The lost (k)not. Authority, authorship and ideology in the international studies on Surrealism during Breton’s lifetime and afterwards

May the question of dialogue between Sciences be focused without any consideration of ideologies, interests and ethic beliefs affecting scientists and scholars as human beings? As this starting point demonstrates, the matter has a more general scope, of which the sphere of Humanities is only a particular specification. After a quick precise statement about the different degrees of perception of ideological conditionings in Sciences, it is from the point of view of comparative theory and history of criticism that we will stand, in the sense that we will explore the case of the important though neglected knot between authority, authorship and ideology in some examples of International criticism concerning the surrealist movement, since the lifetime of André Breton and even after his death. In order to do that, we will face the matter at two connected levels: firstly, we will analyse the ideological-historiographical problem, by showing how the specialists spoke of Surrealism, so constructing their authority, but also explaining why they spoke that way, through relationships and collaborations between ex-surrealists and university scholars in group research, thus defining both origins and roles of authorship; secondly, we will end on the dialectical-“dialogical” issue, by asking whether and in which terms a dialogue is welcomed and possible in those described conditions.