André Breton

André Breton (1896-1966), French poet and critic, a leader of the surrealist movement. He was born in Tinchebray, Orne Department, studied medicine, and worked in psychiatric wards in World War I (1914-1918). Later, as a writer in Paris, he was a pioneer in the antirationalist movements in art and literature known as dada and surrealism, which developed out of the general disillusionment with tradition that marked the post-World War I era. Breton’s study of the works of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and his experiments with automatic writing influenced his formulation of surrealist theory. Breton expressed his views in Litérature, the leading surrealist periodical, which he helped found and edited for many years, and in three surrealist manifestos (1924, 1930, 1942). His best creative work is considered the novel Nadja (1928), based partly on his own experiences. His poetry, in Selected Poems (1948; trans. 1969), reflects the influence of French poets Paul Valéry and Arthur Rimbaud.