The Collection

Home Page > Works > From sunspots to splashes of sunlight

    From sunspots to splashes of sunlight

    Manuscript

    Author

    Author André Breton
    People cited Stéphane Lupasco, Raymond Abellio

    Description

    Manuscript by Breton of an article dated 26 March 1950 that would be published in Combat on 28 March 1950.

    This manuscript of an article published in Combat on 28 March 1950 is emblematic of Breton’s position in the intellectual realm at the start of the 1950s. If he had distanced himself somewhat from the Global Citizens movement, notably due to its anarchist-related positions that seemed to him scarcely constructive, let alone revolutionary, the poet’s rage was just as enflamed: in this respect – and he was one of the few to do so in this period – he stood opposed as much to the right (the United States and its iniquitous executions) as to the left (communism and the agents of the USSR). Breton never ceased to repeat that identity is constructed within contradiction, not within ‘full association’. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

    Signed handwritten manuscript, 26 March 1950.
    - 2 in-4° pages of a signed and dated manuscript in black ink by Breton relating to the idea of becoming and the atomic threat.  
    ‘In these first days of spring there comes to mind again one of those rare supportive ideas to which I managed to cling in the worst days of the last war: so much devastation could do nothing in the face of the return of a spring that was enough of a great magician to bring a smile to the ruins. [...]
    I have several times heard sunspots being held culpable. But these spots can also affect what takes the place of the sun for us.’ 

    Many deletions and corrections. Published in Combat on 28 March 1950. [Auction catalogue, 2003]

     

    Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski

    Bibliography

    André Breton (Édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier, Marie-Claire Dumas, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), Alentours II, Œuvres complètes, tome III, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, p. 1019-1021, notes p. 1443

     

    Creation date26 mars 1950
    Bibliographical material

    André Breton, Alentours II, Œuvres complètes, volume III (edition established by Marguerite Bonnet and edited by Étienne-Alain Hubert with contributions from Philippe Bernier, Marie-Claire Dumas and José Pierre), Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, pp. 1019-21, notes p. 1443.

    Date of publication 28 mars 1950
    LanguagesFrench
    Physical descriptionMs - encre noire
    Reference520000
    Breton Auction, 2003Lot 2317
    Keywords, ,
    CategoriesManuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts
    Set[Mansucrits d'AB] articles pour Combat, [AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts, [Revue] Combat
    Permanent linkhttps://www.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100641140