Faces in Negatives : the Masquerade of the Surrealists

Abstract

By the 1920s, the surrealists had claimed Fantômas as one of their literary ancestor because his mask makes him an icon of ambiguity. Masks give the surrealist characters the means to overcome the contradictions of the conscious and unconscious minds. The surrealists incorporate masks into art and fiction not only to disguise secret identities but also to explore other identities. In this way, the masked character becomes an “anti‐Narcisse”, as André Breton said. From the standpoint of the imagination, mask is inestimably rich by its full poetic effect.