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= Simone Yoyette =

Biography
Simone Yoyette was an important woman surrealist, in fact she was the first woman of african descent to be considered a surrealist. She is so important because she was the first woman of color to write in a way that “emancipated the language from the colonists inhibitions”. She was born in 1910 in Martinique where she also grew up. Part of her significance as a surrealist writer was that her writings marked a turning point in Francophone West Indian literature. She died very young at the age of 23 in 1933, but she was still very significant and important impact on the surrealist movement before and after her death. There is very little known about her early life and it is thought that not all of her poems survived because of her early death but also because she was a woman of color. During her life Simone Yoyette was not thought of as a revolutionary surrealist writer because of the sexism within the surrealist movement and that makes the information on her a little bit limited.

She joined the Legitime Defense (Self Defense) group in 1932 where she was the only woman. The group was started in the 1932 and was created by eight Martinican students who lived in Paris. One of  the eight creators of the group included Simone’s brother Pierre Yoyette. There is also limited information on her Pierre Yoyette, who was also a significant surrealist writer like his sister. Unlike Simone Pierre did not publish any pieces in the Legitime Defense Group but was one of the eight creators of it. Pierre wrote pieces like “Theory of the Fountain” and “Antifacist Significance of Surrealism”. He died in 1940 as a french army volunteer on a reconnaissance mission in the war against Germany. The Legitime Defense Group was also where she met her husband who was also a member Jules Monnerot in 1933. Jules Monnerot was a surrealist poet like his wife with a degree from the Sorbonne that focused on the philosophy and history of Karl Marx before the communist manifesto. His early surrealist poems were there to analyze the religious and irrational character. Monnerot was also the creator of the Communist Party of Martinique. He published a controversial book and a collection of short stories in 1945 after Simone’s death. Monnerot did not die until 1995. While being in the Legitime Defense group she published poems, including “Pale Blue Line”, in the Legitime Defense Group’s  journal, Le Surrealisme de la Révolution. Among Simone Yoyette’s surviving works was also a poem called “Half-Season” in Le Surrealisme ASDLR no. 5 which was published in May of 1933. During the same time she was in the Legitime Defense Group she was also very active in the Paris Surrealist Group. Legitime Defense Group had not only strong surrealist ideas but also strong communist ones. Because of the Legitime Defense Group’s communist ties Simone Yoyette was also thought to be a part of the Union Generale des Etudiants ( General Union of Students) which was a communist oriented group.