Surrealism in ’68

This essay is a brief examination into surrealist activities in 1968, triangulated between Prague, Paris, and Chicago and anchored to two key surrealist texts, The Prague Platform and “Situation of Surrealism in the US.” The author shows how surrealism responded to and participated in the electric events of ’68, including the collaboration between Chicago surrealists and some of the more staunchly libertarian Marxist elements of the wide-ranging SDS movement. Historians will argue about the degree to which the global rebellions of 1968 can be linked together or what (if any) catalysts triggered the transnational movements, but there can be no mistaking the pronounced cross-pollination of surrealist ideas and activities in ’68.