Un Cadavre

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Un Cadavre (A Corpse) was the name of two separate surrealist pamphlets published in France in October 1924, and January 1930, respectively.

Surrealism international cultural movement that began in the early 1920s

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects, and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself. Its aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality".

France Republic with mainland in Europe and numerous oversea territories

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Contents

Pamphlet of October 18th, 1924

The first pamphlet, arranged largely by André Breton and Louis Aragon, appeared in response to the national funeral of Anatole France. France, the 1921 Nobel Laureate and best-selling author, who was then regarded as the quintessential man of French letters, proved to be an easy target for an incendiary tract. The pamphlet featured an essay called Anatole France, or Gilded Mediocrity that scathingly attacked the recently deceased author on a number of fronts. The pamphlet was an act of subversion, bringing into question accepted values and conventions, which Anatole France was seen as personifying.

André Breton French writer

André Breton was a French writer, poet, and anti-fascist. He is known best as the co-founder, leader, principal theorist and chief apologist of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".

Louis Aragon French poet, novelist and editor

Louis Aragon was a French poet, who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France, who 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.

Anatole France French writer

Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and successful novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie française, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament".

The effect of the pamphlet was twofold; on the one hand, it brought considerable attention to the movement of surrealism and its aims; but on the other, its disrespectful nature alienated certain sympathizers of the movement, such as the designer and art-collector Jacques Doucet, who until then had been a primary sponsor of the group, and was prompted into a parting of ways.

Jacques Doucet (fashion designer) French fashion designer

Jacques Doucet (1853–1929) was a French fashion designer and art collector. He is known for his elegant dresses, made with flimsy translucent materials in superimposing pastel colors.

Pamphlet of January 15th, 1930

Cover of the 1930 pamphlet, with Breton depicted wearing a crown of thorns Un Cadavre.jpg
Cover of the 1930 pamphlet, with Breton depicted wearing a crown of thorns

The second pamphlet was arranged by a number of disaffected surrealists, sharply criticizing the movement's leader, André Breton, in response to criticism Breton made in his Second Surrealist Manifesto. [1] The manifesto, published in December 1929, directly criticized certain members of the movement and attempted to set the course for future group activities.

Three Surrealist Manifestos were issued during the Surrealist movement, in 1924 and 1929. Two were written by André Breton, who also drafted a third Surrealist manifesto which was never issued. One was written by Yvan Goll (1924).

Manifesto published declaration of principles and intentions of an individual or group

A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes the author believes should be made. It often is political or artistic in nature, but may present an individual's life stance. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds.

The Second Manifesto attacked individuals who were already moving away from Breton, and can be regarded both as his way of formalizing the break [2] and attacking Georges Bataille, who he feared was starting an anti-surrealist movement. [3] The pamphlet Un Cadavre contained short essays by a number of those Breton criticized, many of whom he had formally expelled from the movement for reasons seemingly contrary to its goals, which in hindsight appear to be more a result of his famously imperious pride. For example, according to the Second Manifesto, the prose writer Georges Limbour was expelled for "literary coquetry in the worst sense of the word," [4] a reason that emphasizes Breton's rigid disdain for literature, as opposed to poetry. Another major reason for division in the group was its increasingly politicized position, which tended toward Marxism.

Georges Bataille French intellectual and literary figure

Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille was a French intellectual and literary figure working in literature, philosophy, anthropology, economics, sociology and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, and poetry, explored such subjects as erotism, mysticism, surrealism, and transgression. His work would prove influential on subsequent schools of philosophy and social theory, including poststructuralism.

Georges Limbour was born in Courbevoie on 11 August 1900, and died at Chiclana de la Frontera, near Cadiz, on 17 May 1970. He was a French writer. poet, and art critic, and a regent of the Collège de ’Pataphysique.

Literature written work of art

Literature, most generically, is any body of written works. More restrictively, literature refers to writing considered to be an art form or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.

The pamphlet included essays by Bataille, Limbour, Robert Desnos, Raymond Queneau, Michel Leiris, Alejo Carpentier, Jacques Baron, Jacques Prévert, Roger Vitrac, Max Morise, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes and Jacques-André Boiffard. Though equally criticized, Antonin Artaud and Philippe Soupault declined to participate.

Robert Desnos French writer

Robert Desnos was a French surrealist poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day.

Raymond Queneau French poet

Raymond Queneau was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo, notable for his wit and cynical humour.

Michel Leiris French surrealist writer and ethnographer

Julien Michel Leiris was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer.

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Jacques Baron (1905–1986) was a French surrealist poet whose first collection of poems was published in Aventure in 1921. Although he was initially involved with the Dada movement, he became a founding member of the Surrealist movement following his meeting with André Breton in 1921, and contributed to La Révolution surréaliste. In 1927, like many of his contemporaries, Baron joined the Cercle Communiste Démocratique. Although fascinated by dream-like states of the nomadic unconscious and other imaginary worlds of the "marvelous", a dispute with Breton in 1929 got him expelled from the movement, and prompted him to contribute to Un Cadavre, an anti-Breton pamphlet. After the break with Surrealism, Baron became associated with Georges Bataille and Documents, in which he published a short essay on "Crustaceans for the Critical Dictionary", an article on the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, and a poem dedicated to Picasso, "Flames". He later collaborated on a number of reviews such as Le Voyage en Grèce, La Critique Sociale and Minotaure. Baron also wrote a novel, Charbon de mer (1935), a mémoire, L’An 1 du Surréalisme (1969), and a collection of poems, L’Allure poétique (1973).

Roger Vitrac was a French surrealist playwright and poet.

Jacques-André Boiffard (1902-1961) was a French photographer, born in Épernon in Eure-et-Loir. He was a medical student in Paris until 1924 when he met André Breton through Pierre Naville, a Surrealist writer, and childhood friend.

Georges Malkine French painter

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Maurice Nadeau was a French teacher, writer, literary critic, and editor. He was born in Paris.

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Suzanne Muzard or Musard (1900–1992) was a French prostitute and photographer associated with surrealism. The lover of André Breton, she was addressed in Breton's love poems.

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References

  1. ↑ In Un Cadavre Breton is ironically called "Pape du surréalisme" (Surrealism Pope).
  2. ↑ Surrealism by Jacqueline Chenieux-Gendron, trans Vivian Folkenflik; Columbia University Press, 1990 (p. 45).
  3. ↑ The Bataille Reader, edited by Fred Botting and Scott Wilson; Wiley Blackwell, 1997 (p. 114).
  4. ↑ Manifestes du Surréalisme by André Breton; Jean-Jacques Peauvert, Paris, 1962 (p. 164).
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