Az imádkozó sáska és a szürrealista képzelet
The Praying Mantis and the Surrealist Imagination

Summary/Abstract: The mental image of the praying mantis (mantis religiosa) meant for the surrealists more than a curious form: it was a projection of anxieties and repressed states of consciousness, but at the same it was one of the possible, though not the only, icons of the Eros-principle, combining sexuality and death. The imagery of the praying mantis was most intensely discussed by the surrealists and their collaborators in the 1930s. In this context, three events are worth highlighting: the role of the journal Minotaure (1933-1939), Roger Caillois's essays on the praying mantis and mimicry, which were highly resonant in surrealist circles, and Salvador Dalí’s critical treatise about Jean-François Millet’s Angelus, in which the praying mantis also played a significant role. The image of the praying mantis were also present in Surrealist works created in Hungary: Marcel Jean’s Mnésiques connects the image of the mantis religiosa to Kafka’s Metamorphosis, while Dezső Korniss’s images of insects use the same ambivalent approach of connecting states of joy to the idea of death.

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