The cult of the Divine Marquis reframed: Tracing the Marquis de Sade in a global surrealist context

Abstract

This thesis will scrutinize the dynamic relationship between the Marquis de Sade and surrealism. Surrealism studies has barely touched upon the subject of Sade, and has never done so in a systematic manner, an omission whose rectification is past due. There are essentially four facets of this topic that, when thoroughly examined, will shed light not only on what I will call Sadean surrealism, but on surrealism as a whole. These are the written versus visual traditions of surrealism and the core versus peripheral surrealist artists and writers. This thesis therefore aims to answer the following question: taking both visual and written surrealist traditions into account, what was the role of the Marquis de Sade within the movement – both as defined by Breton and in the spheres beyond his jurisdiction? To untangle the web of influence and transgression that made up the intersection of Sade and surrealism will involve a close reading of Sadean surrealist texts and artworks in the time period of about 1924 (the official beginning of surrealism) and 1972, when the last Sadean surrealist artworks were made. Given current shifts in surrealism studies towards a non-Bretonian surrealism – a global surrealism – this thesis has the end goal of painting Sade in a global surrealist light.