(1924; reed. 1929) is the first of three programmatic texts written by André Breton. Together with

(1930; Reed. 1946) and

(1942), it is often collected under the title

.

deserves consideration in its own right, however. Its value lies at the intersection of the collective and the personal (“son sort dépen[d] étroitement du mien propre” (9) [“its fate is closely linked to my own”], Breton reminds us in his second preface). It is at once serious and playful, prosaic and lyrical, and of historical importance:

provided the fledgling “mouvement flou” [“vague and blurry movement”] with its first set of…

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Citation: Andréo, Benjamin. "Manifeste du surréalisme". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33204, accessed 21 November 2024.]