On Breton

Breton talks about the importance of using our imagination and specifically our unconscious imagination from our dreams. The word “surrealism” comes from the French word “sur” meaning on top of added to “realism” and that’s exactly what Breton is talking about in his essay “Manifesto of Surrealism.” He says there’s a need for a “future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak” (3). This idea of bringing together something common in literature, or art in general, with something totally new, seems to echo the ideas of Mallarmé. Specifically, when he talks about bringing together “modernity” with “antiquity.” It’s interesting to link these two together due to their common nationality as well as their inventive minds. Both of these men came from a society that not only allowed for creativity and novelty to flourish, but went os far as to encourage it. Not to say that there have not been major, impactful inventions in the arts and humanities fields that have come from other nations and culture, because there is not denying that this is the case, but I do find it interesting that they are both French men. Seeing as how Mallarmé’s writings would have been already published and popular by the time that Breton had made his name in the writing world, it’s clear that he was influenced by the writings of Mallarmé.