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[It goes without saying...]

[Address to the meeting of 30 April 1949]

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited Garry Davis, Evatt

Description

Manuscript of extracts from a speech given by Breton for the Journée internationale de résistance à la dictature et à la guerre, 30 April 1949.

Focused around the Garry Davis affair, from late 1948 to early 1949 Breton became increasingly engaged with the World Citizens’ cause. Here he condemns that failed version of it – full of protocols and untruths – that is the United Nations. Its New York assembly could not and would not respond to the spontaneous questions of the young American. This, as the writer explains, poses the problem of the representation of peoples by assemblies that are ultimately nothing but the voice of states. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Handwritten manuscript, 29 April 1949.
- 2 in-4° manuscript pages by Breton in blue ink on the reverse of headed notepaper for Cause relating to the reaction of the United Nations to Garry Davis’s questions: ‘It goes without saying that I am not among those who were waiting to take a seat, to know what would happen, supposing this would have been the UN’s response to Garry Davis’s questions, on what specific or vague grounds it would have been formulated, at what early or subsequent moment sooner or later it would have been attained…’. Numerous deletions, corrections and variants. (La Pléiade, volume III, Alentours II, La loi des gouvernés, pages 988-89). [Auction catalogue, 2003]

Exhibition

Cahors, Musée de Cahors Henri-Martin, La Maison de verre, André Breton, initiateur découvreur, 20 September - 31 December 2014

Translated by Krzysztof Fijalkowski

Bibliography

- André Breton, (Édition de Marguerite Bonnet avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier, Marie-Claire Dumas, Étienne-Alain Hubert et José Pierre), « La loi des gouvernés », Alentours II, ŒŒuvres complètes, tome III, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 1999, p. 988-989.