beaujour- sartre and surrealism

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Sartre and SurrealismAuthor(s): Michel BeaujourSource: Yale French Studies, No. 30, J.-P. Sartre (1963), pp. 86-95Published by: Yale University Press

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MICHEL BEAUJOUR

SartrendSurrealism

For Sartre nd his contemporariest was almost mpossible o dis-regard he philosophical nd politicalchallengeof Marxism. t ap-pears now that n the realm f artistic reation urrealism as anothersuch unavoidable reagent.Though Sartre's essays on Baudelaire,Ponge, and Genet are evidence noughof his interestn poetry,what

he has written n Surrealism eems to reflect still more personalconcern.This ruthless riticism f Surrealism-mightt not be hiswas of exorcizing is own unavowed omplicity ith movementnwhich he, as a matureman, had come to see the embodiment fadolescentrevolutionaryllusions?

Sartre hared the Surrealists' tatedrevolutionaryurpose,but inWhat Is Literature? e exposed the path Breton and his friendshad taken as an attempt y adults to cling to the destructive ay-dreamsof theirbourgeois dolescence.This road led to an illusoryand magic conceptionof revolution,dealistically onfusing lean

hands and inactivity.Sartre's ritique s not simply n episode in a political quabble.His attack s buttressed y the analysis f a conceptno less essentialin his ownphilisophyhan n thatofthe Surrealists. n thebasis ofhis findingsn L'Imaginaire, Sartre charges that the Surrealists,throughheirrefusal f consciousness on the pretext hat this wasa creation f the bourgeoisie),had undercut he basis of all action.Since they rejected ubjectivity,heydialectically ondemned hem-selvesto reject nybelief n an objectivereality lso.

This strikes t the heartof the Surrealsit octrine,which ssertedthatthe sole aim of Surrealist fforts as to resolvetheantinomiesthatplague human ifeand makeitpaltrynd unacceptable:theop-position between conscious and unconscious,between dream andreality, tc. (Deuxieme Manifeste).

For Sartre, here s no unconsciousreality.Dreaming s incom-patiblewithconsciousness, ince waking s consciousness nd putsand end to the irrealityf dreams.To think:"I am dreaming,"stantamounto being conscious (L'Imaginaire,p. 205). When theSurrealistsry o blur thisdistinction,heycannotavoid abdicating

their"self-consciousness,nd as a consequence,theirsituation ntheworld" (ibid. p. 215).Thus Surrealism riesto evade the limitsof humanlife and its

responsibilities.t "rejects hebourgeois oncept flabor,since abor

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implies onjecturing, akinghypotheses nd planning, nd thereforeperpetuallyesorts o subjectivity"ince subjectivitympliesby de-finition,acing he world and being uncertain f the results f one'saction upon it.

Sartre characterizes he earliestofficial efinition f Surrealism(in the Manifesto of 1924) as "pure mental automatism," nddemonstrates hat, contrary o appearances, the Surrealistshavechosen a typeof comportmenthatfails to rejuvenate he subjectiveand actually eads into a never-neverand of magic objectivity. heresult f their utomatism s to transformhe "unconscious"writerinto an object amidst other objects. He shirksthe challenge thatsubjectivity,s Sartre defines t, offers o the world.He will notacknowledge haet e is en situationwithin hostileuniverse f ob-

jects,whetherheybe fellowmenor things,nd therefore e cannotdeal withthem s everyman mustdo.Thus, in the eyes of Sartre,automaticwriting efeats ts own

statedpurposeof liberation:

Automatic writing ntails above all a destruction f sub-jectivity:when we try urhand at it,clotstravel hrough sspasmodically, earingus asunder. We do not know wherethey omefrom,we do notknowthem t all before hey aketheir lace in theworldof objects, nd thenwe can butper-

ceive them nlywith trange yes. It is not, therefore,s hastoo oftenbeen stated, matter f substitutingheiruncon-scious subjectivityorconsciousness, ut rather f showingthat he subject s an inconsistenturein themidst f a sub-jectiveuniverse. ibid. p. 215-16).

The gistof Sartre's criticism mounts to this: throughnot takinginto account subjectivity,s Sartredefines t, Breton nd his friendsare fatedto dissolve the objectiveworld. They are leftwitha kindofmonad: one hardly ees how itcould act upon itself.

Yet Surrealismhas claimed it wanted to change the world andman's life in keepingwith Marx's and Rimbaud'spronouncements.FromSartre'sviewpoint,t has miserably ailed to do so as has psy-choanalysis, o which t owes so much. Both alike, enclosing hem-selves n theuniverse f discourse, ave fallenback on themagicofthe imagination.Anything ut a true revolutionary,he Surrealisttransformsimself nto a captiveconscience nd so becomes brothertothepsychopath,he actor, nd thepoet.1All he does is playat de-stroyingheworldby means of "imaginary bjects, built n such away that heir bjectivitys self-destructive."he archetype f these

may be Marcel Duchamp's famous Why not sneeze?"A bird cage

1Sartredevelops the idea at some lengthin Saint-Genet,comedien et martyr.

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containsumps fwhitemarble ut o ook ike ugar.A personwhotries o lift heobject, aken back bytheunexpected eight,x-periences disturbingoubt s totheobject'sdentity;hefeelings

similaro thatgiven y a dime-store eltingpoon, houghmoresophisticated.AccordingoSartre,hismalaise onstitutesheSurrealistnstant,

wherein heworld f realitys suddenlyiscreditednd seems ohavebeencaught n a radical elf-contradiction.urrealismoughtan analogousdestructionn its literaryroductions, ithwordssmashingne anothern a holocaust f contradiction,nd also intheplastic rtswheremages lashendlessly.he net result s thecancelingutofthehumango,ofobjects, fpainting,nd of iter-

ature:"Surrealism,uriouslynough, ttemptso achievenothing-ness hroughnexcess f being."Thisradical riticismakes heSurrealistt theirword.Rather

thanudge hems artists, hichhey ave lways isclaimedeing,Sartrenalyzesheirevolutionarydeologyndfindstcontradictory.Butat thesametimehe exposes heambiguitiesheyhavesome-timesurnedo when aughtn a tightorner y theirnemies. retheSurrealistsrtists hofavor evolution,r are they evolution-arieswhosepath eadsthem hrough smashedrtgallery?

So, too, with hequestion f labor: it is truethatSurrealist

"creations"mply omekind f workquitedistinctrombourgeoiswork"which as been rrevocablyejected), ut, s Sartre laims,itremainsydefinitionmockeryfproductiveabor.nproduction,manattacks eality nd destroyst with heexplicit ntent f re-constructingt n a higher, ore eadily sable orm. tree sfelled,cutupand reducedo a pulp hatwillbeturnedntonewsprint.heformf thetree s notnegatedornegation'sake.

While hemakingfa Surrealistbjectdoes notfollowhe amecycle fdestructionndreconstruction,tsfinal tage lways ervesto discrediteality,nd so the wholecreative rocess cquiresdifferenteaning. evertheless,nlike lethalweapon, heSur-realistbject lways ims t a purely ymbolicestruction.

The Surrealistbjectnecessarilys shimmering,ecause trepresentsuman rdernreverse,ndas such tcontainsheseedof tsown destruction.hisenables ts maker o claimat the ametime hathe destroysealitynd thathebuildsup a surrealityeyond eality.n effect, surrealityuilt nsucha fashion ecomes n object mong ther bjects ndworks s a mereguideposthowinghewayto an eventual

destructionftheworld.Situations1,p. 321).Anotherartrian riticismf the Surrealistdeologys that he

Surrealistsavenotworked uta satisfactoryotion fhuman o-

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tality. hey want to liberateman and to rehabilitatehosefunctionsthat our civilization as suppressed.But since theyhave remainedunaware that "the totalityof man . . . must be a synthesis, hat is to

say the organic nd schematic nity f all his secondary tructures"(ibid. p. 320), they rroneously ive the name of totality o a merecollection f reclaimedhuman activities uch as love, desire,dream-ing,and imagination. s Sartrepointsout:

One does not liberate collection, ne enumerateshe unitsthat make it up. And that is preciselywhat Surrealism s:an enumeration. ut it cannot be a liberation ince there sno one to be freed.They are merely oncernedwith iftingthe discredit hat has struckcertain batches of units thatmake up the human collection. ibid. p. 323).

With the elimination f consciousness, he only conceivablemedi-ation between these units, the Surrealistshad cut themselves fffrom ny possible synthesis. oon theyfoundthemselveswanderingin that objective world of juxtapositionwhere no one was left toperceive and thus to organize: "Their refusal of subjectivity asturnedman into a mere haunted house . . . Disembodied voices re-soundthrought, ike the voicewhich nnounced he death of Pan"

(ibid. p. 323).The core of Sartre's rgumentationgainsttheSurrealists, owever,has to do with he relative tatusof images,representations,nd theactualperception f objects.Bretonhad writtenhat

Physicalperception nd mentalrepresentation-whicho thenormal dult seem radicallydistinct-mustbe understood sthe products f the dissociation f one single, riginal aculty,traces of which are to be found among primitives nd chil-

dren. Pointdu jour. "Le Message automatique.")

This is anathema o Sartre,who wrote wo books, L'Imagination ndL'Imaginaire, ubstantiatinghe viewpoint f the "normal adult."

Sartre's 1945 attack, contained in What Is Literature? s notransitoryoliticalquarrel. Surrealism,when t set out to obliteratethe distinctionetweenperception nd representation,hallenged hebasisof theSartrian heory f consciousness,nd especially tsviewsofcertainmentaldisordersnwhich he sufferereases to distinguishbetween eality nd imagination. uch "irrealizing" sychoses estroyeverythinghat is distinctly uman in a man, without ver lettinghim enter urrealitys defined y Breton. t is worthrecallingherethatSartrehimself ad a traumatic rushwith uch psychoses,which

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maypartly xplainhis vehementtand n favor f drawing firmlinebetween ealitynd magination.2

Sartres' ather uritanicaloncepts thatmental lienations one

ofthewaysmanchooses o shirk is situation.inceconsciousnessis free,t s free lso to blind tselfndto withdrawrom eality. heSurrealists,n keeping ith heir heory f consciousness,ad triedto do awaywith hedistinctionetween lienationnd mental al-ance.Onthis ssue he woviews eems rreconcilable.artreppearstohavechosen nce more hepath f themostpedestrianommonsense.Especially ince hewar,he has chosen o see himselfs aman mong thermen fhistime.He seeks nly hepossibilitiesorconcretection, ejectingll flightsf the magination,articularly

those hat ur society rands athological.is Surrealistdversarieson theotherhandbelieve n the practical fficacyf imagination.Breton as saidthat maginations what ends o become eal. artreretortsternly:his s poetry, ot revolution.ecause of their e-course o imagination,he Surrealistsre inefficientevolutionaries.Their ream f total estruction,heir oetic rocess fannihilation,cannot urt nyonenthe ulinglass.Yettheir artialndsymbolicdestructionserpetratedgainst hingsnd magesmighterhaps econsidereds means oward n end morepositive nd general,ndthuscomparableo sabotage nd politicalmurder. ut owing o

their urely ymbolicharacter,uch destructionsre futile. inceSurrealismtops hort here,nd turns hesemeans ntoabsoluteends, tsrevolutionaryrdors a pretense. eep down,t s attachedto a kindof "quietism,"

From his utopsyfthemajor ttemptya group fbourgeoisintellectualso betrayheir lassandto sidewithmilitantevolution-aries, artremeantodraw onclusionspplicableohisown imilarintentionsnthepost-liberationeriod.He wanted o avoidthepit-falls hathadmadethecollaborationetween urrealismnd com-munismuch pathetic ailure:

Deep down, he ource fthemisunderstandings this:Sur-realism ares ittle or hedictatorshipf theproletariatndsees ntheRevolution,s a pureviolence,he bsolutend,whilecommunismets tself he aim of taking verpower,and ustifieslong hese inesthefutureheddingfblood.(SituationsI, p. 323).

In otherwords,he ommunistsavea sharp ense fthefuture,knack or ction riented y a project. heSurrealists,n theother

2See Simone de Beauvoir, La Force de Page, pp. 216, 247f., 282, 287, andMrs. Houston's article elsewhere in this issue. See also Sartre, L'In~aginaire,p. 201-02.

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hand,want to abolishthe categories f action (theyhave done so,symbolically,rom heoutset).Whenthey efer o thefamous pointin themind"where,magically,heantinomies etweenpast and fu-

ture, ife and deathcease to be perceivedn a contradictoryashion,theyconfirmheirpolitical nullity.All theycan do fromnow onis to bringdisturbanceo somebourgeoisminds.They cannothopetohave anyfollowersnthe workinglasswhosehope andwhole ifeis based on a firm elief hatthefuturewillbe better hanthepastand that ife s preferableo death.

Through hisanalysis fwhathe terms heSurrealist ailure n poli-tics,Sartre truggledo rid himself f a sneaking orm f romanticrevolutionism.What s Literature?"s the workof a manwhodes-

peratelyries o soundserious, eliable,mature.At the timeof pub-lication, t lookedas thoughhe had succeeded.We see now thathewas violently eacting gainsthis adolescence, nd thatSurrealism,somehow,was partof theadolescent omplexSartrewas strivingogetridof.

Sartreprefers o planthis feet squarely n reality s it is and asitcannotbe wished way.The sterile evolt fthebourgeois doles-centhe himself ad been, at thetimewhenhe took an interestnSurrealism,s superseded y a canny,realistic, evolutionarytance.

But no soonerhave we decided thatSurrealism as been disposed

of when, n at least one place, Sartrerevealsclearly hat t can stillexert strange ascination ponhim.

"Orpheenoir" (in SituationsII) is a hymn o theredemptionfSurrealism yBlack poetswhohave adopted ts deology. he weaponof surreality,hich, n thehands ofBretonwas buta "white-hairedrevolver,"urnsnto dazzling wordwhenwieldedbyAimeCesaire.

Insteadof claiming o speak for everybodynd anybody, s theParis Surrealists id, Cesaire, speaking s a Black, orients he de-structivenesse exerts gainst he anguage oward refusal f slavery

or colonization. esaireassailsthewhites ystealingheir ongue ndturningt against hem. artre oes not feelexcludedfrom heassaultsincehe too is a whitebourgeois. n thecourseof thisexquisite g-gression gainsthis inalienablewhiteness, e experienceswith kindof tingle n excess of life projectedupon himby his wild phallicaggressor.

What Cesairedestroyss not thewhole culture, ut thecul-tureof thewhites;whathe brings o light s nota desireforeverything,ut ratherthe revolutionaryspirations f the

oppressedNegro;he reachesdeep down n himself concreteand determined orm f humanity. ence one can speakof acommitted nd even directed orm f automaticwriting, otbecause reflexion ntervenes, ut because his words and

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images erpetuallyonveyhe same torrid bsession. eepinside im, hewhite urrealistindselease; eep nside im,Cesaire finds he fixed nflexibilityf resentmentnd de-mands.SituationsII, p.258).

Automatism,hich artre ad earlieromparedoa huge oicewith-inan emptyhamber,indstswayback to the Road toFreedom"through fundamentalhoice n favor f ntentionality.onscience,whichwaspassive, aptive, egated,akes n a new ife, ets tselfproject nd opposes-in a real, concreteituation-an ntolerablecondition. erewe see a switchn thevalueof signs omparableothatevoked n the first ages of "Orpheenoir" whenthe Negro

ceases o be anobject nderhe yes ftheWhitesnd turns imselfinto n active,ggressiveye.The Negropoetdisalienateshat,nthewhite urrealist,as buta "dreamyonscience"nd a "captivelevity."When t stands n favorof a real revolutionthe anti-colonialisttruggle),urrealistestructivenesseases to be unquali-fied estructiveness:ttransmutestselfnto conscienceent n theauthenticurpose f scrappinghewhiteworld, s a necessaryteptowardhe dvent f unified ankind.

Surrealistquietism,"hichet thepoetbe traversedyimages,when urnednside ut ike a glove tretchesut a purposefuland

toward n other eality,ituated t the horizon f a temporaler-spective, hich actical equirementsrganizendmake ntelligible.Here at lasttheviolentoupling f images,hestable nd hithertoself-sufficientoalofSurrealism,smetamorphosednto tooland aweapon,he ntellectualnalog f thefreedomighter'somb.

In this ame text, artre ontrastshefailure n the partof theEuropean urrealistso make any headway mong heproletariatand theirnabilityocommithemselvesotherevolutionarytrugglewithoutacrificingheirllegianceo themovementhe citesAragonandEluard s examples)with he riumphfCesairewho, hroughhispoetry,ucceedsnobjectifyingisnegritude ithoutallingntothepitfall f describingt."He projects heNegro oul out of him-self." ibid.p. 260).

Sartres dealing erewith n essentialroblem,uthisobstinateresolve o stick o action n a concrete orld revents isrealizingwhathe has comeup with. n effect e is no longer riticizinghepoliticallienationfSurrealism: e hasunwittinglyhifted is at-tentionothe ontentfthepoet's maginations it s manifestednthe mages f hispoems.Cesaire'smages,s well as those f the

other lackpoets, nimalize, egetalizendsexualize ature, hilethe mages ftheEuropean oetsmineralize an.And wereadthissurprisingtatement:

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... theNegro bears witness o thenatural ros; he manifestsand embodies t; if one wishedto find term f comparisonin European poetry, ne would have to go as far back as

Lucretius, peasant poetwho sangthemother-goddessn atimewhenRome was still nlya bigmarket own. SituationsIII, p. 269).

This remark, hehistorical alidity fwhichwe cannotdiscusshere,casts startlinglyew lightupon the whole Sartrian ritiqueof Sur-realism: what he had termed the onlypoeticmovement f thefirsthalfofthe century" ppearsvitiated yan essential oetic ndigence,and thewholeof European poetry ares no better.Are we stillonthegrounds, hosenbySartrehimself, f practical olitical ction, ris our whole Westernculture being rejected for primarily xtra-politicalreasons?This paragraph choes D. H. Lawrence's romanticdisquisitions gainstthe modernworld. European civilization, s itis projectednthe mages f tspoets, we mightall it"Blanchitude,"as opposed to "Negritude")has shriveled o an essentialmpotence.Cut loose from the livingroots of an agricultural ulture, t haswithered.

The unexpected ecourse o primitivism,hepaean to the eroticismof the Blacks,allowus to assess howpainfulmusthave beenSartre's

deliberate hoice of the drearyworkadayworld of politicalaction.Despitehis distaste orengineers, e tookupon himself he defenseofa civilization uledby technological onsiderations,nd ofan orderwhere abor and productionre the sole mediations etweenpresentman and his liberated uture.Unlikemore romantic evolutionaries,he deprivedhimself f the compensating ream of a return o autopianprimitive ayof ife.Whenhe decidedto become exclusivelywhat his situation ad made him, a Frenchmann an industrialge,he voluntarilyut himself ff rom he onging o recover he harvestof mages griculturalivilizationsoster. s a result f his choice,hefound t impossible o abet the Surrealist vasion of the order ofproduction hat seemed to stifle uropeanlife,and he was logicallyled todeny heir ighto drink t a spring fwhich, omehow, e haddeprivedhimself.Neglecting heir ctual poetic production, e feltimpelled o declare that their mageswere a reflection f their n-dustrial civilization,where manufacturedbjects are limited,un-natural nd sterile.

However,does this not go againstone of Sartre'stenets, hatthefaculty f Imaginations essentially oor, without ontent?Here, on

thecontrary,magination, hethert be rich r poor, vitalor mineral,does seem to be somethingike the blurred eflectionf the civiliza-tion of the imaginingndividual. artrewould thus be joiningthe

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ranks fthosewho ee n maginationSymbolicrocess nd, n theliterarymage, projectionfculturalrchetypes:

theAfrican egroes . . still ive n a great eriod fmythicalfecundity.

they ome under he spell [of the myths], o that theirnegritude ayoomup at the ndof heirmagnificentncanta-tion.That s why apply he termmagic r charm o thismethod f"objective oetry." SituationsII, p. 254).

But he maintains is refusal o let his European ontemporariesenjoywhathe grants heanti-colonialistegroes.He accepts hemagicof Negropoetry,he political fficacyf which annotbeproved especially incemost f ts readers eside n France r aremembers f the national ourgeoisiesf newlyndependentoun-tries),while enyinghe Surrealistny suchmagic fficacygainstthe imitations hich bourgeois, hristianociety mposes ponWestern an.

Now, either artre as beencarriedwayby the dionysiac x-oticismfBlackOrpheus'mages,r hehaschosen o create con-fusion etween he precision f his revolutionaryroject nd the

richnessf his mythology.t appears, n the ight f this mportanttext, hat artre's ondemnationf Surrealisms a poeticmovement,coming fterhis condemnationf the revolutionaryntent f thegroup, s essentiallyustifiedya sweepingudgmentf indigencepasseduponWesternmaginationfter tencenturiesf laboriouspoetry"-and, ne mightdd three enturiesf industrialization.WhenSartre ismissesurrealistmages n thegroundshat heyare preciousndgratuitous,henhe sees nthem heproductfatrick he oet annot eally elieve n,he snot o much isappointedwithhe echniquef utomatisms with he mages hemselves:heyarebutan actof "consumption,"he throwingwayof a dubiousinheritance;heSurrealistsrewritingad checks gainstn emptybank ccount.

Nevertheless,y depreciatinghedesperatettemptf theSur-realistso extricatehemselvesromherut four ndustrialiviliza-tion,-they idnotwant oreject t,butmerelyo ntegratet withina morehuman ramework-theuthorfL'Imaginaireouldobtainbutone result: hat freinforcinghe traitjackete knewwas con-strainingur magination.inceany political evolution ust read

thenarrow athofindustrialization,t must ontributeo an eventighterammingfthe pringsfmythndmagic, nless responsi-blegroup fpoets, uch s theSurrealists,rewillingo assume heinsane isk fwagering,ithoutnyproof,hat eyondhe iviliza-

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tion of labor there s somethinghat can be imagined nd desired.Whenhe shuthiseyestothisunreasonable utnecessary erspective,Sartre ontributedo thehardeningf a situation t theveryrootof

a plighthe elsewheredeplored.This was a willful elf-blindnesswhich, fterhavingdisposedof his romantic outh,he shouldhaveabandoned.3For not only does Sartrecondemnhimself o aridityas a bourgeoisand a whiteman, but he also dooms to a pitifulpoeticdole theEuropean proletariat hoseonly in s toenjoyminutecrumbs f colonialist rofit.n his last analysis, nlythecolonializedpeopleshave therighto irrigateheir iveswithpoetry ndmagic.

The highly uestionableaspect of Sartre's view is not his dis-quisition n an alleged mpoverishmentf thepoweroftheEuropean

imagination s much as the puritanicalmasochism pparent n hisunderlyingelief hat hisbarrennesss a just punishmentufferedyEurope for ts imperialism.While imperialisms, of course,one ofitsveryrealevils,we cannotforget hatthegreatness f Europe liesin tsability o cryout against uch crimes, ndto give birthnotonlyto the slave traderbut to Surrealism nd to Sartre.No doubt,thestruggle etweenthesetwo factors s unequal,but it is not totallyillusory:therevoltof whitepoets eventually ave birthto thatofBlack poets. This at least showsthattheir evolt ucceeded n open-ingthesluices of a collective pring, nd thattheir rimary urpose

maynothavebeen destructionure ndsimple.In keepingwiththe perspective e had sethimself, artre hould

have acknowledged hatbecause of the refusalto specialize theiraction, the Surrealistshad been enabled to fasten the immediatesuccessof theNegrowriters. he taskof the Surrealists ad, afterall,beeninfinitelyorearduousthanthat ftheir olored heirs.TheNegro Orpheus, not so tightly ound by European tradition,wasspared the troubleof scrapping nd destroying. is simple racialrevolt, quipped with the tools of his whitepredecessors, uicklystruckthe inner

spring whereinpoetrydwells. But the ocean ofmagicrumors e set roaring round his tropic slands s commontoall ofuswhorespond o itsvoice.

3Sartre'study f Genet,however, herehe showshis sympathyor an effortwhichbearssomeresemblanceo thatof the Surrealists,ndicates hathe isnottotally naware f this anger.

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