Description

Manuscript of a sleeping fit by Robert Desnos transcribed in part by André Breton and dated 28 September 1922. Associations, associations... Moving from a recurrent evocation of Toussaint Louverture to that sybiline answer, when asked who Fraenkel is, from an "open belly with an egg in it", Desnos, asleep, continues to slide from one phoneme to another, varying the themes by changing a vowel or two. From hypnotism, no doubt, we arrive at this striking formula for designating Breton: "the convolvulus and I know the hypotenuse." This would become the title of a poem published by Breton in Clair de terre [Earthlight]. One or two striking figures (such as this "woman in red mourning") appear in this series, where the questions (no doubt on some of the sheets posed after the fact) give rise to hallucinatory and incomplete oracles - what will happen, for example, on "21 October 1926 in Nîmes at noon"? It should be noted that, despite the inclination to believe in these oracles, Breton never took them seriously enough to make the trip to Nîmes... First period of hypnotic sleeping fits 28 September 1922. - 13 in-4° pages on Congrès de Paris letterheaded paper handwritten by Desnos in black pencil and inserted into another sheet of Congrès de Paris paper folded in two and annotated by Breton: "Thursday 28 September, Desnos, 1st sleeping fit". Breton questions Desnos: "Where is Toussaint-Louverture? Who is Max Ernst? - The railway synonymous with the emperor." After drawing an eye with an arrow in the iris, Desnos says: "Breton. The convolvulus and I know the hypotenuse." Torn.

Bibliography

Katia Sowels (dir.), Le Surréalisme d'abord et toujours, Transformer le monde, Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2024, ill. 13 rep. p. 6

Creation date	28-sept.-22
Date of publication	1922
Languages	French
Physical description	Ds et Ms - crayon noir
Library	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris : BRT 161
Method of acquisition and collection	Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, don Aube et Oona Elléouët
Reference	36000
Breton Auction, 2003	Lot 2026
Keywords	Dream, Automatic Writing
Categories	Manuscripts, Surrealists Manuscripts
Set	[Manuscripts] Sommeils
Permanent link	https://cms.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100167210