Reading Order
Manifeste du surréalisme Reading Order
Le Manifeste du surréalisme (Surrealist Manifesto, 1924) by André Breton is one of the most important critical and theoretical texts of the twentieth century — a definition, a program, a provocation, and an origin myth that established Surrealism as the dominant avant-garde movement of the interwar period. Breton defines Surrealism as 'pure psychic automatism' — the attempt to express the actual functioning of thought, free from rational control, aesthetic convention, and moral preoccupation. The Manifesto draws on Freud's concept of the unconscious (Breton had worked in a military hospital and studied Freudian technique) and on the automatic writing experiments that Breton and Soupault had conducted in 1919 (Les Champs magnétiques, the founding automatic text). The Manifesto establishes the Surrealist cannon of precursors (Swift, Sade, Rimbaud, Poe, Lewis Carroll, Apollinaire), describes the method of automatic writing, and ends with a declaration that the imaginary is 'about to become real.' The Second Surrealist Manifesto (1930) is more aggressive and polemical — excommunicating former associates, attacking former allies — and is essential for understanding the movement's internal dynamics.
Where to start
Read the 1924 Manifesto first, straight through — it is accessible and written for a general audience (Breton's rhetoric is deliberately seductive). Pay particular attention to the list of precursors (which tells you where Surrealism came from), the account of automatic writing (which is both a method and an aesthetic theory), and the long list of phrases produced by automatic writing (which shows what the theory produces in practice). Then read the Second Manifesto (1930) for the darker, more aggressive Surrealism of the Depression years.
Complete Manifeste du surréalisme Book List
- 1Buy
Manifeste du surréalisme (1924)
André Breton·1924·In the Gallimard/Folio edition that collects the 1924 Manifesto, the Second Manifesto (1930), and other manifestos and declarations. In English: Manifestoes of Surrealism, translated by Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane (University of Michigan Press, 1969) — the standard scholarly translation. - 2Buy
Nadja (1928)
André Breton·1928·The surrealist novel that is the most accessible creative realization of the Manifesto's program — reading Nadja after the Manifesto gives you the theory and then the practice in immediate succession. - 3Buy
Les Champs magnétiques (1920)
André Breton and Philippe Soupault·1920·The first automatic writing experiments — the collaborative work that Breton and Soupault produced in 1919 and that is explicitly cited in the Manifesto as the origin of the method; essential for understanding what automatic writing actually looks like. - 4Buy
L'Amour fou (1937)
André Breton·1937·The theoretical prose-poem on love and objective chance — the most developed statement of what the Manifesto's program produces as an account of experience; should be read after the Manifesto and Nadja. - 5Buy
L'Interprétation des rêves
Sigmund Freud·1900·Freud's founding text of psychoanalysis (The Interpretation of Dreams, 1900) — the theoretical source that Breton explicitly draws on in the Manifesto; reading the relevant sections gives the context for Surrealism's engagement with the unconscious.
Manifeste du surréalisme — Frequently Asked Questions
What does 'pure psychic automatism' mean?
'Pure psychic automatism' is Breton's definition of Surrealism in the 1924 Manifesto — 'the real process of thought, expressed without the control of reason, and outside any aesthetic or moral consideration.' The idea is to produce text (or image, or object) directly from the unconscious mind, without the filtering that conscious intention, aesthetic taste, or moral judgment impose. The practical method is automatic writing: write without stopping, without correcting, without letting rational thought interrupt the flow. In theory, this process expresses the actual content of the unconscious — the deeper level of mind that Freud's psychoanalysis had identified and that, Breton argued, is more real than the surface consciousness that controls conventional art.
What is the relationship between Surrealism and Freud?
Breton explicitly credits Freud's concept of the unconscious as the theoretical foundation of Surrealism — he had worked in a military psychiatric ward during the First World War and studied Freudian technique. But the relationship was complicated: Freud himself was skeptical of Surrealism, meeting Breton in 1921 and finding him odd; he later said that in Surrealist art it was the conscious elements that were interesting to him, not the unconscious ones (the opposite of the Surrealists' claim). Breton used Freud selectively — he took the concept of the unconscious and the method of free association but ignored or resisted Freud's therapeutic goals and his resistance to letting the unconscious remain uninterpreted.
Who are the Surrealist precursors listed in the Manifesto?
Breton's list of Surrealist precursors in the 1924 Manifesto includes: Swift, Sade, Chateaubriand, Hugo, Poe, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Germain Nouveau, Lewis Carroll, Saint-Pol-Roux, Lautréamont, Rabbe, Jarry, and others. The list is deliberately heterogeneous — cutting across periods, genres, and national traditions to construct a lineage for Surrealism that has no single source but multiple convergent tributaries. The most significant choices are Rimbaud (the voyant theory), Lautréamont (the violent hallucinatory prose), Apollinaire (the juxtapositions and the term 'Surrealism' itself), and Carroll (the logic of dreams in fiction).
What is the Second Surrealist Manifesto (1930) about?
The Second Manifesto (1930) is more aggressive and polemical than the first — written during the Depression and the political radicalization of the French left, it is simultaneously a defense of Surrealism's continuing project and a settling of accounts with former associates. Breton 'excommunicates' a long list of Surrealists who have, in his view, betrayed the movement: Artaud, Soupault, Delteil, Limbour, Masson, Vitrac, and others. He also moves the movement further toward Communism, declares the 'complete bankruptcy of the rational world,' and ends with a passage about the 'convulsive beauty' that the movement is pursuing. The Second Manifesto is essential for understanding the movement's internal dynamics and the price of dissidence from Breton's authority.
What influence did the Surrealist Manifesto have outside France?
The Surrealist movement spread rapidly in the late 1920s and 1930s to Britain (Herbert Read, Dylan Thomas), Belgium (Magritte, Mesens), Spain (Dalí, Buñuel, Lorca — though Lorca later distanced himself), Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Japan, and Latin America (most importantly in Mexico, where Breton was welcomed during his wartime exile and where Frida Kahlo and the Mexican muralists were identified as Surrealist). In the United States, the European Surrealists exiled by the Second World War (Breton, Ernst, Dalí, Duchamp) directly influenced the New York Abstract Expressionists — particularly Jackson Pollock's drip technique, which has been seen as a form of automatic drawing.
Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.