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The fiftieth anniversary of hysteria, 1878-1928

Manuscript

Author

Authors Louis Aragon, André Breton
People cited Dr Joseph-François-Félix Babinski, Hippolyte Bernheim, Dr Jean-Martin Charcot, Sigmund Freud, Clovis Vincent

Description

Hand written manuscript by Louis Aragon and André Breton prepared for issue11 of La Révolution surréaliste published on 15 March 1928.

This is a genuine draft that Breton kept of the ‘Fiftieth Anniversary of Hysteria’, co-written with Aragon, and not an actual text as was often the case. Published in March 1928 in issue 11 of La Révolution surréaliste, in a typography (small capitals) which gives it the feel of a manifesto, the text professes to commemorate medical discoveries in order really to celebrate the disease itself. We know that Lacan, initially close to the surrealists, did the same for psychosis during the 1930s. The hysteria honoured by Aragon and Breton was more modestly already being recognised as a ‘poetic’ virtue. This text can be compared with the overwhelming encounter with Nadja – but the hysteria the two friends describe is a communication through the body, while the psychosis into which the young woman fell cut off any communication. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Hand written and signed manuscript, sd (1928).

– Two handwritten large pages in-4°, by Aragon and by Breton (the last 10 lines) on beige paper in black ink, monogrammed by them both. Numerous deletions and corrections.
‘Hysteria can be seen as a supreme means of expression’; even though Breton had to endure the ending of the exchange in the encounter with Nadja and witness her sinking into psychosis, he joins Aragon in writing ‘The Fiftieth Anniversary of Hysteria’ the following year. ‘The Fiftieth Anniversary of Hysteria, 1878-1928’ with its illustrations occupies pages 20 to 22 of issue 11 of La Révolution Surréaliste.

Bibliography

José Pierre (dir.), Tracts surréalistes et Déclarations collectives (1922-1969), Paris, Le Terrain vague (Éric Losfeld éditeur), t. I, p. 88

Louis Aragon, André Breton, « Le Cinquantenaire de l'Hystérie (1878-1928) », La Révolution surréaliste, n° 11, p. 20-22.

André Breton, « Le Cinquantenaire de l'Hystérie (1878-1928) », Alentours III, Œuvres complètes, tome I (édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec les contributions de Philippe Bernier, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1988, pages 948-950, notes pages 1728-1733.

Maurice Nadeau, Histoire du surréalisme, Documents surréalistes, Paris, Le Seuil, 1948, p. 125

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Surréalisme et folie

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André Breton

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Manuscrit d'André Breton destiné au numéro spécial de This Quarter paru en 1932 à Paris.

11 images, une notice descriptive, un manuscrit associé.

[AB's Manuscripts] Miscellaneous Manuscripts