Author André Breton
Person cited René Guénon
Manuscript by André Breton dated May 1953 and published in 1955.
"On the path to gnosis": poetic intuition, particularly as formulated through the image, had been at the heart of Breton's thinking and practice for more than thirty years. "On the path to gnosis": poetic intuition, particularly as formulated through the image, had been at the heart of Breton's thinking and practice for more than thirty years and, at the dawn of the 1950s (given this fragment is dated May 1953), this is more and more clearly linked to Gnostic techniques. Also, this idea of a suprasensible reality emanates from a thought that, having long resisted its idealist vocation by affirming its materialism and its refusal of all religiosity, is beginning to acknowledge its affinities with modes of thought that, if not religious in the strictest sense of the term, have been developed mostly within religious traditions, particularly esoteric one. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]
Autograph manuscript, May 1953.
- 1 page in-4°, of an incomplete manuscript, dated and signed in ink:
For this, the great means at its [mankind’s] disposal is poetic intuition. […] It alone provides us with the thread that guides us back on the path to Gnosis, as knowledge of suprasensible Reality, 'invisibly visible in an eternal mystery'.” [Auction Catalogue, 2003]
First published in Médium, communication surréaliste in January 1955, the text of which this fragment is a part, entitled ‘Du surréalisme en ces œuvres vives’ [On Surrealism in Its Living Works], would be reprinted in the 1955 reissue of Manifestes du surréalisme. [Atelier André Breton website, 2010]
- André Breton, « Du surréalisme en ces œuvres vives », Médium, communication surréaliste, n°4, janvier 1955, p. 4
- André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), Du surréalisme en ces œuvres vives, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 24-25, notice p. 1210-1213
| Creation date | mai-53 |
| Date of publication | 01/01/1955 |
| Languages | French |
| Number of pages | 1 p. |
| Reference | 570000 |
| Breton Auction, 2003 | Lot 2362 |
| Keywords | Magic, Manifesto, Work notes, Occultism, Reviews and Journals |
| Categories | Manuscripts, Andre Breton's Manuscripts |
| Set | [AB's Manuscripts] Manifestes du Surréalisme, [Journal] Médium |
| Permanent link | https://cms.andrebreton.fr/en/work/56600100681330 |
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Tapuscrit d'André Breton préparé en vue d'impression, signé et daté de mai 1953.
Neuf images, une notice descriptive à compléter, une bibliographie.
[Archives] Chemise cartonnée titrée, [AB's Manuscripts] Manifestes du Surréalisme, [Journal] Médium
