Christa Giles

154
The Surrealists took this a step further, delighting in
violent incongruity, distortion, and the ironic perception
which resulted from the juxtaposition of dream and life
reality. Such an ironic perception was Huysmans’, and
Breton expressed his identification with him in Nadja as
well as in the preface to Le Revolver à cheveux blancs (which
refers to the first dream episode in En rade) and Les Vases
communicants. Indeed, Breton regarded Huysmans as a
precursor of the Surrealists:
…Huysmans, avec une clairvoyance sans
égale, [a] formulé de toutes pièces la plupart
des lois qui vont régir l’affectivité moderne,
pénétré premier la constitution histologique
du réel et [s’est] élevé avec En rade aux
sommets de l’inspiration. 420
In view of this fact, it is interesting to note that Breton also
considered Moreau to be forerunner of the Surrealists, and
was first prompted to visit the Musée Moreau after reading
A rebours. Breton encapsulated the meaning of Surrealism
in the manifesto of 1924: ˝Surrealism rests upon the belief in
the higher reality of certain hitherto neglected forms of
association, in the omnipotence of dreams and in the
disinterested workings of the mind.˝ 421 The new focus on
the unconscious life, the assertion of the importance of