Bridging east and west: Czech surrealism's interwar experiment

Bridging East and West: Czech Surrealismís Interwar Experiment is a cultural and intellectual history of the Czech Surrealist movement from 1934- 1938. This work traces the movementís development from its avant-garde beginnings in the 1920ís represented by Devětsil, an aesthetic program that united Soviet constructivism and the Czech poetism, to the point in 1934, when poet Vitezslav Nezval announced the formation of the Prague Surrealist group. The study goes on to examine Czech Surrealism in relation to France and the Soviet Union. Although they looked to Paris and Moscow for direction, not being from the center afforded the Czechs the freedom to integrate ideas from a variety of sources without having to answer to a higher authority. As citizens of a small nation, the members of the Czech group were able to bridge the divide between politics and poetry that kept the Surrealists from attaining the sought after united front to combat fascism. Because of their special cultural position off-center and geographic location at the heart of Europe, they became the bridge linking East and West, a center in their own right. The study focuses on the Czech movementís key figures, VÌtězslav Nezval and Karel Teige. Teigeís and Nezvalís dialectical union of criticism and lyric functioned as the dynamic force that made Czech Surrealism one of the most highly original and vital expressions of the interwar avant-garde. But as external events exerted pressure on the group, its center could not hold. As Teige turned away from Moscow because of the Communist Partyís assault on free expression and Nezval turned away from Paris to embrace Stalin and socialist realism, the first wave of the Czech Surrealism came to its end. Their bitter polemic on art and politics doomed the movement from the start, reflecting in microcosm the contradictions inherent to the avant-garde as a whole. However, the end proved to be a beginning; Czech Surrealism in its next manifestation managed to survive war and communism. Despite the preeminence of France in the history of Surrealism, it is off-center, in Prague, where the experiment still lives on as testament to the genius of its founding members