عنوان

Arcanum 17: with Apertures, grafted to the end

eng

Arcanum 17: with Apertures, grafted to the end

Many French intellectuals who stayed in France greeted surrealist Breton's musings written from the near arctic reaches of Canada with some resentment when they first appeared in 1945. In fact, the book, although not one of his greatest works, may well have more resonance with contemporary audiences with its archetypes, goddesses, concern for nature and overall mystical bent. Like L'amour fou or Nadja , much of Arcanum 17 is a meditation on love but a tender lasting love for the concrete, rather tragic Elisa Bindhoff. Half-hidden among the dreams, soliloquys and recollections is the book's real purpose--to question the very way of being that had brought the world to such a horrible pass. Among the givens Breton calls on the carpet are logic, morality, time, death and most of all, masculine supremacy--"This crisis is so severe that I, myself, see only one solution: the time has come to value the ideas of woman at the expense of those of man, whose bankruptcy is coming to pass fairly tumultuously today." As Rogow points out in his helpful preface, the book's title is taken from the tarot, Arcanum 17 being the 17th card or star card, the signifier of renewal. Hints of the old interests )alchemy( and newer ones )Native American culture( mingle into a fluid and dynamic work by one of the most influential thinkers of the century.

Another never-before-translated volume by the famous surrealist, from the translator who, along with Bill Zavatsky, recently won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month-Club translation award for Breton's Earthlight. Taking its title from the Star card in the Tarot deck, this heavily annotated 1944 work is extremely dense, difficult to read and to categorize--it combines poetry, memoir, philosophy, a journal, social commentary )criticizing France and the rest of Europe from the safe harbor of America and Canada(, a cautionary tale, mysticism )verging on automatic writing(, and a political treatise. As in his better-known novel Nadja, Breton turns woman into myth, endowing her with dreamlike, superhuman qualities. Written for )and inspired by( his third wife, Elisa, these ramblings are haunted on a large scale by the shadow of WW II and on a small scale by personal loss. )One bond between Breton and Elisa, if we are to believe surrealist authority Anna Balakian's introduction, was that both had lost a child: he to divorce, she to drowning.( The theme of Arcanum 17, not stated directly until its final page, is the Utopian quest for ``light,'' which ``can only be known by way of three paths: poetry, liberty, and love.'' Breton appended three ``Apertures'' to the text in 1947 in an attempt to make it more accessible. He begins with an apology for his ``polemical fervor'' in the earlier work, but these three pieces are even more polemical, if only because they are more straightforward. He expounds upon elements that his readers found difficult three years before: war, surrealist love, and a friend's account of a chance )most likely preordained( meeting. Truly an unusual work, elegantly translated. Whether readers will be any more receptive to it now than they were 50 years ago remains to be seen. -- Copyright 1994ش, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Arcanum 17- a tarot card, called The Star, that is the 17th card in the Major Arcana- depicts a woman pouring superlunary forces into a mundane world. Analogic, decidedly feminist, and ahead of his time, Breton wrote this hymn of hope, renewal, and resurrection in the summer and fall of 1944 in Sainte Agathe in Gaspe, near Perce Rock where Breton joyfully vacationed with Elisa, who would become his third wife. His second wife, Jacqueline Lamba, had abandoned him, taking with her his beloved daughter. Thus, the poet saw a parallel between his own broken life and a war-ravaged Europe. But the solid, weather-beaten Perce Rock reminds him that nature renews herself and that death is only transitory. Appended in 1947, this book advocates a new internationalism to prevent war. Rogow's translation conveys Breton's enthusiasm and hope. Uplifting reading if the reader can appreciate Breton's analogic style.

Kobenhavn

Green integer

2004

184 p.; 15 cm.

ISBN: 1931243271

Andre Breton; translated from the French by Zack Rogow and with an introduction by Anna Balakian

1

، Breton, Andre, 6981-6691 -- Criticism and interpretation.

، Breton, Andre, 6981-6691 Arcane 71

، French literature

6981-6691

Breton, Andre

AU

AU Rogow, Zack

AT Ajours Breton, Andre 1896-1966

TI Apertures

TI