Breton’s woman is the necessary essence of the world, not a contingent aspect

Evidence

For all poets-or almost all-woman embodies nature; but for Breton, she not only expresses it: she delivers it. Because nature does not speak in a clear language, its mysteries have to be penetrated in order to grasp its truth, which is the same thing as its beauty: poetry is not simply the reflection of it but rather its key; and woman here cannot be differentiated from poetry. That is why she is the indispensable mediator without whom the whole earth would be silenced: “Nature is likely to light up and to fade out, to serve and not to serve me, only to the extent that I feel the rise and the fall of the fire of a hearth which is love, the only love, that for a single being … — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 599 (#expands, via linked claim)

When I use the word “woman” or “feminine,” I obviously refer to no archetype, to no immutable essence; “in the present state of education and customs” must be understood to follow most of my affirmations. There is no question of expressing eternal truths here, but of describing the common ground from which all singular feminine existence stems. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Breton invokes Melusina as the mythic figure of woman redeemed through nature; Woman in Breton’s surrealism is the mediator who delivers nature’s truth; Breton fused woman, nature, and poetry into a single mediating totality — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 599 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Breton fused woman, nature, and poetry into a single mediating totality #expands (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 599
• Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence #contradicts (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675