SURREALISMO

The Manifesto of the new movement, which immediately followed the ephemeral one titled "Dada," was launched by André Breton in 1924. A first definition can be that given by Breton himself: "Psychic automatism through which one intends to express, whether verbally, in writing, or in any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought, in the absence of any control, outside of any aesthetic or moral concern." But the literary group that arose around Breton, Soupault, Aragon, and Eluard claims antecedents and precursors in every literature and in every century, extending to the visual arts and music, and finally to every attitude of thought, wherever free imagination or unchecked philosophical inquiry is found. In particular, surrealism approaches psychoanalysis and every advanced attempt at verbal invention, both in poetry and in the novel. Around 1940, the movement had exhausted itself, leaving behind only dubiously tasteful consequences in every art.