel over the anteriority of Surrealism concluded with the victory of Breton, the history of surrealism from that moment would remain marked by fractures, resignations, and resounding excommunications, with each surrealist having their own view of the issue and goals, and accepting more or less the definitions laid out by André Breton.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lettresvolees.fr/eluard/surrealisme.html|title=Man Ray / Paul Eluard – Les Mains libres – 1937 – Qu'est-ce que le surréalisme ?|website=www.lettresvolees.fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=01gJAajH9m0C&q=manifeste+du+surr%C3%A9alisme%2C+%22La+r%C3%A9alit%C3%A9+est+la+base+de+tout+grand+art%22&pg=PA472|title=La création artistique espagnole à l'épreuve de la modernité esthétique européenne, 1898–1931|first=Denis|last=Vigneron|date=April 6, 2009|publisher=Editions Publibook|isbn=9782748348347|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Breton's 1924 ''Surrealist Manifesto'' defines the purposes of Surrealism. He included citations of the influences on Surrealism, examples of Surrealist works, and discussion of Surrealist automatism. He provided the following definitions:

{{blockquote|'''Dictionary:''' Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.<br /><br />
'''Encyclopedia:''' Surrealism. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life.<ref name="Manifesto of Surrealism" />}}