Abstract: This article studies the rapport between literary avant-gardes and the First World War. First, it reviews certain commonplaces of critical discourse: the war as a “parenthesis”, the “return to order”, pacifism and protofacism, and warrior Eros. Next, it describes the position of avant-garde groups based on the content of journals which appeared during the war (Dada, 391, Nord-Sud), and seeks to define the role of lived experience for Breton, Aragon, and Éluard.
