The Collection

Home Page > Works > Notes made following the German invasion in June 1940

Description

Breton's handwritten notes dating from 1940 some of which were included in the Ajours section of Arcane 17.

For want of Notebooks of the Phoney War, Breton left us these handwritten reflections during the early days in France after the German invasion. He found them useful later when writing the Ajours section of Arcane 17, and finally spoke about the behaviour and attitudes he observed. In his notes, he situates himself in turn at the level of politics as he observed in particular ‘the communists’ opportunism’, at that of morality, noting the witchtrials and slide into unreasonableness, and finally at that of language, anxiously noting the growing taste for rhetoric and grand declarations. War spoils language. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Handwritten manuscripts, sd [1940]
17 pages in-18° handwritten in green ink by Breton of thoughts and words written in 1940 about Dali, Bachelard, the Occupation and Pétain as well as a few bizarre stories. [sale catalogue, 2003]

*This entry was translated from the French by Michael Richardson.

Creation datesd
Bibliographical material

17 handwritten pages in-18°

Date of publication 1940
LanguagesFrench
Physical descriptionMs - encre bleue
Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2230
Keywords
CategoriesManuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts
Set[AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts
Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100454130