Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes : Mémorialiste du surréalisme sur les ondes

Abstract

Between 1947 and 1974, the poet, composer, and playwright Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes played the role of a witness and chronicler of Dadaism and Surrealism on the airwaves of Radiodiffusion française. Alongside the numerous radio plays he created during this time, he hosted a wide range of cultural programs, a significant portion of which focused on these avant-garde movements or featured their representatives. The familiarity with which he addresses his former comrades and his way of questioning them about the Surrealist adventure reflect an intention to move beyond the quarrels and vicissitudes of the movement, in order to avoid corroborating the assumptions of obsolescence that burden it. This article seeks to define the posture adopted by the poet-memoirist at the microphone, and to observe how his talks and interviews fit into the historiographical process of Surrealism that was being constructed at the mid-century, following—or in reaction to—Maurice Nadeau’s History of Surrealism and the Interviews of Breton on Parinaud's microphone, in particular.