The "Tel Quel" Ideology

We have before us a critique an attempt at reduplication, of repetion . . . of an ideological movement determined by another context, that of the years 1920-1930. The critique is that of the Tel Quel group; their target is neo-surrealism, heir to the surrealist movement of forty years ago. The task which we here propose to perform is to examine the political and ideological position of the Tel Quel group, using as our primary source the texts of Tel Quel 46, texts which articulate a fifty page criticism of neo-surrealism. While this criticism pre-dates the official commitment to Maoism taken by the group in spring of 1972 (Tel Quel 48-49), the critique of neo-surrealism is perhaps the most complete and concise articulation of their ideology yet published. Furthermore, the general method of their ideology has remained consistent from early 1971 (cf. Julia Kristeva: Matibre Sens, Dialectique, Tel Quel 44) through the Maoist alignment period to their most recent articles (cf. Bernard Sichare: Sur la Lutte Ideologique, Tel Quel 52-53). It is this ideological base which we propose to examine here, taking into account any precisions made by the group in later texts. Our study, then, will initially trace the framework used by Tel Quel in their examination of neo-surrealism: 1) a look at the reasons given by Tel Quel for the necessity of their critique (a look which will permit us to understand the historical role which they ascribe to themselves); 2, 3, 4, an examination of the contents of their critique, i.e.: the critique of the 2) philosophical, 3) aesthetic; and 4) psychoanalytic bases of surrealism. Within this process of examination of the Telquelian critique, we hope to approach an understanding and ultimate critique of the Tel QueZ ideology itself. Our task, then, to use the terms of the Tel Quel texts, will be a material in the processes which originate the practice, writing

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  Gayle Rubin•Les cahiers du CEDREF•1998

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