Supernatural Beings, Shamans and Dream-places: Jules Monnerot and the Native American Touchstones of Surrealism’s Mythological Realignment, 1939-1945

Atkin, Will

Abstract

By 1942, a considerable number of the Parisian surrealist group had resettled in the U. S. after having fled the conflict in Europe. Though sometimes regarded as a hiatus in surrealist activities, or in some accounts even the death-knell of Surrealism, this period of American exile represents a phase of almost frenetic artistic invention and intellectual exploration. In 1945, as the war drew to a close and many of the surrealists were preparing for their return to Europe, the Martiniquais sociologist Jules Monnerot published a book entitled La Poésie moderne et le Sacré. Despite being written at one remove from the surrealists’ activities in America, with little to no knowledge of their various travels and encounters, Monnerot’s book provided an incisive account of the conceptual and philosophical resonances between Surrealism and Native American culture. The book was received by the surrealists with critical acclaim at the time, but since then has largely disappeared from view. In the context of growing scholarly interest in the surrealists’ conception of myth, this article seeks to revive La Poésie moderne et le Sacré as one of the key points of reference of 1940s Surrealism, and as compelling evidence for the unique significance of America as the site of its mythological reinvention. Surrealism’s American encounter directly overlapped with the emergence of the new literary genre of the Native American autobiography, heralded by the proximate publications of Black Elk Speaks (1932) and Sun Chief (1942). Where both these books testified to the singular importance of myth as a means of psychological introspection and worldly self-determination, they are invoked here as a means of illuminating the conceptual developments of wartime Surrealism in the context of the group’s search for a "new myth."

Citation

Atkin, W. (2018). Supernatural Beings, Shamans and Dream-places: Jules Monnerot and the Native American Touchstones of Surrealism’s Mythological Realignment, 1939-1945. The Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914-1945, 14, Article 3

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 15, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Dec 11, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 11, 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 6, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 8, 2021
• Journal: The Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914-1945
• Publisher: The Space Between Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Article Number: 3
• Series ISSN: 1551-9309
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4300416
• Publisher URL: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-space-between-literature-and-culture-1914-1945/vol14_2018_atkin
• Related Public URLs: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-space-between-literature-and-culture-1914-1945/vol14_2018_contents