Les anthologies surréalistes : l’élaboration collective d’un genre littéraire hybride

Published for the first time in 1940 the André Breton’s Anthology of black humor inaugurates the great season of surrealist anthologies, which will last until late 60s. The use of the traditional form of the modern anthology by the Surrealists, does not involve into a complete acceptance of its rules, already codified since the end of the 19th century, but rather a deformation of its textual structure and of its objectives, producing a literary genre with particular characteristics. The surrealist anthology, such as those realized by André Breton, Paul Éluard, Louis Aragon and Benjamin Péret, represent an hybrid literary object with structural elements in common with the dictionary, the glossary, the anthology and the catalogue. The surrealist literary collections represent both a different approach to the history of literature and an expression of surrealist poetics.