Surrealism is an art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike scenes and ideas. Its intention was, according to leader André Breton, to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality", or surreality. It produced works of painting, writing, theatre, filmmaking, photography, and other media as well.
Brittany is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period of Roman occupation. It became an independent kingdom and then a duchy before being united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province governed as a separate nation under the crown.
André Robert Breton was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".
Louis Aragon was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review Littérature. He was also a novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt. After 1959, he was a frequent nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Côtes-d'Armor, formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord until 1990, is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. In 2019, it had a population of 600,582.
The French Communist Party is a communist party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit with The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL group.
Paul Nougé was a Belgian poet, founder and theoretician of surrealism in Belgium, sometimes known as the "Belgian Breton".
Breton nationalism is the nationalism of the historical province of Brittany, France. Brittany is considered to be one of the six Celtic nations.
The abbé Jean-Marie Perrot, in Breton Yann Vari Perrot, was a priest and Breton nationalist who was assassinated by the Communist resistance. He was the founder of the Breton Catholic movement Bleun-Brug.
The Breton Social-National Workers' Movement was a nationalist, separatist, and Fascist movement founded in 1941 by Théophile Jeusset. It emerged in Brittany from a deviationist faction of the Breton National Party; it disappeared the same year.
Pierre Naville was a French Surrealist writer and sociologist. He was a prominent member of the "Investigating Sex" group of Surrealist thinkers.
Long before World War II, the various Breton nationalist organizations were often anti-French and anti-colonialist, opposed to the Central Government's policy of linguistic imperialism, and critical to varying degrees of post-French Revolution-style Republicanism. Some Breton nationalists were openly pro-fascist. The extent to which this led Breton nationalists into collaboration with the Axis Powers and their motivations, remains a matter of often bitter historical controversy and debate.
Combat was a French newspaper created during the Second World War. It was founded in 1941 as a clandestine newspaper of the French Resistance.
Breton Democratic Union is a Breton nationalist, autonomist, and regionalist political party in Brittany and Loire-Atlantique. The UDB advocates devolution for Brittany as well as the promotion of its regional languages and its associated culture.
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast is a communist party in Ivory Coast. It has been led by Achy Ekissi since 1990. Its youth wing is the Communist Youth of Ivory Coast. The party newspaper is the Révolution Prolétarienne.
Huguette Bello is a French politician from Réunion.
The Bezen Perrot, officially the Breton SS Armed Formation was a small collaborationist unit established by Breton nationalists in German-occupied France during World War II. It was made up of personnel from Lu Brezhon, a Breton nationalist militia, under the leadership of Célestin Lainé.
Maurice Nadeau was a French teacher, writer, literary critic, and editor. He was born in Paris.
Breton Liberty was a leftist national liberation movement in Brittany, France. It split off from the Breton Democratic Union, though the two parties' political stances were similar. Breton Liberty frequently worked within the Régions et Peuples Solidaires federation. Its activities were limited to the city of Brest and surrounding region of Léon and during its last years it did not have more than a dozen active member. The party was dissolved in 2007, and some of its members joined the Breton Democratic Union.
André Thirion was a French writer, a member of the group of surrealists, a theorist and political activist.
