Ghérasim Luca, Mental Capture, and the Omega Point

Abstract

In the Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1929), Breton reoriented the movement's focus toward the “supreme” or omega point where opposites including life and death, destruction and construction would no longer be “perceived” as contradictory. This creates a dialogue with later Surrealist poet Ghérasim Luca. Even at his most satirical, Luca pursues his distinct version of the omega point. To surpass its threshold, he uses paronomasia and other sound- and sense-shifting techniques (disarranging and recombining sounds, words, ideas) in order to attack logic's law of contradiction, Cartesian metaphysics, and the Oedipus complex, all at the heart of modern oppressions. Luca attaches his poetics to precursors like Desnos and Leiris who manipulated language with similar liberating impulse.