Of Natives and Rebels: Locating the Surrealist Revolution in French Culture

Abstract

As the Surrealist group began to articulate a position of dissidence in opposition to bourgeois metropolitan culture, laying claim to a realm of primitive otherness proved to be integral to the process. In 1925, the Surrealists contributed to a political tract entitled La Rdvolution d'abord et toujours! which expressed support for the anti-colonial rebellion under way in Morocco since 1921.1 The authors describe themselves as des Barbares in a gesture of protest against France's military effort led by General Petain to put down the Moroccan uprising. This statement that was published in collaboration with the Clarte group marks the beginning of the French Surrealists' political engagement. The kind of citizens the Surrealists imagined inhabiting their barbarous kingdom made up a motley crew of dissidents, ranging from anti-colonial rebels, primitives, workers, children, and madmen, to women like Nadja.2 This curious configuration in which such characters as the