Surrealism, an Exalting Freedom: The Sexual and Erotic Dimension

Abstract

This article aims at exploring the sexual factor, which sensitized and even scandalized the contemporaries of Surrealism. The tendency for a different kind of freedom put the Surrealist movement at the forefront of the changes that happened in the twentieth century. The Surrealists became aware that sexuality was becoming a source of huge scandals and debates and they thought of using it as an “attack” weapon. In the Second Surrealist Manifesto, Breton calls upon every Surrealist “to level at the breed of ‘moral duties’ the long-range weapon of sexual cynicism ».