Drawing on literary, art historical and historical studies, this essay collection explores the complex encounter between culture and politics within Surrealism. The Surrealist movement was one of the first cultural movements to question explicitly the relation between culture and politics, and its attempt to fuse social and cultural revolution has been a critical factor in shaping our sense of modernity; yet few books have been published that directly address this aspect of the movement. Although the historical importance of Surrealism is beyond doubt, politics plays an ambiguous role in the it indisputably pervades the work, informing its endeavours, yet it seems to evade direct articulation.