DELIRIUM MOVEMENTS are often defined by what are not; circles of persuasion by those expelled from them. Surrealism was particularly apt to condemn the breaker of pacts, moral and group-oriented, the spiller of secrets, and the transgressor of its own codes: a rule overturned in the surrealist universe was reason for expulsion. Even as Surrealism vigorously espoused any kind of transgression that would further its ends, it was equally prepare to propose any hint of compromise.

The frenzied, liberated desire celebrated by Surrealists often bordered on terror. Surrealism cherished the transgressive action, the violent impulse, as positive and critical assault on the norms of a society against which it was in open revolt. As the nightmarish political climate of the 30´s unfolded such scandalous and ironic precursors as Marquis de Sade increasingly figured in surrealist thought, as did contemporary figures, both real and fictional, from the worlds of the criminal insane.


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“The mother of vinegar
The pre-eminence of incarnate leather
Fixed over the foetid spectre

A partition the veterans fraternize
Except in the house of eclipses
She who dominates by withdrawing will bring darkness
You cylindered your annexations with paving stones
Loosened from slugs´ skulls
A sob followed by its venom

Urine, the eau-de-vie of dreams
Disrupts the silken weft
You fire upon the day
You ruins is a tear
It foresees and idyll

Love´s defense violence
Asphyxiation diamond moment
Paralysis wandering sweetness”

René Char. 1933


SEE ALSO: DESIRE

NEXT: INFINITE SPACES

By Héctor Pineda