Manifestoes of Surrealism

Manifestoes of Surrealism is a collection of written works by André Breton, who is often credited as the leader of the Surrealists, especially in the movement's early years. The book opens with the first "Manifesto of Surrealism," written in 1924, which outlined the philosophical underpinnings of the movement and Breton's reasons for believing the broader world should be introduced to it. The manifesto also works as a guidebook that explains the process of automatic writing, for which Breton would become known. Breton republished the document in 1929, and the preface for this second edition acts as the introduction for the collection.

One year after writing the first "Manifesto of Surrealism," Breton wrote “Soluble Fish," a novel produced by automatic writing. The work is included as the third chapter of Manifestoes of Surrealism. Automatic writing and the broader idea of psychic automatism, the core tenets of Breton’s approach to Surrealism, were outlined in the first manifesto. The practices were inspired by Breton’s interest in the subconscious and dreams and his belief that overthinking while creating art would produce boring, meaningless work. The result of the application of these practices, “Soluble Fish” is a mostly unstructured, stream-of-consciousness narrative that uses vividly descriptive imagery to convey a rambling, dreamlike story about mysterious women, sentient animals, French culture, and a range of other topics.

In 1929, Breton both republished his first manifesto and produced the "Second Manifesto of Surrealism." At that time, the Surrealist movement was experiencing internal conflicts, many of them related to its rapidly expanding popularity. Breton spends much of the second manifesto criticizing artists whom he sees as undeserving of the Surrealist title and warning his followers that Surrealism must be closely guarded to avoid falling into meaninglessness, as he says earlier art movements such as Symbolism did. The second manifesto was highly controversial among Surrealists, and the version published in Manifestoes of Surrealism is followed by a series of quotes by Surrealist authors that were issued before and after the manifesto, showing their support for Breton before its publication and their condemnation of him afterward.

“A Letter to Seers," written in 1925, follows a thought process that is similar to that of the second manifesto. Throughout the short letter, Breton expresses both disgust at and pity for the men of conformist society. He sees them as blind to their own freedom, since they do not think for themselves, and unwilling to accept anything beyond what they see on front of them as reality. The seers he addresses in the letter are described as genuine mystics who are able to see beyond the range of normal human perception and divine real truths from their own minds. However, Breton believes modern society stifles them, and most of them hide their gifts or use them only for fraudulent purposes due to their fear of being judged by the outside world. Breton implores the seers to embrace their gifts and unleash their power onto society.

Manifestoes of Surrealism also includes excerpts of Breton’s political writing and speeches. The author held strongly left-wing political views throughout his life and believed that Surrealism was a radical movement at its core. The book includes a speech given in Prague in 1935 about the need for Surrealists—and all other modern artists—to hold closely to their political beliefs throughout their artistic careers. He speaks about the art of the French Revolution and explains that many revolutionary artists strayed from their beliefs once the fighting ended, which allowed the new French government to abandon many of its promises. He warns Surrealists against following in their footsteps. In the same year, Breton also gave a speech to the Congress of Writers that followed many of the same themes as the Prague speech, specifically directing writers to embrace radical politics within their writing. Also included in the book are the speeches “On the Time When the Surrealists Were Right," which explains how the Surrealist movement predicted the trajectory of the early Soviet Union, and “Situation of the Surrealist Object," a lecture given at the opening of a Prague Surrealist exhibition in which Breton attempts to define what makes an object surrealist or not.

Manifestoes of Surrealism closes with a 1942 text in which Breton proposes a third manifesto, which he wrote but never published, and a 1952 essay called “On Surrealism in Its Living Works” which outlines the difference between Surrealist writing and unconventional, symbolic writers like James Joyce and e. e. cummings. In 1969, Breton collected the pieces of his writing that he believed to be most important for preserving the legacy of the Surrealist movement and published them as Manifestoes of Surrealism.

This guide is based on the 2010 Ann Arbor Books version of the original 1969 book, translated by Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane.