ABSTRACT
The necessary gradient, in the case of Surrealism, is produced by the difference in intellectual level between France and Germany. In just how inconspicuous and peripheral a substance the dialectical kernel that later grew into Surrealism was originally embedded, was shown by Aragon in 1924—at a time when its development could not yet be foreseenin his Vague de reves. Surrealism is in this phase of transformation at present. But at the time when it broke over its founders as an inspiring dream wave, it seemed the most integral, conclusive, absolute of movements. To understand such prophecies, and to assess strategically the line arrived at by Surrealism, one must investigate the mode of thought widespread among the so-called well-meaning left-wing bourgeois intelligentsia. To win the energies of intoxication for the revolution—this is the project about which Surrealism circles in all its books and enterprises.
