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Answer to an enquiry about Gagarin

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Maurice Bonnefoy, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, dit Molière, Blaise Pascal, Arthur Rimbaud, Jules Verne

Description

Manuscript by André Breton dated 17 April 1961 in response to an enquiry for the 22 April edition of Figaro Littéraire.

On 22 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin, the spaceman, was at the centre of an enquiry launched by the Figaro Littéraire. Breton’s response is rather reserved as he begins with the myth of Icarus and regrets the vocation of scientists to simplify reality and occult its mystery. ‘This is surely not what Goethe meant by “more light”’, the poet adds, returning once again to the gap between light and shade, formerly revived in a polemic with Magritte, to suggest the existence of different qualities of light, in other words of consciousness. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Handwritten manuscript signed, Paris, 17 April 1961
1 page in-12, handwritten in ink by Breton with some erasures and corrections of a text relating to the space race between Russia and the US.
‘The speculative field to which newspapers strive to bring you back doesn’t exceed that of Jules Verne’
‘We are assured that before having embarked, Commander G. had chosen to read Molière. As far as I am concerned, this doesn’t means nothing.’ [sale catalogue, 2003]

Published in Le Figaro Littéraire on 22 April 1961.

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

Bibliography

André Breton, « Réponse à une enquête », Le Figaro Littéraire, 22 avril 1961.