瀧口修造の一九三〇年代 : シュルレアリスムと日本

抄録

This essay deals with texts from 1928 until 1940 by Takiguchi Shuzo, a poet, art critic, and theoretical advocate of Japanese Surrealism. Through these texts, I would like to clarify how Takiguchi interpreted French Surrealism, and the extent to which these ideas were transplanted in Japan in the 1930s. His Surrealism was not a temporary form or style of art, but a system of thought with universal, eternal, and ultimate value. It was also an experiment to realize the liberation of the human spirit. In as much as it was ultimate, it could and must be perfectly applicable to any country. On the other hand, when Takiguchi faced this imperfect application and superficial understanding in Japanese Surrealism, he became aware of himself as Japanese, and developed his theory so as to connect Japanese originality in the absorption of Surrealism with the Japanese tradition of reverie. It has been often said that his nationalistic ideas, which connected avant-garde art to Japanese originality, were a reluctant "tactical retreat" intended to ensure the survival of the avant-garde. In this essay, I would like to propose a different viewpoint: that such his attempts reflected his internal requirements for the absorption of French Surrealism.