Breton, André

Breton, André (1896-1966), French poet and critic, a leader of the Surrealist Movement. He was born in Tinchebray, Orne, studied medicine, and worked in psychiatric wards during World War I. Later, as a writer in Paris, he was a pioneer in the antirationalist movements in art and literature known as Dadaism 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 and his experiments with automatic writing (writing free from any control by reason or of any aesthetic or moral concerns) influenced his formulation of Surrealist theory. He expressed his views in Littérature, 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 the poets Paul Valéry and Arthur Rimbaud.