A Forgotten Manifesto: The “Declaration of January 27, 1925”

Abstract

Abstract: After André Breton’s “Manifesto of Surrealism” (October 1924), the first issue of La Révolution surréaliste appeared on December 1, 1924. “We must achieve a new Declaration of the Rights of Man,” the cover announced. Nonetheless, behind the scene, the surrealists themselves were questioning, hesitant. Several pages from the "Manifesto" already felt outdated, perhaps even anachronistic in light of their constantly shifting positions. The supposed crowning moment represented by the “Manifesto” is in reality an institutional fiction. I propose here to deviate from such “natural” reverence. There is another text that followed the “Manifesto” by a few weeks, “The Declaration of January 27, 1925,” that strikes me as of greater importance. Surrealism regains meaning in this “Declaration” written by Antonin Artaud, even as it distances itself from, breaks with, the formulations provided by Breton. A turning point, Artaud’s “Declaration” reformulates what surrealism is without using metaphorical language or submitting to pre-established doctrine, creating at once a break from and an alternative to Breton’s manifesto.