Surrealism in Literature- It's Definition, Origins, Examples and Key Features

SURREALISM

SURREALISM

Nikki Akraminejad

DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF SURREALISM

sur·re·al·ismnoun \sə-ˈrē-ə-ˌli-zəm also -ˈrā-\ :

SURREALISM sur- ( beyond ) + réalisme ( realism )A 20th-century art form in which an artist or writer

combines unrelated images or events in a very strange

and dreamlike way

The principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational

juxtapositions and combinations

Surrealism originated in the late 1910s and early '20s as a literary movement that experimented with a new mode of expression called automatic writing, or automatism, which sought to release the unbridled imagination .of the subconscious

Officially started in Paris in 1924 with the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by the poet and critic André Breton (1896–1966), Surrealism became an international intellectual and political movement.

Breton, a trained psychiatrist, was influenced by the psychological theories and dream studies of Sigmund Freud and the political ideas of Karl Marx.

Using Freudian methods of free association, their poetry and prose drew upon the private world of the mind, traditionally restricted by reason and societal limitations, to produce surprising, unexpected imagery.

Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.

Because Surrealist writers seldom, if ever, appear to organize their thoughts and the images they present, some people find .much of their work difficult to examine

This notion however is a shallow comprehension, caused by Breton's initial emphasis on automatic writing as the .main route toward a higher reality

But-as in Breton's case-much of what is presented as purely automatic is actually edited and very "thought out". Breton himself later admitted that automatic writing's centrality had been overstated, and other elements were introduced

Dalí and Magritte created the most widely recognized images of the movement.

Surrealism as a visual movement had found a method: to expose psychological truth; stripping ordinary objects of their normal significance, to create a compelling image that was beyond ordinary formal organization, in order to evoke empathy from the viewer.

The characteristics of this style—a combination of the depictive, the abstract, and the psychological—came to stand for the alienation which many people felt in the modern period, combined with the sense of reaching more deeply into the psyche, to be "made whole with

one's individuality."

Picasso, for example, captured the chaos of the bombing of Guernica in Spain by twisting angles, exaggerating features that stood out for him, and drawing the viewer’s eye to the outer edges where people and animals scream in terror and agony.

MAX ERNST ,L'ANGE DU FOYER OU LE TRIOMPHE DU SURRÉALISME (1937),

In drama, Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett introduced surrealism to the stage; the movement was called “the Theatre of the Absurd.” It redefined the role of the audience in drama and corrupted the classic elements of plot, character, thought, diction, and spectacle, which includes movement, gesture, speech, costume, and staging .

Typical literary devices or techniques: Sentence fragments Nonlinear plots Non sequiturs Word play Minimalist settings Dream sequences

Writers, like artists, wanted readers to “re-think” the words they were reading, to focus not so much on the meaning of the words, but the meaning of the USAGE of the language: The overall effect of the way the details of language, such as words, punctuation, spellings, and the appearance on the page .

WHAT ARE THE KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF SURREALISM?

 -The exploration of the dream and

unconsciousness as a valid form of reality, inspired by Sigmund Freud's writings.

-A willingness to depict images of sexuality, decay and violence.

-The desire to push against the boundaries of socially acceptable behaviors and traditions in order to discover pure thought and the artist's true nature.

-The incorporation of chance and spontaneity.

-Emphasis on the mysterious, marvelous, mythological and irrational in an effort to make art ambiguous and strange.

-existence of parallel times, no certain .beginning or ending in the story

-insanity or madness

-sarcasm or irony

the end!

ONLINE RESOURCES

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surrealism

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism http://www.slideshare.net/EDeal/

surrealism-3966727 http://arthistory.about.com/od/

modernarthistory/a/Surrealism-Art-History-101-Basics.htm