Anarchism, Action and Malraux

Abstract

In the autumn of 1920, after a long and shattering conflict, French literati were groping in many directions seeking to reformulate an aesthetic for the new, post-war world. It was at that time that the 18-year-old Andre Malraux published his second literary effort-a prose-poem entitled Prologue-together with a negative review of the new Andre Breton-Philippe Soupault work, Les Champs magnetiques. Both items appeared in the October issue of Florent Fels' little avantgarde magazine, Action. The text of the review is particularly noteworthy. Although Malraux agreed that Breton's book was plus susceptible d'etre imite que les poemes M. Tzara, par exemple, si caracterises que ses disciples sembleraient des plagiaires, he was nevertheless convinced that qui voudra ecrire une oeuvre en fonction l'esthetique des Champs magnetiques n'en fera qu'un pastiche, donc oeuvre sans valeur. For him, de nombreux enfants des Champs magnetiques vont surgir, mais ils ressembleront trop a leur pere to be really aesthetically valid.