SOURCE: “Benjamin Péret: Marvelous Conjunction,” in About French Poetry, edited by Mary Ann Caws, Wayne State University Press, 1974, pp. 126–38.

In the following essay, Matthews examines the use of the grammatical structure of the conjunction in Péret's poetry in terms of how these parts of speech “paradoxically serve the disjunctive principle” of Surrealism.

Throughout his life, Benjamin Péret was concerned with establishing a basis for poetic communication commensurate with the situation of the contemporary poet. He saw the poet as legitimately occupying a position at the forefront of cultural development, yet guaranteed neither praise nor reward for his effort to combat stupidity and routine.¹ In his view, the present-day writer is a poet only so long as he is a revolutionary, committed to advancing into the unknown (Anthologies des Mythes, légendes et contes populaires d'Amérique; [hereafter referred to as AM, 30).

For the most part...