Surrealist Writers

Precursors: Lautréamont . . . Rimbaud . . . Roussel . . .

Surrealists: André Breton . . . Dalí . . . de Chirico . . . Desnos . . . Duchamp . . . Leiris . . . Peret . . . Queneau . . .

 

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“Everything leads us to believe that there is a certain state of mind from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, past and future, the communicable and the incommunicable, height and depth are no longer perceived as contradictory.”— André Breton, Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1929)via http://alangullette.com/lit/surreal/

Update: After the comment of a discerning reader, I’ve decided to include a bit more of this article:

These are only my favorites, but there were and are many other excellent Surrealist Writers, including: Louis Aragon, Rene Daumal, Paul Eluard, Jacques Prevert, those listed below and others…

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Other Surrealist Writer Sites

• Leonora Carrington (b. 1917), member of the surrealist group from 1938.
• David Gascoyne (1916-2001) English poet whose translations introduced the French surrealists to the English-speaking world in the 1930’s and 40’s. Considered a member 1926-39.
• Philip Lamantia (b. 1927) American poet who associated with the surrealists and inspired the Beat poets.
• Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972) has been provocatively called “the only true American surrealist.”
• Among women writers active in the surrealist movement, one might list Nancy Cunard, Claude Cahun, Meret Oppenheim, Gisele Prassinos, and Valentine Penrose.

Other Surrealist and Related Sites

• Bohemian Ink has pages dedicated to “underground” contemporary writers.
• Infosurr: Actualités du surréalisme et de ses alentours (Paris)
• Magnetic Fields — home of Aesthetic Automatism, ARTlab, EAR de Jour (a Journal of Enactive Aesthetics Research Blue Feathers), Surrealists in Minnesota, etc.
• No More Words: A Non-Glossary (referenced above as Mutt), dictionary or encyclopedia of “terse factoids” and a few short excerpts covering all the major Surrealists.
• La Page Oulipo is another Oulipo site, created by Bill Allombert, Estelle Souche and Philippe Bruhat (French).
• Surrealisme.nl
• Upland Trout

Surrealist Art Sites

Institutions and Organizations

• Surrealist Art at the Louvre WebMuseum.
• The Surreal Gallery is a graphically rewarding sight.

See surrealism