André Breton, L'Amour fou [Mad Love]

Simon Kemp (University of Oxford)

Ed. by Hugo Azerad, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.06: French Writing and Culture: Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1937

Places

France (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Resources

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Recommended Reading

With

Nadja

(1928) and

Les Vases communicants

(1932),

L’Amour fou

completes the triptych of Breton’s major prose works. Like the earlier works, it combines the essay form with autobiographical fragments and creative writing, interspersed with photographic images. And, like them, it explores the irrational and unconscious mind. Where the first two focused primarily on madness and dreams respectively,

L’Amour fou

examines sexual, romantic and parental love as its principal subject, while also ranging widely over other topics relating to the unconscious and its effects on our experience. All three texts present a mystical view of the world, in which the emanations from the unconscious find themselves in uncanny harmony with external reality, even to the extent of predicting the future.…

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1485 words

Citation: Kemp, Simon. "L'Amour fou". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 September 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34656, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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André Breton, L'Amour fou [Mad Love]

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