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Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 March 2023
Summary
Though Breton ultimately failed to join Surrealism with Communism, this does not mean the two were incompatible. Nor does the fact that Alberti embraced Communism in the 1930s diminish his standing as a surrealist; rather, it shows he went the full distance. Surrealism is ‘an extremely eclectic movement’, Helena Lewis says, which is evidenced in the list of forerunners Breton acknowledged in the First Manifesto and, more particularly, in the movement’s evolution. We have described this under three broad headings, the psychoanalytical, metaphysical and Marxist, and we have seen Alberti engage in all three, mirroring developments in France. In the spirit of his statement, ‘Para ir al infierno no hace falta cambiar de sitio ni postura’ (434) [To go to hell you needn’t move a muscle or budge an inch], we might conclude that Alberti was a surrealist without going to Paris. Those who did go, like Buñuel and Dalí, were exponents of the visual image; but we recognize that while their images crossed linguistic frontiers, they came out of a specifically Spanish circumstance and mind-set.
This book has been less about Spanish figures conforming to a French model and more about what they brought of their own. They brought a lot, which is unsurprising, since, as Dalí proclaimed in his lecture at the Sorbonne in 1955,
France is the most intelligent country in the world, the most rational country in the world. Whereas I, Salvador Dalí, come from Spain, which is the most irrational and the most mystical country in the world.
Dalí effectively suggests a natural Spanish predisposition towards Surrealism on two counts: irrationalism and transcendence. We recall Freud’s comment on Dalí: ‘What a fanatic! What a perfect Spanish type!’ In diametrical opposition stands the rational French type, epitomized by Voltaire, which perhaps explains why the French were, in the end, better at theorizing about Surrealism than creating major works in its name. My simple point has been that the Spanish circumstance that produced Alberti and Lorca, as well as Buñuel and Dalí, is one supersaturated in religion. This largely explains why Spaniards had an abundance of both irrationality and transcendence. Irrationality, the outward expression of neurosis and paranoia, is the state of mind induced by a repressive system.
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- The Crucified MindRafael Alberti and the Surrealist Ethos in Spain, pp. 232 - 233Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2001